Thursday after work we headed to Kewanee for a few days. We hadn’t been to visit my parents since January, so with it being Easter weekend and us having Friday off from work, it seemed the perfect time for a visit.
Our original plan was to go to Matthiessen State Park Friday morning, but the weather was not cooperating and it was windy and rainy. To keep us busy, my mom decided to let James and I open our Easter basket (gift bag). I got an amazing dragonfly journal and umbrella, but James really got a really great gift. He got a $25 gift card for the iTunes store! On the gift card was a note telling him it was so he could get Farmer Smurf for our Smurf game! We quickly put the gift card to good use and got Farmer Smurf, Hefty Smurf, Smurfette, and a number of other fun accessories.

Deciding what to buy next on the Smurf game!
Playing the Smurf game with the extra Smurfs was a lot of fun, but I thought it might be even more fun if we were able to get some Spa treatments as well since we couldn’t do anything outside. I called one of the local Spa’s and was able to get James a facial and massage, me a massage, and Mom also ended up scheduling a facial! Our relaxing treatments were just what we needed and made for great day.
Friday night after an amazing meal, Mom and I got everything out to dunk and decorate cakeballs. We had rolled them out the previous Monday night in anticipation of going to a family brunch on Saturday morning.
At first we thought we’d each dunk and decorate the cakeballs, but that really didn’t work that well! After a couple of funny looking cakeballs and a lot of laughs, we ended up breaking up the job. One of us dunked and one of us decorated!

Dunking and decorating the cakeballs!
Once we got our rhythm down on who was doing what, we really got going and were able to get the cakeballs done in no time at all! The bright spring colors really made the cakeballs look quite yummy!

Easter Cakeballs! Decorated and ready to go!
Saturday morning, before heading to brunch, mom and I went out to dig up some Pampas Grass. Pampas Grass is a tall decorative grass that’s really nice for landscaping. We’ve already got some around the yard, but along my herb garden there is an ugly concrete retaining world and I thought the Pampas would be great to camouflage it. Luckily, one of my Dad’s friends has more than enough Pampas Grass around his yard and gave us free reign to dig up as much as we wanted!

Digging Pampas Grass. It was not easy to get out!!
Digging the Pampas Grass was not that easy, so we ended up sliding underneath it along the side of the road and then cutting the back and sides to get it out. We really had to put a lot of effort into it and got quite a work out! Afterward we got cleaned up and headed to brunch in Elmwood, IL.
Brunch was an enjoyable time because there were family members from all over! We had some visiting from Michigan, Iowa, Missouri, and Kansas, as well as the two newly engaged couples! It was great to see everyone and enjoy a yummy cholesterol (and calorie) filled meal!

Enjoying the nice weather outside!
After brunch James and I headed home to plant the Pampas Grass (from that morning) and the fruit trees we’d picked up the previous weekend.
James was amazing and got out the tiller and tilled up the ground along the concrete barrier wall and the side of the house to make it easier for me to plant the Pampas Grass. He also started laying some of the stones along the edge of the herb garden as well!

Herb Garden after planting the Pampas Grass (top right picture) and laying out some of the stone edging!
Once we finished with the Pampas grass, it was onto the fruit trees. It seemed like we took longer to decide where to plant them than it took to actually plant them, but the planting part was pretty time consuming. We broke up the job so James dug the hole and tilled up the dirt and then I filled the dirt with some peat moss and actually planted the tree.

The fruit trees all planted!
We planted the tress in three rows that already had trees in them, but were spaced far enough apart for the new trees to grow. The first row (closest to the creek) are the apple trees (Haralson & Yellow Delicious), then the cherry (Bing & Black Tartarian), and last the peach (Alberta & Red Haven). Hopefully they’ll do well in their new home and produce a lot of fruit in the coming years!
Sunday, Easter morning, I decided to go out and walk around the yard. It had been a few days since I’d been able to check the yard and I knew the crab apples were getting ready to explode with hot pink blossoms!

Love all the color on this Easter morning!
I know I’ve had a lot of spring blossom/flower pictures on the blog, but the cold drab dreary winter really hit me hard this winter and I’ve really been loving the color and nature life out in the yard!
For Easter lunch, we met up with Gene and Alice at the Red Apple in Sullivan, IL. Originally James and I were going to stop at Rural King on our way, but when we decided not to, we ended up getting to Sullivan 30 minutes early. To burn a little time, we decided to browse through the local Pamida. I’d never been to a Pamida before, so it was a new and interesting experience for me. Pamida is kind of a mix between Dollar General and K-Mart, and had some pretty cool stuff. I ended up getting two short sleeve shirts (in two of my favorite colors) and a new cooler that I absolutely love! The cooler is shorter than a normal sized cooler and has a flat top that you can use to stack stuff on! I can’t wait to try it on vacation this year!!
Once I was finished shopping at Pamida, we headed to the Red Apple and got there right before Gene and Alice. Alice looked a little tired, but overall seemed to be doing pretty well considering her health scares from the previous week. Overall it was a good meal and we had a nice time catching up and chatting.
Afterward we headed home and James went to work on the computer and I snuggled down for an afternoon nap. What a nice way to end the long Easter weekend!