Chicks, Eggs & Easter

This week was all about the chicken and the eggs (eventually).  We went to the feed store and purchased four bantam white silkies that are a few weeks old.  G was super excited (translate: slightly scared) about getting the chicks, but they are doing well and we'll put them in their coop in a week or so.  White silkies are a pretty docile bird and have good mothering instincts.  We will be adding a few more to the flock that will be better layers (that sounds funny) later this month.
Steve ordered this fantastic new coffee pot called the Technivorm Moccamaster.  It's like the rolls royce of coffee makers and I think he'll have to be buried with it to justify the purchase.  One of his clients is a coffee junkie and she came over this week, brought her own coffee beans and tested them out in our machine for its inaugural pot.  I decided to make the Banana-Chocolate-Ginger bread recipe that I found in Molly Wizenberg's book, A Homemade Life.  She raved about the bread and I think it would have been better fresh out of the oven, but it was okay in my book and went great with the perfectly brewed coffee.
I've been devouring the cookbook Apples for Jam by Tessa Kiros.  It has the most beautiful imagery and lovely hand-written notes on the recipes about childhood food memories from the author.  I was helping out with a Spring/Easter party at G's school and decided to make the above cupcakes.  They were extremely dense and using the mini molds was the right thing to do, as the larger ones were almost too much to eat.  The frosting was sweet and looked gorgeous dripping down the sides of the mini-cupcakes.  We have renamed them "fussy pink cupcakes" and I will definitely be making these again.

G dictated the above note to the Easter Bunny and had a real hard time getting to sleep because he was so excited.  He kept peeking out his bedroom window as he tried to go to sleep - hoping to catch a glimpse of the big bunny.  Remember what that was like?

We colored eggs with his kindergarten class and had an egg hunt at the school.  The kids had their faces painted like bunnies by me and another mom.  They were all so sweet as they ate their hard-boiled eggs, carrots, grapes and cupcakes.  There is a definite sweetness about Spring/Easter that is different from, let's say, Christmas.  Not much is expected, they take delight in the smallest of things (eggs and candy) and there isn't so much hype attached to it.   I really enjoy the changing of the seasons and think Easter represents a renewal in the garden, home and family.  Happy memories were made this year.

G picked out his outfit for his class party.  I had to capture this image.  Pink (his favorite color) shirt, floodwater jeans w/ patches, different pink striped socks and his penny loafers that I found at a thrift store for $2.  Steve warned him before he went to school that he should be ready to defend his clothing choices.  G didn't get the sarcasm, but I did.  G loves pink, loves socks, loves those too short jeans and loves dressing up for a good party.  Well done G.

Easter Sunday in our weed garden.  The wild poppies were a nice splash of color for this photo op.  We left our house around noon and went on a coastal adventure to Pescadero.  I'll post more about that this week.