Easter

We were treated to three days of almost sixty-degree weather last weekend, which almost made winter feel like a distant memory. Saturday the boys spent all day outside, making syrup, while I burrowed down with my homework (I just sent my draft essay––three times longer than it needed to be––off to my mentor, so I'm looking forward to a weekend of catching up with neglected friends and housework!). I took one little break and snuck down to the river, where I was rewarded with the sight of a beaver sliding into the water and trying to swim upstream against the strong snowmelt current (I didn't have my camera!). 

As usual, we got to around to egg-dyeing last-minute, after dinner Saturday night.

E and Z were so excited to hunt for eggs Sunday morning...I love that they're still excited about sweet simple things like that (especially when they keep trying to trick me into confessing that I'm the Easter Bunny).

I got them each one of these jump ropes, which I confess I only bought because of the pretty rainbow colors, but they are indeed very good jump ropes––flexible and just the right weight and length, much nicer than the plastic ones they get for free from "Jump Rope for Heart." And, I got a bonus fourth jump rope, having won a giveaway on My Bit of Earth, so I upgraded to a double rope, and now the three of them can practice cooperating (ahem).

For breakfast, I made these vegan Tropical Lemon Cranberry Coconut Chia Bars the night before, and fruit salad, and, of course, hard-boiled eggs (hey, I said I was going to be flexible with this plant-based thing). I love lemony things on Easter, for some reason (must be all those years my mom made lemon merengue pie), and these were perfect, tart, not too sweet, and full of lots of healthy things to counter-balance all those jelly beans.

After much coaxing, I finally got the troops onto the trail, and we headed down to the river, 

Which is almost ice-free.

Z, M and I bushwhacked our way downstream to the grassy meander area, probably our last chance to do so without getting covered in ticks.

Just a tiny bit of snow remains in the woods (and we didn't even get our usual April Fool's Day snowstorm!).

For Easter dinner, we went to C's dad's house. I brought this vegan version of spanikopita, which I like even better than the traditional feta cheese version I usually make. It had great texture and lots of complex flavor with the olives and artichokes. I might add more spinach next time––it's amazing how much a whole pound of spinach shrinks down when you cook it. For dessert, i brought these Zingy Lemon Custard Bars, which were so lemony-tart and delicious. I liked them even better than lemon merengue pie and regular lemon bars, and will definitely make them again, although next time, I'll make the graham crackers into an actual crust (maybe using coconut oil?) and spread the whole thing out in a larger pan, so the bars are thinner and might firm up better (it did end up being more like lemon-graham-cracker slop on a plate, but such good slop!). The best part about taking vegan and tofu-containing foods to a dinner is that no one else wants to try them, so there was plenty of both left over for me.

Hope spring is finding its way to your corner of the world!