Happy Easter 2013

Happy Easter!

We had a lovely Easter Sunday at home yesterday. The Easter Bunny visited over night leaving treats for the girls, we made a mess throwing confetti eggs at each other, we wore bunny ears, we hunted for eggs in our courtyard, and hunted for even more eggs downstairs at Trader Joe's.

Here's a look at our Easter Sunday for 2013...

As expected the girls both woke up nice and early, eager to see if the Easter Bunny had visited. As soon as they stepped out into the living room they could see that the Easter Bunny had indeed been as he'd left behind a trail of sparkly footprints. That messy bunny!

Following the sparkly bunny footprints

Santa's Footprints

Christmas morning is always filled with such anticipation. The first thing the kids always want to know is "Has Santa been?". Well, this year it was obvious that Santa had visited as soon as the girls opened the bedroom door. There on the ground, leading from the front door to the lounge room was a set of footprints. White, glittery, snowy footprints made by someone wearing big boots. Who else other than Santa could have left such prints?

Looks like Santa's been!

Much like the Easter Bunny this Easter, Santa left a trail of footprints leading from the emergency stairwell in the hallway straight to our Christmas tree. The girls were excited to see that Santa had left footprints and happily hopped along them all the way out our apartment to see where they started. Of course, the were happiest following the footprints to the Christmas tree to see what else Santa had left!

Wondering how Santa left such glittery footprints? Here's how you can make your own...

Sparkly Easter Bunny Footprints

Every year when the Easter Bunny visits our home he leaves a trail of footprints. Sometimes these footprints are made with kids' finger paints and other times with chalk. This was the first time that the Easter Bunny has visited us in a) a rental property, and b) a house with carpet, so a new footprint method was required. Something non-staining and easy to remove was required. 

A while back on Pinterest I spotted an idea for Santa footprints made from baking soda and glitter. This idea sounded perfect for the Easter Bunny - and it was!  The result was quite effective with just the right amount of magic sparkle. 

Sparkly Easter Bunny footprints lead to the girls' Easter goodies

Here's how the Easter Bunny left his footprints...

Happy Easter 2012!

It's Easter again - our first in America.

This year Easter hasn't felt as much like a big deal. Not because we are away from friends and family, but because Easter just doesn't seem to be that big a deal in America. Quite strange considering how religious much of the country is.

Unlike in Australia, Easter is not a four day weekend for everyone. Some companies choose to give their staff the day off for Good Friday (or Passover) but there's no such thing as Easter Monday. Store trading hours over the weekend pretty much remain as per usual. Some stores are closed on Easter Sunday, or they may have reduced hours for the day but other than that it's just like any other day. One plus of this is that, unlike at home, one can actually buy alcohol on Good Friday. No outdated rules here about that one!

The lead up to Easter has also been much more subdued here in America. In Australia Easter eggs and hot cross buns hit the stores as soon as the Christmas decorations come down. Here the stores wait until early Spring before the Easter goodies hit. I guess this is due to Valentine's Day falling between Christmas and Easter. And even once the Easter goodies and window displays appear it's nothing like the "EGGstravaganza" that we get at home. First of all, Easter eggs as we know them don't really exist in America. There are indeed chocolate eggs but they are mostly the small bite size variety, either solid or filled with caramel or peanut butter. The Easter Bunny was not able to find any hollow foil covered eggs here in Berkeley. I've been assured by a few locals that they do exist but I certainly didn't see any in my travels. The favoured Easter treat here seem to be Peeps - neon coloured marshmallow creatures on a stick. Blergh to that, I say :)

Like Easter eggs, hot cross buns are a rarity here. I've found one bakery selling individual hot cross buns but they just weren't the real thing. The hot cross buns in question were more like a finger bun in disguise. The cross was even made out of icing! Sure they were delicious but not what I want for Easter. Especially not for breakfast! I ended up making my own hot cross buns which were delicious and a fun activity for Ava and I during her Spring break from preschool.

Home made hot cross buns