A Ruff and Stormy Easter

At the same time that Grandma Chris was heading back to Long Island, Grandma Sally and HaPa were driving down from Vermont to take the second shift in the Easter parade. And if I complained about the weather when Grandma Chris was here, it certainly didn't improve for the first part of Easter weekend. After a brief period of sunshine on Friday (which we soaked up thoroughly with an afternoon hike at Low Plain) we woke up to SNOW on Saturday. And it snowed and snowed, four inches in all... enough to bring the plows out, and enough (apparently) to force a lot of families to forgo the local egg hunt sponsored by the New London Rec Department. On a normal year the egg hunt is swarming with little people, but the snow put a serious damper on the festivities (though Aiden would beg to differ- he thought it was fabulous) and only a few more than a dozen kids showed up to collect the 2,500 (yes, you read that correctly) candy-filled eggs scattered all over the elementary school. Cha-ching! is what Aiden was thinking. Check out the photo of him alone in a giant hallway full of eggs... there were enough hallways that the kids split up and everyone's basket was full to bursting. The candy spoils were staggering. At the "one-piece-a-day, if-he-eats-a-good-dinner" that Aiden is allowed, it'll be next Easter before he's done consuming it all.

Aiden at the town egg hunt - had a whole hallway to himself!

After the egg hunt, we walked back home in the snow to prepare our Easter supper. Baked ham, roasted root veggies, spring asparagus with hollandaise, deviled eggs, and homemade ice cream cookie sandwiches rounded out the mid-day feast. After the gluttony we pretty much lounged about playing games and talking for the remainder of the day. In the evening Andy and I had the rare treat of an adult evening out- Grandma and HaPa watched the kids and we went to Tupelo Music Hall in White River Junction with some friends to see Colin Hay. It's a great little concert venue and we realized (not for the first time) that however much we love the kiddos, it's really nice to get some grown-up fun time once in awhile too.

At Low Plain on Friday, before the snow

Looking at a nesting Great Blue Heron from one of the blinds

Friday egg hunt

Since our Easter festivities were on Saturday, we were determined to stay home and get some important things done on Sunday. Like brewing that beer we didn't get to on the previous weekend, and planting some early garden crops and clearing out our perennial beds. But alas, Andy woke up, checked his email, and reported that a Ruff (rare European vagrant shorebird) had been spotted earlier that morning at Chapman's Landing in Stratham, a little over an hour's drive from our house. That was it. The day was shot... or pretty much. Depending on how you look at it. Grandma and HaPa went back up to Vermont and we crammed in the mini-van with all our optics (ok, we don't cram in there anymore) and took off in pursuit of the Ruff. It was an easy find thanks to a crowd of birders already entrenched in the parking area, scopes all pointed on the poor Ruff, who was trying his best to sleep in some dead salt grass. We did feel slightly bad dragging the kids all the way over there on Easter Sunday to stare at what is basically a glorified sandpiper, so we took them to Ordione Point State Park afterwards. Haley tried to eat fistfulls of tiny pebbles and Aiden searched the beach for small treasures with his Dad. It was (finally) sunny and springlike outside, and we enjoyed every moment of the day we should have been spending at home. When we did arrive home in mid-afternoon, it was a mad dash to get something (anything) productive done... which turned out to be clearing all the dead winter tops out of our perennial beds and getting started on the hardy garden veggies. Done and done. And a Ruff to boot.

Looking at the Ruff (sorry no pic... too far away)

Haley at Ordione Point. She tried to eat a billion pebbles.