Clara may have found a new favorite holiday — or she’s simply reached the age where Easter finally clicks. Either way, she had an amazing long weekend.
Her excitement around Easter almost felt like a multi-day celebration. We kicked things off on Wednesday with an egg hunt at a local park with her older cousins Jake (who turned 13 that weekend — happy birthday!) and Olivia (10). Since the cousins were spending the holiday with their dad’s side of the family, the park hunt was a sweet preview.
She found two eggs — technically we guided her to a couple that my dad had left out for her and her 18-month-old cousin Emanuel — and she was instantly smitten. She couldn’t take her eyes off them.
She refused to put her precious eggs down while we played on the nearby playground. Apparently swinging is even better when you’re holding an Easter egg.
That was only the first of three little egg hunts. On Saturday we stumbled into another hunt at the grocery store — in the paper towel aisle — for kids under seven. Clara walked away with one egg, a balloon, and a huge smile. It was the perfect warm-up for the big hunt on Easter morning.
The big hunt took place in the yard around my parents’ beach house in Delaware.
Clara’s mission: collect nine eggs. She eagerly accepted.
Still enchanted from her earlier finds, she grabbed several eggs herself, with Sherry and I helping point out the rest. She’s recently taken to putting things away, so dropping those coin-filled eggs into her basket felt natural — though she often kept one egg in hand.
Her egg-hunt “basket” was actually a tin bucket from Target that matched her nursery colors and her fondness for buckets. It was the perfect, inexpensive pick that made collecting eggs even more fun.
We included other favorite things in her basket — from Cheerios to a pile o’ ribbon that delights her more than the gift it’s tied to. We also used wooden eggs that Sherry dyed with food coloring to keep everything baby-friendly.
We also captured her weekly fabric-background photo with a bunny twist — yes, that’s a real carrot — and she loved it.
Beyond baskets and bunny ears, the real highlight for Clara was the sand. We spent the weekend at my parents’ home near Bethany Beach, Delaware, and temps hit about 80 degrees. That meant an impromptu trip to the ocean on both Saturday and Sunday. It wasn’t quite swimsuit weather with the breeze, but it was perfect for beach time.
Clara’s earlier encounters with sand were as a six-week-old baby and during a Valentine’s Day trip when the sand blew in her face — that time she wasn’t a fan. This weekend, however, it was love at first touch. She loved pinching sand between her fingers, tossing it in the air, and even briefly testing whether it tasted good (spoiler: it did not).
Sunday’s beach trip was even more active. There was sandy crawling…
…a hunt for seashells (and the occasional glance at surfer boys, though seashells won out)…
…a brief sunglasses fashion moment (tolerated for about ten seconds)…
…and quality time with her mom and baby cousins Emanuel, John, and the others. Getting three babies to cooperate on a windy beach for one flattering photo is no small feat, but we managed a handful of sweet shots.
On top of all that family fun, there was more good news: our cousins Cat and Travis welcomed their baby, Edison Dean, on Sunday afternoon. We stopped by the hospital briefly on the way home to meet him — everyone, including big sister Elsa, is doing well.
Between egg hunts, beach time, and new arrivals, we even made progress on a home project while at the beach: patio planning. My dad plans to add a stone patio behind the beach house and we sketched ideas for the paver patio we’ll add to the side yard of our house behind the carport. The plan includes new fencing for privacy and a patio area to extend outdoor living while preserving some green shade.
Here’s the simple sketch of our current plan — a work in progress for sure — but a fun step toward more outdoor living space.
It’s early days, so plans may change. One thing that’s certain: Clara’s party is less than three weeks away, and Sherry optimistically thinks we’ll have the patio done by then. We’ll see. For now, we’re still savoring a weekend full of egg hunts, sand, family, and a new little cousin. How was your weekend? Were there egg hunts, bunny ears, or newborns in your family celebrations?