Grandmother Holidays turns 90

That's a lot of holidays along the way. Last year was her first yard haunt, and this year was her first outdoor Easter display. Lord willing, she'll be present to celebrate 'Spirit Grove II: an enchanted forest', as well as her first outdoor Christmas display, with Baby Holidays. Just think. She's 90 years older than her Great-Grandson Baby Holidays. Pretty cool.

Nail Polish Remover

After reading some advice on the internet regarding the removal of spray paint, I bought some liquid nail polish remover at the grocery store today. I'm going to try and clean off the blue spray paint from the Easter Bunny Cove jars (lanterns).  If I'm successful, and that's a big if, then I'll immediately have 12 ready-made jars for the "Summer in Sherwood" bash.

For the June 9 cookout, I plan on lighting up Mother-in-Law Holidays' backyard garden with an array of lit, yellow jars and solar powered ground lights.  As with all the other holidays, light will be key to setting the mood.

P.S. As I'm writing this post, Baby Holidays is sleeping on my chest. He's growing by the day.

Easter Bunny Cove Recap

Overall, I would deem my first outdoor Easter display a success.  With the area that I was allotted to decorate, I think I maximized the space as far as egg quantity, color distribution, and light coverage were concerned.  I was especially pleased with how well the eggs performed during some strong winds, and I particularly liked the effect of the solar ground lights.

Mother-in-Law Holidays was extremely generous to fund much of the project, as well as to host the inaugural display on her property. Father Holidays and Stepmother Holidays were generous to donate 12 fuzzy eggs as well.

I was excited to do some of the work with Baby Holidays looking on in his car seat. Next year, God willing, he should be walking and maybe even hanging an egg or two.

Of course, there's always room for improvement. For example, I was disappointed in the blue jars at night. While beautiful during the daylight hours, they did not shine enough at night. I think my error was the fact that I spray painted the jars with a satin finish, instead of a gloss finish. This made them more opaque. Lesson learned.  I was also disappointed in my photos, though this was largely due to an old camera.  However, this problem has now been rectified.

Finally, I'm hopeful that Mother-in-Law Holidays will allow me to enlarge my decorating radius next year. If I can spread some of the decorations to the front yard, in addition to the side yard, they will draw a greater number of eyes from two separate streets. This year was a trial run so to speak, and rightfully so. Hopefully, Easter Bunny Cove performed well enough to earn a promotion.

Easter Sunday at the Cove

Baby Holidays' Easter basket

The Easter Bunny dropped off some Easter lilies to add to the decor

The Easter Bunny scattered a bunch of eggs throughout the Cove

More eggs scattered about

Even more fun was the fact that Grandma Holidays got to meet her Great-Grandson (Baby Holidays) for the first time. Before the night was over, I gave Mrs. Holidays a final tour of Easter Bunny Cove, and she was greatly pleased.  Clean-up begins tomorrow. Then, it's time to start looking ahead toward Summer.

Easter Eve in the Cove

The camera flash doesn't quite do the light justice, but the Cove looked pretty magical with the solar powered lights, blue luminaries, and Bethlehem arbor lights aglow. The last two shots were particularly interesting. This ethereal mist began to appear as Baby Holidays and I were surveying the Cove. Was the Easter Bunny about to make his deliveries? Not sure, but I snapped a couple of quick pics and took off.

Easter Vigil

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After lunch, I will be heading over to Mother-in-Law Holidays' to mow the lawn and begin preparing Easter Bunny Cove.  The light display starts at twilight. I'll post pics late tonight.

One Week Till Light Display

Next Saturday is Easter Eve. As the Easter Bunny makes his rounds around the world, I'm hoping a little light will entice him to stop by Easter Bunny Cove. I may even set up shop and see if I can get a picture of him as he travels through. May be tough, though. Legend has it he's a pretty fast mover.

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Really hoping PWIW Holidays will be there to see the show. He's 3 days late so far.

Easter Bunny

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I'm hoping the Big Guy pays our Easter Bunny Cove a quick visit while making his deliveries.

Easter Bunny Cove

More to come.

The Big Bang

In the Beginning...

                                                            View from the front

                                                           View from the back

                                                           View from the right side

                                                           View from the left side

All in all, I hung 93 plastic eggs on the arbor this afternoon. Long-suffering Mother-in-Law Holidays was an eyewitness. Mrs. Holidays stayed at home to catch some precious Z's after a long night of false labor contractions.

Tomorrow, I will be putting out some solar-powered ground lights that Mother-in-Law Holidays purchased at Walmart. Grandmother Holidays should be present and ready to supervise. Then, I still have about 90 more eggs to hang around surrounding branches and bushes. When I do that will depend on PWIW Holidays' imminent arrival.

As I was hanging the eggs today and while Mother-in-Law Holidays was hard at work trimming bushes to prepare Easter Bunny Cove, several people drove by, slowed down and smiled. One young mother walking her baby in a stroller suggested that we needed some lights to add to the display. Mother-in-Law Holidays told her "Just come back," then proceeded to go inside and put a cold, wet towel on her forehead (Don't kid yourself, she loves every second of it).