A Blissfully Sweet Easter

Our Blissfully Sweet Easter weekend started on Thursday with Ben's Easter hat parade! This was not my original design, I had intended on a bunny sitting in the nest but after I made it the night before and saw it the next morning - it just looked scary! 

So with 30 minutes to spare, I glittered up some foam eggs and stuck them on the nest and hey presto - Easter hat! Benny loved it and he had fun with his friends!

Easter Sunday morning started with a treasure hunt for the eggs. Liam was getting way too crafty for our previous run and find the eggs tradition, so clues needed to be made. I found (late the night before) a little template online and made up my own clues. 

They had 12 clues to find around the house and it was fun to watch Liam decipher them and then Benny & Noah ably assist him with getting the eggs once found!

Onto the menu for the day! I had no intention of doing a dessert table. But I had some Easter gifts for the kids and some chocolatey desserts for after lunch, so I decided to throw it all on a table the night before! (I really am a night before person!)

I cut out bunny silhouettes and everyone got their own printed menu, which read:

to start:
Green curry prawns with vermicielli

then:
Slow roasted pork belly
Potato & leek mash
Autumn salad
Pumpkin & ricotta filo tart

something sweet:
Chocolate, orange & almond cake
Chocolate mousse with orange marscarpone
Chocolate/jaffa bark
Orange jelly pots (for the kids)

YUMMO!

The Dessert Table

I do not make fancy decorated cakes for my own occasions - I like something different! I themed the whole dessert part of menu around an chocolate/orange theme.

Little glass jars held mini Lindy bunnies with speckled mini eggs as gifts for the kids. Chocolate desserts of all kinds were on display!

Pretty yellow blooms in a white jug with my ceramic white bunny, was just the right fit.

On the bottom of the table I had baskets ready for the Easter egg huny as well as Easter gifts for my nieces. They each got beautiful pink ceramic and glass plate sets that I found at IKEA and they were so pretty and whimsical - the perfect gift!

Nicole from Pretty and Print made up these gorgeous Easter labels for me from her Easter collection. They fit perfectly with the colour theme and the little personalised bunny tails from Liam, Ben & Noah were a mix of marshmallows and candy coated eggs!

The desserts:

A decadent flourless chocolate, orange and almond cake

Chocolate mousse pots with orange marscarpone

Orange jelly pots

Chocolate and jaffa bark

Olivia & Elan definitely loved their chocolate dessert! Soooo gorgeous!

Then onto the kiddy hunt! I basically festooned our backyard with hunting eggs and away they went - like pros! Noah got right into it and of course, tried to eat the eggs with foil and all! 

He is obsessed with talking on the phone (do not know where that comes from???!!!!), and walked around pretending to speak to the Easter Bunny to tell him more eggs were required!

My Benny!

Ben was such a great helper showing the babies what to do. Once Noah cottoned on to it all - he immediately tried to get eggs out of Ben's basket! Ben being the sweetheart that he is - let him! ♥

and then there is the prankster Liam!

Liam's main Easter egg was a Great White Shark egg. He insisted on walking around with the box on his head afterwards! Then he tried to trick the kids with hiding their eggs! hahaha

The girlies are on the hunt! They were super pros!

VERY VERY rare to get a photo of all 3 boys together! This was a split second photo and captured it all really! It was such a fun afternoon!
xxx

Then onto Easter Monday and more entertaining!

Good friends were coming over for a BBQ, so I needed to make a little effort at least! I pulled out my mother-in-law's beautifully hand stitched tablecloth and using the same decorations from the day before, just made a simple table setting! 

The day was a such a glorious day weather wise and sitting here eating our lunch was such a treat! The boys even had an afternoon swim!

For lunch I made:
Tabbouleh
Fried Rice
Baked, seasoned potatoes
Baba ganoush
With marinated steaks and seasoned sausages!

Such a nice lunch!

Then onto dessert. That morning I decided to revisit my lemon meringue recipe and make it again, as it is my friend Liana's favourite dessert!

This time I decided to make the meringue in peaks and it was even more delicious than the last time and those peaks were lighter than air!

Peaky goodness of lemon meringue pie!

One of my all time fave photos now of hubby & Ben! Love these guys to pieces!   Not only is hubby a big spunk - he can also cook up a mean BBQ!

We are lucky enough to back onto a park. So after lunch, dessert and a swim, the boys went out in the park for a game of football.

We followed with Noah after his nap and it was the perfect end to a perfect day! Our families both have 3 boys and we decided to do a tallest to shortest shot! 

Our boys have grown up together and hopefully will also grow old together!

It truly was a weekend filled with entertaining, friends and family and even more delicious food!

Happy Easter to everyone!