Easter Sunday

No pictures of food or all of the company we had together.  No family pictures, all in our Sunday best.  But, here are some snapshots of our little Easter Egg hunt, which topped off our happy Sunday following an uplifting church service with an Easter hymn by our choir (which I lead) and delicious lunch.  Just the best way to celebrate such a hopeful holiday.

Hope yours was good, too!

Tessa slept through the fun.  But, Charlotte was game.

Ready.  Set.  GO!

Helps to have a tall friend.

Time out for glamour shots by the leaves as I coveted Holly's cute Easter outfit.

Why I don't have any close ups of Bram or Harper, I don't know!  

Necessity is the Mother of Invention!

Twas the night before Easter. . . . and I was ready to dip my strawberries in chocolate when I discovered NO STYROFOAM in the house!!!   Not sure what others do to dry their chocolate covered strawberries, but in desperation I sliced raw potatoes in half and it worked!   

Like little islands with chocolate strawberry trees!

Easy Chocolate Covered Strawberries

20 large-medium sized strawberries with stem/leaves

1 cup chocolate chips

1 T shortening

Make sure strawberries are clean and thoroughly dry.

Melt shortening in a small glass bowl.

Pour chocolate chips into melted shortening and stir.

Microwave 30 seconds and stir until all is melted.

Stick toothpicks into top of strawberry and dip in chocolate.

Stick other end of toothpick into styrofoam (or raw potatoes cut in half!) until dry.

Dallas Buyers Club (the G Rated Version)

These girls know how to plan a last minute trip to Dallas like no one's business.

Thanks to some encouragement from the husbands, we packed up and headed south for the weekend to do a little damage at Ikea and rejuvenate our enthusiasm for being professional mothers.

Someone was excited to go.

(It was me.)

Breakfast at Starbucks.

A quick stop by City Craft's new location.

It was kind of sparse and more industrial.  Kind of missed their quaint little shop on Lover's Lane.

Pre-five hour wandering delirium through the maze of Swedish inspiration.

Found this little reminder of our missing quarter.

Holly can do some serious shopping when she puts her mind to it.  Two overflowing carts and one completely full pallet trolley later...

...and there was still some daylight making its way through the tops of the car windows.  Can't believe we fit everything and still had room to bring Teriney home.

After such a mammoth shopping spree, we needed to re-energize with some red meat.  T-Bone's waitressing experience and consumer know-how scored us some free dessert. 

Then, she put this on, so I knew it was time to get home.

Little Details for the Littles' Birthday

Here's a little break down of the food I served at the twins' party and links to the recipes.

The Ultimate Moist, Fluffy, Ridiculous Coconut Cake

This cake turned out really good.  It was a little time consuming and I left off the coconut syrup.  But, the recipe was really educational-- lots of good bakery-esque tips.  The frosting is Swiss buttercream, which I'd never made before, but it was delicious and possibly my new go-to frosting.

Cherry Almond Sour Cream Cupcakes with Almond Buttercream Frosting.

I tasted these right out of the oven and was disappointed with the cake, but letting them sit over night in the fridge worked wonders because they ended up being a hit.  I used almond emulsion instead of almond extract (you can get it at hobby and craft stores) in the cake batter and the frosting, which really develops a yummy almond flavor that compliments the cherry well.  

Wish there were some leftovers for tomorrow's breakfast.

Lofthouse Style Sugar Cookies

These cookies are so soft and fluffy they are almost biscuit like.  The recipe calls for sour cream, but I didn't have enough so I did about half sour cream and half full-fat plain yogurt.  I think they still turned out pretty good.

Chocolate covered strawberries.

We also had lunch food, not just desserts. :)

Smoked beef brisket, which Billy dutifully got up with every two hours during the night to check on

Middle-Eastern Marinated Yogurt Lemon Grilled Chicken

Herbed Basmati Rice

Greek Salad

Parmesan Ranch Mushrooms (I used Gruyere and Parmesan)

Pink Stuff

Party favors were small cups of Cadbury Mini Eggs and butter mints.  And for the kids, take-out cartons full of gumballs, suckers and a toy.  Twin cherry suckers and a little thank you tag were hanging on the outside of each box.

Initials, so I could remember who was who in the pictures.

Confetti filled balloons

Pip & Pop Turn One!

I've said it before, but I'll say it again.

I just love birthdays.

I love to celebrate the day those I love most came to be.  And so we celebrated Charlotte and Tess turning one with a yummy lunch shared with some close friends and family.

Charlotte^

The girls had a cherry almond sour cream cupcake with almond buttercream frosting.

I think they liked it.

Tessa^

Charlotte^

Tessa^

Oh, and to make the party that much sweeter, we celebrated Billy's birthday, too!

And our Leap Year sweetheart, Ruby turned six, so she was feted as well.

They got to share the candles on a coconut cake filled with coconut pastry cream and topped with a coconut Swiss buttercream.  It was pretty good, if I do say so myself.

The babies got more presents than they know what to do with. 

The most spoiled babies ever!

And I was there, too.

I'm still feel like I hit the jackpot with these two and sometimes cannot believe they belong to me.

You know that giddy feeling you get sometimes that starts in your gut and ends up as a smile on your face?  That's the feeling I get every time I look at them.

Happy birthday, Babies!