All Hearts Come Home For Easter

 For Easter we hosted 24 adults and three children between the ages of 1 and 2. And it could not have been a better day. I worked hard to have the house be ready for the guests as well as having plenty of food. In all that, I did not take very many pictures before. You are seeing the afters!  I do have a few food pictures I will post in a day or two though. 

 Among our guests was one of my best friends from my childhood. She brought her two beautiful daughters and her beautiful niece and great-niece who were visiting from Arizona. The niece is actually the daughter of one of my very best friends from childhood. (I wish she could have come from Arizona too! But it was fun hosting her two beauties.) Are you confused now? Well what is important is that the crew not only came, but also gifted me with the beautiful roses for inviting them. Not a bad deal! 

 The bunny parade is from the Meri Meri line. They can be found on Amazon if a shop near you doesn't carry them. The entire line is adorable. 

 Although you can't tell, this table was set with green plates and pastel bunny salad plates. I set three tables, all with different dishes, but all in the Easter theme. Another table had cobalt blue plates and the orange carrots plates. The third table had white ironstone with blue and orange carrot plates (salad plates). You will see them in the last picture. Lots of fun tables.....OH, and I can't forget the kiddie table I set as well. I will try better next time to remember to take pics! 

 This is also my end-of-the-school-year-state-testing-to-the-maximum-stress-season. Because of that, I kept things simple at home. When I come home from school during this testing period I am mentally wiped out. I figured the focus would be on the three cute babies we would have over and not on my decor. And I was right! In fact it is so simple, it is hard to really see what was on the mantle. I'll take you through it. 

 At one end is my all-time-favorite Easter picture. It is of my own five children. They were ages (almost) 1 through 8. I don't think I will ever take a picture I have loved more. 

 This is from 1990, when we still used negatives. Of course I never kept track of something like that. I wish I did. I would love to have this picture in a big canvas. 

 Simple urns that march down the mantle, holding a few eggs. 

 At the other end are a couple of antique Peter Rabbit books I have from the 1920's. The little plush rabbit was one of my daughters. He looks old though. (Possibly well loved!) 

 The simple burlap garland I bought at Target this year for $5.

 You can't beat a bargain like that. 

 This is EB (short for Easter Bunny). He has been hanging out at our family Easter's for 32 years. No lie. He was my oldest son Fielding's on his very first Easter. He has sported the same ribbon around his neck for that long too. If you will notice, he is as big as the wingback chair. I know, I know. Dorky. But after 32 years, we can't leave him in the basement come Easter now! 

 I love this green bunny plate. I have the green cabbage leaf plates to match too. AND...I got them all at Ross. 

 One more dorkism...This little bunny is "only" about 26.  He plugs in and lights up, although we have not done that in years. This big plastic guy has NOT got to come out in the last 10 years or so. But this year I brought it out and put him on our front porch. All three babies hugged that bunny to death. They talked to him, they pet him, they put their arms around him, they kissed him. Apparently he is not a dorky giant plastic bunny in a child's world! 

 Those Meri Meri bunnies come about eight (or more???) to a box. Well worth the investment. This guy was sitting on the entry table. 

 And finally, there was an urn just sitting in my dining room, so I plopped the fake grass into it with a couple of those oh-so-famous-Pier 1 bunnies. There were also several Easter eggs hiding in the grass, but those got "found" very quickly by the toddlers. 

 It took three dishwasher loads for me to get everything washed! I guess I could have washed by hand as well, but I didn't. You can see the green and blue dishes I used as well as the green goblets. I promise the table were pretty. 

I actually got TWO bouquets for hostess gifts! I hit the jackpot. You can see some of the salad plates under these flowers. Lots of fun stuff. But the day wasn't about the simple decor or the cute tables. It wasn't about the painters tape still on the trim in the dining room where I never finished!!  Or the helium balloons still on the ceiling from a birthday party several weeks ago!! It was about family and good friends getting together to celebrate the fact that we are all believers and we know He Lives! It was a wonderful day.