Aurora Wells

Happy Belated Easter, everyone! I’m a little late posting our Easter festivities, so here goes.

I wasn’t raised in the Christian tradition, so perhaps I’m overcompensating a bit now that I have a kid to spoil, but after the relative austerity of Passover (”Here, kid, chew on this dry matzah bread as a treat!”) there’s something terribly unsettling about the sugary abundance of secular Easter celebrations. I only remember two occasions in my childhood when the Easter Bunny included me in the bounty of the season; once, when I was fairly young, my brother and I found a humongous basket of treats on our Lake Arrowhead cabin’s front porch, along with a mass of deep gashes on the front door, which led me to believe that the famous “bunny” was more of a frighteningly large clawed beast; and once, as a teen, when my good friend Stephanie included me in her family’s egg hunt, at which I was introduced to some of the more disgusting candy-foam-and-chunky-bits-type treats hidden within seemingly innocent-looking chocolate eggs.

I’ve admitted before that the lovely, cheerful pastels of Easter and spring make me unreasonably happy, and that I tend to fall carelessly in love with all the pretty treats and decorations on display at the beginning of March. Maybe next year I’ll be a bit more cautious about it, for Aurora’s sake. Between the neighbourhood Easter hunt at Cambie Village, the egg hunt in our backyard, and the later egg hunt at Grandma’s house, Aurora got more candy in one weekend than a kid should get in a whole year. After a few days of chocolate, jellybeans, and more chocolate, who’s to wonder that the child is fluctuating every 20 minutes between sobbing anguish and bouncing off the walls?

The “I can’t quite believe it’s true” face when she discovered that the Easter Bunny really came to our own backyard this year. I love the outfit she picked out – Halloween’s spiderweb leggings and her current favourite dress.

What is that huge gold thing behind the wisteria?

The Easter Bunny must have ordered this confection from Williams-Sonoma. I hope he got it at the just-before-Easter sale price!

Aurora also found hidden the twelve hollow eggs she dyed before Easter.

Not a bad haul, kiddo!

Grandma Shaun’s new backyard doesn’t have a lot of hiding places, but the Easter Bunny did a pretty good job here, too.

Ah! The joy of discovery!

Cousin Livvie shows off a pink egg to Mommy and me.

Opening the eggs takes some serious concentration, you know.

Cousin Kayden was very dilligent – most of his candy was gone before dinner.

I just want to squeeze this girl!

I just want to squeeze this girl, too. Here she is on the front porch with me, on Good Friday afternoon, having mint chocolate rooibos tea in a special blue mug.

The weather was so beautiful Friday afternoon that a photographer was roaming around our neighborhood taking actors’ head shots. Aurora wondered what the big silver circle they carried was for, so I demonstrated how to bounce light onto her face with a big red chair cushion.

I think I got some rather nice portraits, too, but of course I have the most adorable model!