Easter Weekend-East Coast

I flew into DC on Friday night to get ready for a great Easter weekend at St Michael'..s Maryland with my cousin Roy and his family..Oh, and of course Louisa, Peter, Griffin and Sophia, often referred to as "The Smiths."  Our first stop on Saturday morning was the pastry shop where we picked out a delicious and beautiful assortment of macaroons.  It was so hard to choose that we ended up with what they call a "monumental" assortment. Truly. They were all beautiful and arranged in a special box--with a drawing of Washington monuments on the top. The shop is "The Sweet Lobby" and they won the Cupcake wars award on the Food channel.  We were now ready to set off to St Michaels:

Well, this is a picture of the girls....who were charged with selection of the treats.  The guys (Griffin and Peter) had to make a run to pick up some forgotten items and then picked us up and we were on the way.

When we arrived in St Michael's, we were amazed by the sunny and warm weather.  It was almost balmy.

We had a great afternoon snacking and visiting and just hanging out together.  Badminton and chatting were enough for us, topped off by a wonderful meal of meatloaf and all the fixin's We had a nice walk to the harbor before more chatting and then off to bed.  Peter and I intermittently worked on a jigsaw puzzle, but he did most of it.

Easter morning was busy.  First, the children (Griffin, Sophia, Alex and Ryan) had a fun hunt for their baskets from the Easter Bunny.  They had clues to follow on post it notes.  Each child had a different color and different clues.  What fun, and then the reward was a special basket for each one of them.  We then had a huge Easter breakfast.    

We went to mass at the local church, where Kathy and her husband were married, and where Roy and Sandi have attended for many years.  It was meaningful to be there with them.  

We came home, relaxed a bit and had a family picture:

We were joined by Kathy's friend Melinda and her family and had the major egg hunt, which is a really important Easter event.  More on that later, as I am waiting for the pictures.  Suffice it to say it is "boys versus girls" and we had a tie.....so everyone was a winner.

We then had a great feast (as if we hadn't eaten enough already) of turkey, ham, etc. etc. etc...including homemade mac and cheese and the best turkey stuffing I have ever had.  We left late Sunday afternoon...full of food, family love, and good feelings.  What a great Easter!