Monday, April 1, 2013

Easter Weekend 2013

We had a quick visit from our Princesses and their Mom this weekend. They came in Friday afternoon in time for dinner with our Friday evening dinner group. They stayed through Saturday evening.

The main purpose of the trip was to attend a baby shower for our very good friend, Kandyce, who is expecting her first baby within the next month. It was a bonus that they were here for at least part of Easter weekend.

On Friday night, we went to a terrific place for dinner. Doc's Seafood and Steaks is located on Padre Island right on the Intercoastal Waterway. It was our first time to eat there. We have tried unsuccessfully to go there at least twice. The first time, another member of our Friday night dinner group had a conflict and so we went someplace closer. The second time, they were closed for a private party. As they say, third time's a charm.

It was dinner on Good Friday during Spring Break season on the island and we had a party of 7 adults and a high chair. We expected a very long wait. When we arrived they told us it would be an hour. We waited less than 30 minutes. The service was excellent, the atmosphere was relaxed with live music, and the food was probably the best seafood I've had in Corpus Christi.

The Princesses enjoyed seeing the birds fly by and the barges being pushed along by tug boats. There were quite a few brown pelicans in the area. It's pretty exciting to see them fly past at eye level, especially for a two-year-old.

On Saturday morning, we had Easter baskets for the girls. They went straight from bed to bath on Saturday morning. Then, as soon as they got out of the bath, they saw their baskets and went running across the house naked to claim them. There are no photos, for obvious reasons. Those baskets were full of plastic eggs that were filled with candy and other fun stuff.

Every time the Princesses visit, Grandad makes his world-famous pancakes for breakfast. After our delicious breakfast, we dyed eggs with the girls. I bought a Tie-Dye Easter Egg kit from one of the dollar stores. As a back-up, I also bought the traditional PAAS Easter Egg Dye. I wanted to be positive we had something that worked. We had a lot of fun with both of them. I was very pleased with the Tie-Dye kit. It was not messy and was very easy for the little ones to handle. There's no mixing and you don't need containers for the dye. You just squeeze a few drops of dye into a plastic bag, add the egg, roll it around in the bag, and it's done. We added a plastic bag clip so the eggs wouldn't fall out when the girls rolled them around. I'm pretty sure they liked it better than the traditional dip dyes.


Then Grandad hid the eggs and the hunting ensued. You may be able to tell that Princess E dressed herself for the Easter Egg hunt.


With very little assistance from the adults, the Princesses found all but one of the eggs. In order to get Grandad to show them where the final egg was hidden, the Princesses were required to tell Grandad that he is "the greatest Easter Egg hider in the whole world." It's a tradition that goes all the way back to when our kids were little. It was hilarious to hear four-year-old Princess E repeat those words back to her Grandad. He used to make Katy and Nick say the exact same thing every year.

After the shower on Saturday evening, Katy and the girls headed home to San Antonio. They spent Easter Sunday with their other grandparents. It was kind of the best of both worlds.

We went to early Mass on Sunday morning. Then we had breakfast at Starbucks, came home, and watched a marathon of the last season of Game of Thrones. We haven't watched the first episode of the new season yet. We'll watch it Wednesday or Thursday night when Grandad returns from his monthly trip to Houston.

I hope you all had a fabulous Easter celebration complete with whatever kind of worship you choose, people you love, jelly beans, and chocolate of some kind. Ours had all that and more.