Easter!

How was your Easter weekend?



We were blessed with beautiful weather here all weekend long and we spent lots of time outside enjoying it!



On Saturday our church had an Easter egg hunt for all the kids. I went and got to see my sweet angel neice Lilly! She is so crazy, and into everything. She wasn't quite in to hunting for eggs (she is only 14 months old), but she was toddling around 'talking' to everyone and showing off her 'tricks.' Her mom has taught her some hilarious little tricks.



If you say, "Who loves Aunt La La? Raise your hand!" Buddy that hand will shoot up in the air with enthusiasm.



If you say, "Lilly, where does Jesus live?" She will point to her heart. I mean, seriously, how can you stand something so cute and sweet?

Here she is with her favorite person, my father-in-law...aka 'Boo.'

And with my mother-in-law, 'Mamie.'

And with Aunt LaLa! She was ready to run at this point.

On Sunday we went to church and then had the family over to our house for Easter lunch. It was our first holiday at OUR house! We have done birthdays before, but never a real holiday. It was so fun, and I got to use our china and silver for the first time. Love it....


When I was living in Nashville, Myra and I used to go all out with our 'table scapes' for holidays. Getting my table together this year without Myra was not the same, but I think it still turned out pretty:


We had tons of food! I made pimiento cheese and a catfish log to munch on while we were waiting for lunch to cook. What is a catfish log, you ask? Only the best and most popular appetizer in these parts. It's a smoked catfish fillet, flaked, and mixed with cream cheese, pecans, and parsley. It sounds weird but is sooooo good. We are big catfish people in the Delta, you know.





And of course what would Easter be without a big 'ole ham? We got a HoneyBaked Ham because it's our fave. Here is Tom helpling me in the kitchen. Check out that tiny apron. He says, "This is Laura's Kitchen. I'm just workin' in it." Love him....


We also had Cheese Grits, Green Bean Casserole, Spinach Madeline, Fruit Salad, and Sister Schubert rolls. Whew!


And, last but not least, the MOST IMPORTANT PART of Easter lunch....wait for it....ta da!!!!!! THE BUNNY CAKE! Isn't she precious?


I am by no means a baker or professional cake decorator, but I love to make this cake because my mom used to make it on Easter when I was growing up. I hope that Lilly will always remember having this fun and funny bunny cake at Easter. I like to think it'll be a long-running tradition in our family. I make it with a great home-made carrot cake (get it--Bunny Cake--Carrot Cake...ha ha) and cream cheese icing (aka welcome back, 17 pounds I have worked so hard to lose). But it's totally worth it! I have the recipe at the end of this post.





After lunch we just played in the yard and enjoyed the beautiful weather!

Lilly loves the dogs!

Loving on Boo.

The hostess and her helper. Ha!

Lilly with her Easter gift from Mamie and Boo....a baby stroller.

Uncle Tom trying to get Lilly to stroll with him.

Lilly loved our neighbors swing! She almost fell asleep swinging with Aunt LaLa.

Okay so here's the recipe for Carrott Bunny Easter Cake:





Ingredients:

• 3 1/2 cups flour
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1/2 tsp. nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 2 tsp. cinnamon
• 2/3 cup firmly packed brown sugar
• 4 eggs
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 4 cups finely shredded carrots
• 1/2 cup finely chopped pecans or walnuts

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• Mix together first five ingredients.
• Whisk together brown sugar, eggs, and vegetable oil.
• With handheld electric mixer, mix together dry ingredients and wet ingredients.
• Add vanilla extract, carrots, and nuts. Mix well until smooth.
• Pour batter into two 9-inch round cake pans.
• Bake 20 minutes or until toothpick inserted in middle comes out clean

Let cakes cool, and transfer one onto an aluminum-lined cookie sheet, and the other onto a plate.
With the cake on the plate, carfully cut round cake into three peices as pictured below. This will make your ears and bow tie.

Decorate with cream cheese icing, jelly beans, and I use shredded coconut (simply colored with food coloring) around the edges. PRESH!

Okay, so in non-Easter related events....

I finally got road tires put on my bike! As I mentioned before, I will be training for and participating in my first triathlon on a 'hybrid' bike. Which means I have a mountain bike with road tires on it. This being my first tri, I couldn't stomach spending $1,000++ on a brand new bike when I don't even know if I like it, or will be any good at it. Okay, well, we already know I'm not any good at it.

So instead we spent $40 to get some good skinny road tires on my bike. I took them for a spin yesterday and they did great! As far as comfort goes, the rides is about the same. And my speed is slightly better. I did 17 miles yesterday and it took me about an hour and 7 minutes. This is a 4 mintue mile which I think will be just fine for my race day.

It was a gorgeous day so I got to enjoy being outside on the open road. I tried out a new route that takes me way out into the country, and it is a great chance to clear my head and decompress, all the while getting a pretty good workout.

After my bike I had planned to run for a bit, but only made it about a mile. This Susie Homemaker was tired after a weekend-o-eating and entertaining!