Easter 2013

Our international club was invited to an Easter brunch at the Hilton Doubletree Wuxi Lingshan Resort this weekend. We made a weekend of it, by first visiting the nearby Buddha on Saturday and staying the night at the doubletree resort. The resort overlooks Lake Taihu, and just hearing the sound of lapping waves was music to my ears. If you didn't already guess, we miss the ocean. We miss home.

The Easter brunch was fantastic. It's been months since we have had a full spread of "western" food. They had prepared everything from burger sliders, to chicken wings, sushi, steak, a pasta bar and loads of salads. We should have worn our stretchy pants.

Perhaps the best part of the morning was the addition of some newly hatched chicks, ducks and baby bunnies for the kids to pet. Sal wanted to touch the chicks so badly that he literally broke the fence down to get one. That kid of ours is persistent.

There was an Easter egg hunt, which NZ and Sal went on together. He found an egg in a tree and was happy as a clam with AN egg, so we went back to the buffet and stuffed our faces some more while the older kids left no stone unturned. It was a lot of fun to watch the kids go nuts over hunting for eggs. I know that Sal will be running along with them before too long. I'm savoring these days when he still wants his mama and dad to be close by.

(Gold)Fish Eggs

Please tell me I'm not the only parent out there who has a child that devours goldfish crackers like they're going out of style?

And when I say "devour", that's a nice way of saying he shoves a small school of fish in his mouth. After a few choking incidents (for the record- number of fish I have extracted with the finger swoop is eleven), I have had to start rationing his fish eating.

A fellow expat who has since returned to the US sent us a care package of Easter themed stuff, including plastic Easter eggs.

One morning, I got the idea to put 3-4 goldfish in each egg and hide them in the living room. As he found them, he could open them and have a mouthful of fish, and I wouldn't have to play fish police all morning.

We've been doing this for the past week, as Easter approaches, and thought I'd share it since I know most toddlers love them some goldfish crackers, and as a parent, it serves two purposes...an activity AND snack time. Double bonus in our household is the fact that it slows my son down so he actually enjoys them!