Easter 2012

Happy Easter!

We had a spectacular Easter so I thought I would share a few of our traditions (both old and new) with everyone.

One of the new items for this Easter were these cute chocolate bowls filled with Easter candy.  I used these for each place setting at the table.  And also sent a larger basket to our neighbors.  They turned out SO cute, but one small warning...they melt very easily.  Next time I will use a quality chocolate rather than the chocolate bark. 

Here is one of the place settings.  I folded the bunny napkins which turned out so cute.  (Another Pinterest find.)

And the whole table.

Even our pets seem to get involved with the holiday preparations.  Claire loves to "help" decorate eggs.  She also loves to roll them off of the dining room table where they are displayed.

The dogs love to chase and bite open the plastic eggs.  I will be finding plastic eggs around the house for quite some time I think.

Each year at Easter I make a Carrot Cake.  I love decorating the top with the colorful carrots.  

For our Easter Egg Hunt this year we changed our tradition a bit.  In the past we have hidden eggs with coupons inside.  The coupons would be for things like "have Mom make your bed" or "rent a movie".  With only Taylor at home now the coupons don't work so well any longer.  So this year we hid eggs with letters inside of them.  The kids hunted for their egg color until they found all 5.  Then they brought their eggs inside and began to unscramble the letters to spell out a word associated with Easter.  

Here is Taylor beginning her unscrambling. 

hmmm....nope...Stop Hiliry isn't the secret code word.  

There ya go!

Our niece Michaela joined us for Easter and enjoyed the egg hunt. 

Nope...wrong again.  Michaela's word was Almighty.

Our daughter Jordan had lots of letters.  Her word was Resurrection.

Our oldest daughter Meghann and her boyfriend Zach seemed to enjoy the hunt.  Zach solved the unscramble with something like 4 letters. 

Once everyone had their secret words they got an envelope with some money.  

It was a really, really amazing day!

I hope you enjoyed a few of our Easter traditions.  I know that many lasting memories were made during this special day.

Should I share my Carrot Cake Recipe? 

Carrot Cake

• Ingredients 

  • 4 eggs
  • 1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
  • 1 1/2 cups sugar
  • 2 cups all purpose flour
  • 2 teaspoons baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 2 teaspoons cinnamon
  • 2 1/2 cups shredded carrots

• Instructions 

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine eggs, oil, and sugar in large bowl; mix well. Add flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. Mix just until moist. Fold in carrots. Spread in greased and floured round cake pans. Bake for 40 to 45 minutes (less for smaller pans) or until cake tests done. Let cool completely. Frost with Cream Cheese icing.

  2. Notes 

     1 recipe = 2 8 inch cakes 
     2 recipes = 2 10 inch cakes
      2 recipes = 2 9 inch cakes and 12 cupcakes

Cream Cheese Icing

• Ingredients 

  • 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
  • 2 packages (8 oz. each) cream cheese, softened
  • 8 cups sifted confectioners' sugar (about 2 lbs.)
  • 2 tablespoons milk
  • About 5 1/2 cups of icing.

• Instructions

  1. Step 1 In medium mixer bowl, cream butter and cream cheese together until smooth. Add sugar one cup at a time and milk. Mix well. Beat on high until smooth (only 30 seconds to 1 minute). Thin to ice cake smooth; use full strength for piping borders. 
  2. Step 2 NOTE: Do not use light cream cheese or butter substitute. If margarine is used, icing will be softer.