I’ve written in previous years, more detailed posts about Easter, our traditions, memories and it’s importance to me for spiritual and religious reasons.  This year, it seems Easter was a long time coming … It’s the last weekend of our two week holiday, so we did lots of Easter activities at school in the last week of term and then had a long wait for the festival.

In the last week of term we made Easter bonnets for the school parade.  This is a big local tradition going back more than a century and as it was Little Miss’ last parade we wanted to do something special.  Little Miss has always wanted chocolate to feature on her bonnet and upto this year I’ve always refused, however with the promise that she would share the chocolates with her friends, I allowed her some eggs,  We came up with a nest on a fascinator, with the nest full of small chocolate eggs.  It worked well.  Little Man went for a farmer theme, we used his straw hat from last year and glued on fake grass and carrots.

Around our home I have used many of my favourite decorations, the fireplace and side window of the lounge are decorated, whilst I also have a feature window in the kitchen with my beautiful Easter wreath.  I did treat myself to a few new pieces which were presented on a table in the lounge.  I love my new table cloth, it’s hand embroidered and I picked it up in a vintage shop at a very reasonable price.  I’ve been looking for something similar for years so am delighted with my find.  The other new decorations are from a local store in town, it seems that there’s a rabbit theme to my designs this year.  The rabbits with the creme eggs are labelled with the children’s names and from a little shop on Etsy. I thought this was a more lasting gift than a bigger egg and it’s safe to say they’ve both had lots of chocolate today.

As it’s been a late Easter, we have also celebrated my Father in Law’s 87th birthday this weekend.  We met up with him and other family members on Saturday, enjoying a meal in a country pub and then having a little potter around Lyme Regis, in the most gorgeous sunshine. We all wore our new Easter outfits yesterday, I love the look Little Miss was wearing an embroidered blue skirt and simple white daisy top with some fabulous rainbow pumps.  Little Man was really pleased with his sequin skull tshirt, though I’m not sure if it was quite in keeping with the joyful celebrations.

After such a long day for Easter Saturday, we did a lot of travelling, we were all a little tired and we kept things simple at home today.  The children enjoyed the sunshine playing in the garden and paddling pool, our neighbours popped over and we had our traditional Easter egg hunt.  For the first time we had to be careful with the hiding of the chocolate as it was so hot and shady spots were needed.  I created my hand drawn instructions again this year. I’m not an artist but it’s just something I’ve been doing every year and it wouldn’t be Easter without my sheet. I also created a playlist of suitable songs for the hunt and dinner, I love having the music to complement the celebration. Our day finished with an Easter dinner, a red onion and goats cheese filo tart accompanied by seasonal Spring vegetables, I enjoy planning  a special menu for special days. For me Easter is about celebrating with good company, delicious food and treats and this year it has been a lovely weekend of family and simple pleasures.