Our Easter

Two days after I excitedly posted on Facebook about our first Easter as a family of five, James had a fever. A very high fever that started early on Easter Sunday and lasted throughout the week. So our two-week break from reality and routine didn’t go as planned but we did have a few glorious moments.

I know tradition says you dye eggs on the Thursday of Holy Week but Thursday just wasn’t a good day for me. So late on Saturday morning I popped some -including two turkey eggs my dad gave me from his little farm- into a pot and sort of just threw in some blue dye. I fished them out five minutes later and this is how they turned out. Cool, right?

Thankfully my mother in law also dyed a batch with Georgie -on Thursday!- so the boys had quite a few to smash on Easter Sunday morning.

Georgie was on a winning streak before I showed up and smashed his egg to smithereens. Ha! It was James’s first time cracking and he loved it so much he smashed every single one of them and needless to say the whole house including his little hands and face stunk of eggs all day.

We spent Easter Sunday at my parents’ house. My mum is the most amazing cook. Said every child who has ever lived. But honestly, she is. I, however, make the most amazing oven-cooked veggies in wholegrain mustard so I was in charge of that. Oh and dessert. I made Jamie Oliver’s awesome baked cheesecake that everyone loves and are always happy to see on the table. It really is sinfully delicious. You can find the recipe here.

I am on a no-caffeine diet due to breastfeeding but I can’t really stand the thought of going without some brew so I stick to decaf. Lately I’ve been enjoying it cold and with frothy almond milk. Yum!

If you’ve been following me over the years you’ll know all about our annual Easter egg hunt. I come from a big family, four brothers, one sister, five nieces and nephews and girlfriends and husbands, so our egg hunt is serious business. And so much fun. I always end up laughing so hard it hurts. This year, despite James feeling poorly, he helped me and my brother hide the eggs while the others split up into two teams. The egg hanging upside down in a sock was my brother’s idea. Check out my blog post from Easter 2016 with one of my favourite photos of our egg hunt participants.

If this photo looks dark that’s because it was a dark and gloomy day where we were on Easter Monday. It rained cats and dogs as we navigated through the tiny narrow streets of a village outside of Nicosia on the way to Kakopetria. Despite James’s fever we decided to go and spend some time with papa’s side of the family mainly because we were both knackered and some extra hands with the kids are always welcome. Ha!