I made Maeve a lamb bonnet, which she felt was not good enough when I gave Holly and Greta $1 bunny ears from Target. So... will be picking up a third set of bunny ears later this weekend! For a little group shot, Holly wore the lamb bonnet because Maeve was not going to give up "her" bunny ears. Oh to be 2 years old. This cute lil trio, such a great gang of sisters... most of the time.

And an outtake... #reallife

10 girls, 3 dozen eggs, 2 parents. Lots of fun? I had a moment, why are activities with kids often so messy? Fortunately everyone had fun and the mess was a pretty quick clean up. Gotta dye those eggs!

While we were at the Good Friday reenactment, an older women came up to me and asked me in Spanish if I knew Monica. Yes, I know a Monica. It turns out that she was Sarah, the mother of Monica, and she recognized us from photos Monica had shown her! Sarah invited us to her home for lunch with her big family (she has 9 children!). Everyone was so friendly and welcoming. We ate soup and popcorn and drank morocho. Some of the family members played songs on the guitar and Holly and Greta cuddled puppies. It was seriously so great! I had plans to eat Fanesca, a traditional Easter soup, but spending time in a kind family's home definitely trumped soup!

Ecuador is very religious, Catholic specifically, and Easter, or Semana Santa is a very special holiday. On Good Friday, we went and watched a reenactment of Christ's last week. It was intense and 3 hours long. The man playing Christ carried a cross around the huge park. Occasionally the procession would stop, but I'm not really sure what was happening at those breaks. It was a big crowd and I wasn't close enough. The fake whips used were dips in red paint leaving what looked like streaks of blood on the back of Christ and the thieves. The man playing Christ and the thieves really were lifted on the cross. There were a ton of vendors selling all sorts of things. Unfortunately, we all got sunburned (even the baby!). I just did not anticipate being out of doors for that length of time, and honestly, a few times I thought to myself, "I know how this ends!"

This was most certainly a cultural experience! We were the only gringos there and I'm sure we were the only people who were not Catholics. 

My parents and my sister, Alanna, were here for a couple days over Easter. It was lots of fun! Every time we have family come stay with us, it affirms that moving to Spokane was a good choice. I had a list of things to do on Friday such as: dye eggs, get ice cream and make a bunny garland. These things were really important to our family. We needed some good family time, especially Greta. It was really fun! And I love ice cream.

On Saturday, we went to an Easter egg hunt at a local park. Everyone dropped off a dozen eggs per kid the week prior and then each child got to "find" 12 eggs. The candy was gone in about 15 minutes. We thought about going to another community egg hunt in the afternoon because we were out of candy, but opted not to and I think that was smart.

When Holly was almost 2, we did this big egg hunt for her and she threw up because we just let her have at it with the candy. We've learned since then... Now our tradition is to do a scavenger hunt for Holly and Greta. I'm not sure when Conor started drawing these great picture clues but I love them. At the end of the hunt, the girls found a little basket of treats and some hair things. Small, simple, satisfying.

All the fun and candy can really tire a girl out. Greta flipped her lid and then fell asleep. I too crashed Saturday afternoon on the couch. It was a lovely weekend.