A Sunday Afternoon in the Park

Easter Pictures

We had a lovely but very rainy Easter. When we went to early Mass, it was only drizzling, and the fact that the air seemed warmer made us hopeful. But, when the sun never quite rose during the service, we started to anticipate that we'd be having another rainy Easter this year.

Fortunately, our Easter Egg hunt was conducted indoors...

...Unfortunately, it meant that we had to use the harsh flash on our camera, so we didn't get as many good pictures as we would have liked.

Sophia's still got her coat on so it's almost like an outdoor hunt :) For those of you who were around last July, you may notice that Sophia's "Easter dress" is the same one she wore for her first birthday... looks like she may still be wearing it for her second birthday in a couple months! Ah, my little peanut... And God reveals His mercy in this: that he gave a petite pregnant woman a petite toddler to care for.

After the "hunt", Sophia rested and the resident Easter bunnies got to work in the kitchen, putting the finishing touches on Easter dinner, which we were blessed to share with some dear friends, as none of us had family in the area. Of course, the busy bunnies forgot to take phots of the meal, but here is the menu, with links to recipes, if you'd like to try some. The dishes without recipes are my own creation.

Beet Salad with Almond Butter and Gorgonzola Bomboloni

Glazed Ham
Angel Biscuits
Parsleyed Potatoes with Saffron
Roasted Asparagus with Lemon
Spinach Salad with Strawberries, Toasted Almonds, and Poppy Seed Dressing

Bethany's Picnic Perfect Lemonade
wine (brought by one of our guests)

Four-Layer Almond Cake with Raspberry Jam, Almond Buttercream, and Jordan Almonds
Lemon Meringue Pie -- I mainly followed this recipe, but the crust is my own family recipe :)
tea

Here's a photo of the cake after the festivities...it's a bit demolished, but at least you can see the pretty layers:

In typical Catholic fashion, I don't put out our decorations until the holiday vigil (for Easter, that's Holy Saturday; for Christmas, it would be Christmas Eve...you get the idea). So, here are some flower arrangements I put together on Saturday evening before assembling Sophia's Easter basket and hiding the eggs: