a joyful nest: easter!

we had quite the easter weekend this year. each year coen is more and more into the traditions of holidays and i totally dig it (and him). on saturday the hilo coffee mill put on an easter egg hunt. it was brutal. we missed the 2-4 age group (as did a million others) so they let us go with the next group. coen was all set to go, and i was just going to hang back and see if he needed me. right after i took this picture, i was pulling him out of kid-mob totally fighting for his little life. no joke.

being that he totally needed me and was screaming, "this is scary!" i got no pictures of the actual hunt. in fact i even cheated and broke the "only kids can pick up the eggs" rule. i had to, those 7 year old are intense. once i got a couple eggs into his basket, he stopped crying and managed to get about 7 total eggs. next year we will not miss the 2-4 age group hunt.

before coen went to bed that night he left his easter basket out on the front steps. he woke up easter morning yelling, "mama! is the easter bunny here?!" he totally thought that the bunny would be eating breakfast with us (i guess actually he was, ha!). anyway, he was okay with the bunny being gone after he saw the bunny prints and his basket stuffed with goodies.

after some breakfast and a wardrobe change (into last years easter pj's) we headed outside with our neighbors for an easter egg hunt. this was much more rewarding than the hunt at the coffee mill, and no one almost died.

we spent the rest of the day in our pj's dying more eggs and cooking lots of yummy food. after naps our neighbors came back over to enjoy easter dinner with us. it was all SO good, but i forgot to take food pictures. except for these nest cookies i made...adorable! i did make the most amazing three cheese scallop potatoes. i pinned the recipe to pinterest one evening and by the next morning it was re-pinned over 400 times! i guess i should share it with you, maybe later.