Changing the Color of My Skin With My Mother’s Permission.....a/k/a Dyeing Easter Eggs

Every year the neighbor graciously hosts the Easter egg dyeing on Good Friday. This year she had some friends in town and we about doubled the size of the party.

You have to make sure you get your initials on them. You sure would hate to take home someone else’s eggs.

We started off with some sponge painting.

And did some tie-dyeing.

More sponge painting.

Some plain old dye.

K started like this.

She looked like this after her first two eggs.

Frankly, she couldn’t stand to work with the egg holder any longer. Fingers do a much better job.

See???????

Her mother was thrilled!

Bug had a hard time reaching the table.

We were left with some very cool looking eggs.

Quite obviously, it was a ton of fun.

Recognize those blue fingers?

I just loved this egg. It reminded me of a globe.

Hoppy Easter!

Phew! It has been a whirlwind of a weekend for us. For the past two weeks Bean, Bug, Almost Mine, and our neighbors M & K have been stuffing Easter eggs for our church’s annual East Egg Hunt. Those 5 children stuffed 851 eggs! Eight-hundred fifty-one EGGS! My entire living room was full of eggs and their fingers were sore. But those 5 little ones were able to make 158 children very happy.

The morning started with a visit from a local farm with a train, a pony, and a fantastic petting zoo.

The girls enjoyed the petting zoo more than anything else. First Bean found the colored chicks. Orange was her pick.

Then Bug found the colored ducklings. Ah, a nice lovely teal shade.

Zman was the pony leader. He walked that pony back and forth and back and forth for a solid hour and made many a children’s day.

Bean was enamored with those colored chicks. She and her buddy, M, picked color coordinating chicks. You know, a girl’s got to make sure she coordinates her accessories.

I could not resist Bug and K, with their faces painted like bunnies while they loved on some real, live, furry bunnies.

Bean eventually made her way around to the bunnies.

The girls spent their entire hour switching back and forth between chicks, ducklings, and bunnies.

Then it was time for the egg hunt. See that girl in the red pants? She was wasting no time.

And she’s off!

Bug was a little more laid back, but still managed to have a fantastic time!

And the kids came home hyped up on candy, cookies, juice, and adrenaline. Oh, and they smelled phenomenal as well!

Good Report Cards = TCBY

Bean and Bug have both made honor roll this past 9 weeks.  Bug asked if we could look into getting some ice cream as a reward.  I hope she is easily pleased when she’s 16 as well!

We had a mass of children Saturday night.  There were the neighbors, M & K, Bean, Bug, and Almost Mine.   Since everyone had done pretty well on their report cards, it became a group outing. 

Do you know how long it takes for 5 children to decide what they want?

Do you know how many funny looks you get when you walk into a store with 5 children that span a 3 year age difference?

 

Fadre and I realized the only child out of the 5 that didn’t look like it belonged?  Bean.  Everybody else has pretty much the same hair color – but hers is much darker.  When you see her face though, you know she is Fadre’s child.  At least that’s what people tell me.  I see a child who constantly looks at life through a prism.  But that’s another story…

It turned out to be a worthy reward.

And we were all happy.  Did I mention I had a strawberry parfait?  You know, I’ve been working hard too. 

And my willpower was not strong enough to just watch them eat it.

And then Bug asked if these could spend the night:

 

And I said yes.

Because I had forgotten they were energized by this:

Oh, and the last one was still awake after 11 o’clock that night.

Giving Back

We have gotten a couple of really good coupons for cat food lately. So I took them to the store and bought some food (either free, or darn near close to it). After confusing Zman thoroughly (Are we getting a cat? No.), Bug and I drove to the local animal shelter to make our donation.

That’s a whole lot of cat food for a family that doesn’t have any cats!

Look at that grin. She was SO excited!

After making our donation, they let us visit the cats. Bug seemed a little disappointed that there were only 5 or 6 cats in the shelter that day. I reminded her that was a good thing, meaning all the other cats had found homes. She agreed, but was still a little disappointed. And then she said, “It smells in here.” And her love affair with the cats was over.

I hope she gets over boys as quickly!

Snow Day

Remember that snow I posted about a few weeks ago? About 2 p.m. or so last Saturday it started to snow. And it kept going! By Sunday morning the news said we got about 5-6 inches. Within 10 minutes of hearing church had been cancelled, Bean and Bug headed out to play. Fifteen minutes later Bean came in and took a nap. By the time she woke up she had tears in her eyes and complained she didn’t feel well. Thanks to one dose of Motrin, two cups of chicken noodle soup, two handfuls of crackers, and several naps, she was all better by Monday morning.

Family Breakfast Day

Bean and Bug offer breakfast at school once a year as a fundraiser. So this morning we all get up early. Okay, the girls got up same as always because they are usually downstairs, ready for school and eating breakfast by 7 am. I am usually thinking about getting in the shower at that time. But I did it and we were ready to leave the house by 7. Since the neighbor kids’ mom had to work early this morning and their dad has to leave for work pretty early, we took their girls with us. After sitting down another neighbor and his daughter joined our table. It was just like a regular Block Party.