Easter Dinner Party 2011

Get ready for picture OVERLOAD!

Our Easter family dinner party went fantabulously!

In all we had 8 adults and 2 children.

Easter means spring and that means flowers.  My MIL brought us this gorgeous pot. 

 Brad and I hit the Farmer's Market that morning and picked up some blue iris.  My Mom later brought the yellow flowers that we put with them.  Sorry for the sideways picture.

 I also spent the morning making the butterscoth haystacks/nest cookies that MCW suggested that I use as my place card holders. 

 More flowers on our kitchen table.

 Our cheese buffet. Love me some cheese!

Strawberries and brown sugar.  A must in South Louisiana! 

 Beautiful Mother.

 Knowing that the kiddos would be over later and Buddy would feel left out -- my parents picked him up an Easter basket/gift too.  Blurry, but I love his ears flying in the air!

 The cocktail of the day was champagne with lavender simple syrup.  I got this idea from A Liz and it was awesome!

Click here for the recipe.  I made the simple syrup on Thursday night and let it sit until Saturday in the fridge, then strained it.  This was so refreshing and perfect for Spring!

We had Easter baskets for the niece and nephew.  Just a few things..

And..of course, my Mom never comes empty handed when there are kids around.  She bought them Easter books, DVDs and book lights -- which were a REAL hit.

With their Mommy --SIL, Robyn.

We got our share of Easter gifts too.
Mom gave us this gorgeous White House Christmas ornament in the shape of an egg.

SIL Robyn brought us these beautiful tulips.

And, Brad got a Masters hat from his brother who was lucky enough to go to Augusta National this year.

Now for my Easter tablescape.  I decided to go simple and I think it turned out perfect.  I would have liked a bigger bouquet but opted out of it because sometimes it overpowers and then your guests can't see past it at dinner.

What do you think?

I should have gotten a better picture of those napkins there on the end.  Those were the niece and nephew's seats and of course they don't eat off china quite yet.  So, instead I folded their napkins to look like bunny rabbits.  I got this idea from a blog too.

During cocktail hour we enjoyed family time which included reading some of the books my Mom brought the kids. One of the books was the real story of Easter. NICE touch! :)

Paigee loves Buddy! He gets a bit nervous sometimes though. We discovered the next morning he had tinkled in the basement.  We're not sure when that happened.

Then it was time for dinner.  Brad made his prime rib that he loves so much.

What would Easter be without deviled eggs?  I truly think this is a Southern thing.

I made this AWESOME green bean and artichoke salad that I got off the Internet. It called for asparagus but I used green beans instead.

MIL made yummy herb potatoes.

The kids were so cute.  They wanted to get into their pjs before dinner and changed right out in the living room in front of everyone.  They enjoyed looking out of the windows at the planes taking off.  Yes, we live in the flight path. Awesome eh? NOT! haha!

I was trying to get a good picture of Paigee and her Daddy but she doesn't like to smile on cue.

But then Daddy gave her a tickle! There it is!

The kiddos love snuggling with Uncle Brad.

The best part of the night?

When it was time for cake!

The kids closed their eyes until I took the top off and then they cheered, clapped and jumped up and down!

Adorable!

SIL, makes the best coconut cake ever!

That is our Easter dinner party for 2011.

As for Easter day? Well, there are so many pictures so I'll post about it tomorrow.

How was your Easter?