Easter 2010 (Better late than never)

Well I'm finally getting around to writing something down about our Easter activities earlier this year.  The time flies by so fast....it feels like Easter was just a couple weeks ago.  Oh well..better late than never!

This year the kids enjoyed coloring eggs with friends Abby and Sam.

I asked our friends what they usually do with their eggs and the response was "We eat them."  Duh right?  Well, in my family, for as long as I can remember and as long as my dad can remember, we don't eat our eggs.....we roll them!  I'm not sure how this tradition started...we've just always done it.  I used to think everyone did this but I'm starting to find out that this is a tradition kind of unique to our family.  And believe me...this is serious stuff people!  We don't take our egg rolls lightly.  Here's how it goes...

You decorate your eggs...color them (it's thought that the darker the color, the stronger the egg), write words on them ("Champ Egg" or "The Destroyer" are always good ones), stickers, etc.  Each person in our family usually has no less than two dozen eggs each but four to five dozen isn't unheard of.  Once your eggs are decorated, you're ready to go.  Now you find a challenger.  You and your challenger each take an egg....face each other....count off 1, 2, 3....then roll the eggs on the ground towards each other.  When the eggs hit, only one will crack.  The owner of the un-cracked egg is the winner.  The winner then moves on to the next challenger.  Yes, sometimes the eggs miss each other and you have to re-roll and yes, sometimes people get a little wild and roll their eggs too hard causing the challenger to cry unfair play and yes, sometimes the eggs get tossed against the wall by a toddler that hasn't quite learned the fine art of egg rolling.  But...it is tons of fun and we have lots of great memories stemming from this family tradition.  Example....the time my grandfather sanded down a piece of wood in the shape of an egg and then painted it.  Us cousins were all young enough to not catch on until he had beaten at least a couple eggs from each challenger.  Or the time he had an egg shaped piece of metal....or stone....or egg he covered in epoxy....or....well you get the idea.  Like I said, this is serious business in my family!

Jack showing off his egg...READY TO ROLL!

Jack and Henry start off the egg rolling.

Henry trying to get his egg back after Jack decides he needs both eggs.

Annie and Henry sharing a laugh during their roll!

Easter morning the kids enjoyed finding their Easter baskets and all the chocolate eggs the Easter Bunny left all over the house.  It never fails....a couple months after Easter someone finds the last chocolate egg that fell under the couch cushion.  : )

And then one of my favorite moments of any holiday.....the family photo.  Getting just the right smile, look and pose from every one is sometimes difficult.  I love these photos showing the progression to the perfect shot!

And the last pics of Henry displaying his "Champ Egg" with 17 straight wins and all the cousins after the egg rolls.