Easter Festivities

We had a busy Easter weekend filled with fun and family!  On Saturday, my dad drove up for a visit and came bearing gifts of hand-made Easter baskets overflowing with candy for each of us.  He also brought us a  whole pallet of hay pellets for Jake.  We were so blessed to spend the day with him.  First, we loaded up some of the guns and went to the cinder pits for a morning of shooting sports.

I am still deeply in love with our new Remington 1100.  It shoots like a dream!  My dad threw a box of clay pigeons for us and we had a great little competition.  Our boy shot his new 20 gauge, and we brought the .22 for our middle girl, and our Red Rider BB gun for our littlest shooter.

Then on Easter morning, the kids woke up bright and early to open up their Easter presents.  We give gifts on Easter because Christ gave us the ultimate gift of salvation.  The kids get plenty of delicious candy from their grandparents, so we try to go in a different direction.

This year, our boy got a new ranch rope.

And our girls each got a new pair of spurs.

They were excited to trade out their old plain ones for something a little more feminine and fancy.  They were heart broken when we wouldn't let them wear them to church with their pretty Easter dresses.  Could you just imagine the heads that would turn if they came jingle-jangling into the sanctuary? HA!

I got some beautiful tulips to add some Easter color to the dinner table!

Those kiddos sure clean up nice! They're wearing their new Easter outfits from their grandparents.

Here's our annual Easter picture. It was taken in front of the chicken coop this year. I don't know why we chose this location other than the fact that all of the trees are still bare, and the grass isn't quite green yet, so we didn't have many options.

My husband's folks came over for a relaxing afternoon of feasting and fun. In the midst of cooking and playing games, I forgot to take pictures.  My mother-in-law brought over the most delightful spinach and strawberry salad with sliced almonds! I've never had anything like it, but it was sweet, refreshing, and fabulous!

Here's the link to the recipe if you'd like to try it:  SPINACH AND STRAWBERRY SALAD

Today, I took advantage of the Easter clearances and bought some solid chocolate bunnies at deeply discounted prices to chop up and put into my infamous "Bunny Cookies".  I just use a good chocolate chip cookie recipe but add chopped up chocolate bunnies instead of regular chocolate chips. They are sooooooo extra amazing with good quality chocolate.  

Last year my husband brought some to work so he could share them but couldn't remember their name.  He said, "Here, try a rabbit cookie." After one bite, someone replied, "These are amazing! I can't believe there's rabbit in them! I guess your wife can make anything taste good!"  We still chuckle over that one.

Indulging in copious amounts of chocolate this week,

Nell