It was a busy Easter.

This year we did not have a huge family dinner at my house.  Our mothers are getting too frail to come to our house, so we took Easter to them at their retirement community.  Consequently the decor was much simpler and easier to transport.  Here is the table from last year. This year it was paper plates and cups, plastic utensils and paper napkins. 

This simpler decor was because I was very busy during Holy Week, making banners at the "Walk Through Holy Week" deanery wide event for families hosted this year by St. Chad's,

Preschool banners

attending some incredible services at St. Mark's including the very well done Stations of the Cross tableau by the Junior High Group (no photos since this was a service), stuffing several hundred (OK, I confess to counting things and there were 417) plastic eggs for the Resurrection Party which included an Easter Egg Hunt,

The living room was a mess for a couple of days before all the eggs were stuffed.

Robin tells an Easter Story while the eggs were hidden by the Rite-13 class.

Waiting....

The youngest are given a head start.

Parents all contributed eggs as well, so none of the children were disappointed...

Eggs Everywhere

The hunt is ended but no one wants to go back inside on this lovely Easter day even though the party continues in the Parish Hall...

With a cake

Checking out the loot.

A Bevy of Beauties

No eggs found, but happy to share some stories.

Turquoise seems the color of choice this year for frocks.

and lastly I have been doing some initial work on the Celebrity luncheon, "April in Paris" scheduled for next Thursday. 

For the "April in Paris" luncheon, I am using black and pink for the decorations. Here is a sneak peek.

Inspiration mock-up on my sewing table.

We will be doing six tables.  The church has black tablecloths that I will layer with the pink material (in the photo above) cut  into squares and the the napkin sized squares of black and white on top of that.  The centerpieces will be pink carnations in small boxes wrapped with black and white striped paper with a fluer de lis (imaged downloaded from the internet) glued on each side.  Quite some time ago, I purchased pink and white polka dot favor boxes for a baby shower that I ended up not using, so will use them for this event filled with Easter candy.  Still to do:  make the labels for the favor boxes, spray the iron Fluer de lis and the tabletop Eiffel towers black to match the rest of the decor, purchase the flowers, purchase the ingredients for the luncheon, and cook.

Speaking of cooking, here is the recipe for the Asparagus and Cheese Tart that I  found at My Little Bungalow  Claudia has wonderful photos and great tips so you may wish to click straight over there for more detailed instructions.

Ingredients to make one tart:
3/4 lb. thin to medium-sized asparagus, tough stalk ends snapped off
1/2 tablespoon olive oil
Course salt and freshly ground pepper
1 sheet frozen puff pastry (thawed 30 to 40 minutes at room temperature)
1/2 package Boursin cheese, garlic and fine herb flavor
1/2 cup grated gouda cheese
1 egg, beaten with a touch of water to make an egg wash
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Directions:
1) Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. 
2) In a bowl, toss asparagus with olive oil, salt and pepper. Set aside.
3) Dust a large piece of parchment paper lightly with flour; unfold the thawed puff pastry onto the parchment, and dust pastry lightly with flour. Carefully roll out the pastry into a rectangle, roughly 10" x 15" or 11" x 14" (mine was about 11" x 12" which worked perfectly). Transfer pastry to a baking sheet. Using a paring knife, score a line around the perimeter of the pastry, about 1" in from edge, to create a border (do not cut all the way through). Using a fork, prick the dough all over within the border; this part will remain flat during baking while the border puffs up.
4) Crumble the Boursin cheese within the border, then sprinkle the gouda on top.
5)  Arrange asparagus in a single layer evenly over the cheese. Lightly brush tart border with egg wash.
6) Bake tart until asparagus is tender and pastry is golden brown, about 20 minutes. Let cool briefly before slicing. Serve warm or at room temperature.  Recipe originally from the April issue of House and Home.

I took this to a party Saturday evening and folks were fighting over it.  I promised the folks there to post the recipe, so here it is.  Thanks Claudia.