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Easter Bonnet Tea Party Pictures

Easter was hard this year. I didn't know how much I needed those hymns and readings to feel the renewal of spring until we were without them. It is hard to arise from the hibernation of winter when we are now hibernating from the world.

But in the midst of all this three things happened. a) I already had sweet dresses for the girls from photos we took to celebrate their adoption. b) a neighbor dropped off beautifully decorated cupcakes as thanks after I made cloth face masks for her family. c) a friend cleared out her crafty closet and donated a random collection of paper, ribbon and beads to my kids.

I'd told Jane weeks ago about the idea of an Easter Bonnet and she was all starry-eyed in love with the idea of a big decorated hat. Easter morning she asked for it. Honestly, my first thought was, damn that girl and her memory and her incessant need for more-more-more. But I buttoned my lip and instead dumped out the bag of ribbons and told the girls to find some they liked while I went upstairs and dug out two hats from the back of my closet. Tie a ribbon around the hatband and let them prance around the house and be done with it, right?

I came down to find both girls clutching armfuls of ribbons grinning up at me in sheer delight. Oh geez. I went back upstairs for needle and thread and came down and just started sewing them on. Kate wanted a green-polka-dot ribbon on her hat that clashed horrifically with her pale pink-and-gray dress. Oh well. Who the hell was going to see it, anyway?

Nobody had the energy to set up a photo background in the house. Seth is a grumpy perfectionist when it comes to lighting now that he's gotten serious about his photography. But just that morning the daffodils across the road had bloomed. Seriously, they were still closed the day before.

I threw the kids, the cupcakes, an antique cake stand, and Seth in the car and drove the 300 feet down the road to the daffodil patch. What ensued was kinda magical. Maybe all the more so because it was so unexpected? First, the hats had to be photographed, then the kids eating the cupcakes, and then, because the girls loved to swirl their dresses they went to the open meadow and ran around and were adorable and Seth got the best pictures he's ever taken.

I'm sorry I can't show faces here. But here's a taste of the sweetness of this unexpected, homemade-with-what's-on-hand Easter tea party.







James, Jane and Kate, running across the field. Then they'd hold hands and race back together. Sheer joy.
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