Typical or not... It was Easter. It was Easter indeed! Today was pretty much a "typical" Easter day for our "atypical" family -- i.e. meaning much different than the way others may have spent their holiday.

We started the day with our usual 6 am alarm and off to sunrise service. This is my FAVORITE part of Easter day. My awesome hubby and I always sneak out of the house leaving the children snug in their beds and the Easter Bunny baskets planted by their doors. We spend the next hour or so at an outdoor service in our church yard, where today the sunrise was a beautiful pink against the baby blue sky. Then we fill our stomachs on a wonderful pancake breakfast prepared by the church's Men's Club.

Then back home to limit the candy intake and start preparing Easter dinner. Around 10, I started pouring the girls into their Easter finery, then off to church. It is not always typical that we make it clear through the service without LuLu melting down. The crowd noises bother her a great deal. But because she was sitting by her favorite little friend AND is improving in that regard, we made it with only a little whining and gnashing of teeth as the sermon went on to long (in her opinion!)

Then back home again - this time to rush around as quickly as possible to get our grand feast on the table. Now, if I had my druthers, we would have had the typical Easter ham (Honeybaked, preferably!). But then, we are not a typical family. Because we have had LuLu on a casein free diet (and this week added gluten free to the mix), menus get rather strange. But today's meal was chosen because it was food that we could all agree upon. We had salmon on the grill, along will grilled potatoes, squash and zucchini. I stir-fried some fresh green beans with mushrooms and roasted garlic and served a fruit salad. All four children (two are really adults at this point - but it is always so nice to have them round the table) really enjoyed the food.

Afterwards the "adult" children (ages 20 & 25) decided that we really NEEDED to have an Easter egg hunt. LuLu couldn't have cared less. But the older three (15 yo included), hatched a plan for the eldest to hid the eggs and his sisters to find them. Then, we all ate carrot cake and played cranium on the back porch because the weather was so beautiful. All of us except LuLu, who had to skip the carrot cake, but had gluten free, egg free, dairy free chocolate chip cookies that aren't half bad!

The big "crisis" of the day... (And those of you parenting challenging children know there is a big crisis every day - at least once) Well, the crisis happened just as we were sitting down to eat the dinner. The kids had all been roughhousing and teasing, and as the eldest rounded the table, LuLu continued the playing and bumped him - and the glass of red wine he was holding went flying -- all over the carpet. Thank God for something called "Greased Lightning" - because between that and our mini-shop vac, the stains came right up (and then out of the tablecloth as well). And LuLu, who could have melted down for the day, instead apologized appropriately, and dinner went on.

So, maybe today wasn't a typical Easter Sunday after all. We had no major meltdowns and instead had loads of fun. Oh, yes, there was that incident at 8 pm tonight when the 15 yo announced that she had forgotten that her major science project is due on Tuesday, which sent us scurrying to find an open Walmart. But overall, it was a very enjoyable holiday.

My favorite parts of the day, beyond the sunrise service included:

1. Watching LuLu twirl and dance in her pretty green dress to the praise music at church.
2. Hearing the laughter from all four children as they tried to stick something in their dad's mouth while he was napping (and snoring) after dinner.
3. Sitting on the back porch and taking in the springtime weather.
4. Seeing our church pews packed full of families, all smiling and enjoying our worship together.

Typical or not...It was Easter. It was Easter indeed!