A long time ago on this blog, I would have written 4 posts this week about all the stuff we did. Egg dying! Brunch! The Easter Bunny!

But 2 and a half extra kids later, I’m just pretty excited we actually DID the stuff, rather than the fact that I blogged about it. Or even took pictures of it. I don’t have a single photo of brunch. Is that growth? I can’t tell anymore. I really love the part of blogging that means all these things are documented (because God knows the baby books are all massive failures). But how much longer can I even keep this minimum effort up? Who thought it was a good idea to have so many kids? Will I ever catch up on the ten million things I should be doing right now?

Well that was a lot of unnecessary ennui for what was supposed to be a picture post. Look! Children doing cute things!

Egg dyeing tip #1: Buy all the dye kits on clearance the week after Easter and save them for next year.
Egg dyeing tip #2: Do it while the toddler naps.

Our church Easter egg hunt is a joy. Plenty of eggs for everyone in a small area and everyone is willing to share.

Linc did not yet understand the point of egg hunting.

Our town egg hunt was also fun, if slightly less…generous. Poor Evan’s age group was 6-12 year old and he got 3 eggs. Luckily Linc did a LOT better this time so he had plenty to share.

I absolutely stooped to bribery to get Evan’s face painted. I promised the Easter bunny would bring him something special (because the Easter bunny had already purchased a Lego set).

Our actual Easter day wasn’t such a joy. Linc didn’t sleep at all the night before and needed a nap during church, so I took the big kids while E stayed home with him. Caroline was super mad we didn’t walk to church (it was cold). They kids ate a ton of candy and were a mess by brunch, where Evan ate nothing but carrots and celery. Unfortunately, even if you only eat carrots and celery your meal still costs $22. And Linc screamed every time I got up to get food and left him at the table (surrounded by food, it’s not like he was starving). He also refused to be in any photos, so my cute coordinating children’s outfits were in vain.

BUT but Caroline and Evan happily shouted about how Jesus escaped from the tomb (Evan) and how being aliver is better than being deader (Caroline) during the children’s message at church, so at least we’ve gotten that part right.

The Easter Bunny left eggs all over the house, plus the baskets.

This week (the one I am typing in, not the one in the pictures) is spring break and the weather finally got the memo so I am tempted to turn off my laptop, toss it in a closet and not look at it again until the weather gets back below 50 degrees. Hopefully, that doesn’t happen again until October.

Sunday:

Grumpy baby wanted to walk around instead of sit through Easter service

Brunching

Evan picked this one from ALL the grocery store cakes

Monday:

No match for fresh air

I MISSED 100000 EVEN

Grocery store assistant

Tuesday:

Best Legos Ever

Style

Attention Target shoppers: Adorable baby in the main aisle

Wednesday:

More Style

DEFINITELY GINGERY

He’s pretty convinced that is his bed.

Thursday:

Thoughtful baby

Her style now extends to swim class

I am not sure why this is necessary

Friday:

Terrorizing the ponies

Terrorizing the dog

Terrorizing himself (your doing it wrong)

Saturday:

Uptown Fairy

Wallet thief

They demanded I take their picture next to this “sports dog”.

Public Service Announcement! Today is April Fool’s Day, DON’T BELIEVE STUFF. Especially on the internet. This is not an April Fool’s Day post, just lots of pictures.

2013 is officially the best Easter I can remember. E got an (almost) 3 day weekend, the weather warmed up, and my children were adorable. My only complaint is that church didn’t have Sunday School during the Easter service, which means I heard exactly none of the sermon because I spent the entire time “shushing” two gingers who can’t sit still for an entire hour. They did, however, sit reasonably still for Fancy Brunch. The unlimited bacon and cupcakes definitely helped.

I’d never had baked oatmeal before I saw this recipe on Pinterest a few weeks ago. I decided it would be a quick and easy brunchy-type dish for my first local blogger get together and something my family would eat. In typical Suzanne fashion I only had half the ingredients on hand so I improvised and created my own Berry Almond Baked Oatmeal.

Berry Almond Baked Oatmeal
Serves 8

2 cups rolled oats
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup slices almonds
2 cups raspberries
1 cup coconut flakes
2 cups milk
1 large egg, beaten
3 tablespoons butter, melted
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 ripe banana peeled and sliced

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Spray a baking dish (7×11, 9×13, whatever you’ve got – just watch baking times if it’s bigger) with non-stick spray. In a large bowl, mix together the dry ingredients, the almonds, half the raspberries and half the coconut. In another bowl, mix the milk, egg, butter and vanilla.

Spread the oats, etc out in the baking dish. Top with the other half of the raspberries and coconut, then put the banana slices on top. Pour your milk mixture evenly over the oats and let it sink down. Bake 40 minutes or until slightly brown around the edges.

Delicious! And it’s super easy to add/subtract ingredients for other ones if coconut or almonds aren’t your cup of tea. One of the benefits of a baked oatmeal casserole is you can cut and serve rather than eating it with a spoon. The kids think they’re getting cake. Shhhhh…don’t tell!

I’m going to join my friend Audrey for her new inspired-by linky today with a recipe for scones that I made up slash adapted. I’m never sure with recipes how much you have to change before you can call it YOUR recipe. I mean, all baking is just science and math with proportions of wet to dry ingredients, so no matter how original your recipe for bread or cake or cookies or whatever is, there’s a good chance someone else has a nearly identical recipe somewhere.

I was inspired by these Cheddar-Chive Scones I found on Epicurious. (Sidenote: I am OBSESSED with Epicurious.) Wait, no, scratch that. I started with these Jalapeno-Cheddar scones from smitten kitchen my friend Sarah suggested more than a year ago. I made them, I ate them, I was underwhelmed. But in my MIND they were totally delicious and I’ve been thinking about finding a new scone recipe ever since. Scones sound fancy and you can put almost anything into them – sweet, savory, salty, cheesy, fruit, herbs, vegetables, whatever. I wanted to make the Cheddar Chive scones from Epicurious to bring to Easter dinner but I didn’t have any chives (and am too lazy to go to the store). So I replaced the chives with rosemary, the cheddar with Parmesan and added a little lemon peel to make them spring-like. Then I adjusted the rest of the ingredients to make it work (tm Tim Gunn).

Brunchy Lemon Rosemary Parmesan Scones

3 cups all purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons sugar
2 tablespoons fresh rosemary, chopped
1 tablespoon fresh lemon peel, grated
1 cup Parmesan cheese
2 cups heavy cream plus extra to brush on top

Preheat oven to 400. In a large bowl, mix together all ingredients except for cream. Add in the cream 1 cup at a time, making sure to stir up everything from the bottom until you have a sticky dough. (You could use a mixer if you want but I did it with a spatula and it was easy.) Turn out dough onto a floured surface and kneed approximated 10 times. Divide dough in half, roll out each half, flatten into a long rectangle and cut into wedges.

Place on an ungreased cookie sheet, brush the top of each scone with a little heavy cream and bake for 20 minutes until golden brown. Delicious warm but travel well.

Notes:
1. I used the cheap Kraft cheese in the green container because I didn’t have any real Parmesan and *I* thought they turned out a little on the salty side. None of my taste testers were bothered by it, but you could probably use half as much salt.
2. I actually ran out of regular flour and used whole wheat for the last 1/2 cup. You couldn’t tell at all, so if you wanted to use more whole wheat – say 1 1/2 cups – I don’t think anyone would know, PLUS you could call them healthy! Just don’t mention the cream.

Happy Baking!