We had a really good weekend.

Saturday afternoon, I dressed Penny up in some clothes that were already stained beyond redemption, and took her out onto the deck to dye Easter eggs.

She caught on very quickly, and we had an enormous blast. She kept looking for more eggs to dye after they were all colored, so we wound up re-dying several eggs. And best of all, she really didn't make that much of a mess. I'm so glad we did it!

Easter morning, Penny slept in until almost 7 -- whoo! -- and then we presented her Easter baskets.

Why yes, that was meant to be plural. Matt's dad had sent her a basket with a large stuffed bunny and a stack of books. And of course we gave her a basket, with candy and crackers and a toy airplane.

Penny adored the airplane, which was gratifying. She also insisted on napping with the bunny and reading the new books before her nap, so when Matt's dad called in the evening, we were truthfully able to report that Penny had enjoyed the things he'd sent.

After an exciting, chocolate-filled morning and a delayed nap, we changed Penny into an Easter-y dress and took her down to my parents'. My dad had "hidden" some eggs in their backyard for her to find.

She caught on to that quickly, too, and delightedly ran from egg to egg, chunking them in her basket. She was, of course, even more delighted to discover that the eggs had chocolate in them!

(My mom is such a liar. She'd promised me that some of the eggs would have pennies in them instead of chocolate. Ha! HA, I say!)

Then we had dinner, which was fantastic. I love lamb. And the strawberry romaine salad I made was quite a hit. And even if my pie was inexplicably lopsided, it was all gone by the end of the evening, so I'm calling that a hit, too.

All too soon, we had to pack up and take Penny home for a bath and bed. Matt and I munched junk food from our basket, and read, and had a nice quiet evening.

Of course, now I have to recover from having spent an entire day eating junk food. Which isn't going to be easy this week, as Matt and I are going out tomorrow night to celebrate our anniversary (eight years? Really? Wow, time flies...) and on Saturday we're going down to Chesapeake to celebrate K.T. and Kevin's birthdays.

Guess that means I have to be extra good the rest of the week. Ah, well, it was worth it.

--Liz