Easter Sunday 2016

I could definitely hear little chatters coming from the other side of the wall. There was whispering and I could feel the effort to be quieter than usual, seeping through the wall and in to the pitt of my stomach.

Of course, they must have found the eggs!

The biggest child sneaked into his little sisters room, probably climbed under the duvet with her so that she knew he was there and would open her sleepy eyes to start the day with him. This happened almost every morning. But on this day, I could see it. On this day, Easter Sunday to be exact… hand in hand, they tipped their little toes softly past my bedroom, over the landing and down the stairs. Here they found all of the goodies that the ‘Easter Bunny’ had left them for being so wonderful.

MAJOR CRAPOLA! Why didn’t I set my alarm and wake myself?

WAIT! Was that…. yeah…..foil wrapping being pulled apart? Shit! I could practically smell the chocolate from my bed!

I crept out of bed quietly, opened the door the same way and followed the sound of little voices.

I opened Noah’s bedroom door expecting to find both children, surrounded by shiny foil while shoving chocolate by the handful into their little mouths but trying to wipe their chocolate moustaches away with the other.

But, I opened the door to a tidy room, bright with morning light which danced beautifully over the two little faces looking up at me as they played with lego together. They smiled. I smiled.

Relief washed over me.

I sat down and joined in with the game and helped build a house with white walls and flowers. I said ‘Happy Easter’ and they said it back. They told me how they didn’t think that the Easter Bunny had made it in time…perhaps because of the heavy rain in the night. I smiled to myself and said ‘Maybe?’ and I asked them if they had checked downstairs.

And because they like to surprise me… They said ‘No’.

I told them that maybe they should!

And Ellenah bolted.

‘NOAH…YOU SHOULD COME DOWN HERE!!!!!!!!!!!! EASTER IS HERE!!!! WE GOTS EGGS!!!!’, we heard the little one shout in her biggest voice.

So we quickly followed.

Our home backs onto a woods and as I looked out of my kitchen window, I saw the tallest trees swaying around, the rain lashing against the window and saw the wind slice across the slightly overgrown grass in the back garden. It wasn’t exactly the ideal setting for an Easter egg hunt really…but… my big brother was coming around to hide one hundred and thirty eggs anyway, for Noah, Ellenah and two of their cousins (plus the tiny new one) to find together.

We are very much an ‘If you wait for the perfect day or time to do something, it will never come’ kind of family…so we went ahead, threw on our wellies and went out to face the elements. We ALL had such a wonderful time.

Yes, we got incredibly muddy! Yes, it was cold! but boy, did we laugh?!

Our afternoon was something along the lines of a pretty great Easter egg hunt, all wrapped up with hot cross buns and a hot brew on top. Lovely! You can’t beat family time like it.

And then, everyone went home.

So to round up such a lovely day, me and mine decided to head out for dinner at our local Ask Italian restaurant for some delicious food.

And…it was really nice to regroup, talk about our day and discuss the memories that we had made. Just us. We came away ready to collapse underneath our blankets and get all kinda cozy, to watch The Croods together … but completely unable to really make a start on the mounds of chocolate eggs which had taken over my dining table.

And there we stayed, happy and occasionally drifting in and out of sleep in each others arms, until bedtime rolled around and we said ‘Goodnight!’ to Easter Sunday 2016.

With Love, Ria x