Friday, March 21, 2008

Happy Easter!

I almost had a heart-attack on Tuesday when I realized that Emi had BOTH Wednesday and Thursday off of school. It was kind of like a trial-run for Spring Break and I wasn't at all prepared for it. Plus it was raining and that didn't help at all. Dumb weather!


I had been trying to decide if I wanted to try dyeing Easter Eggs this year and the fact that I had to be creative two days in a row pretty much decided that for me. Yeah, Easter Eggs! I know people think I'm a great mom but I try to avoid this type of stuff as much as possible. It just wears on my nerves, much like thinking about cooking with my kids does. *shiver* But there is another part of me that wants my children to experience as many American/Canadian cultural things as possible which is why I stuff turkeys into my little convection oven at Thanksgiving and take hours to make cookies because I can only bake 7 at a time, etc.
My mom has faithfully sent me Easter Egg dyeing kits every year so I brought them out from their hidden corners in the cabinets and re-read the instructions. Amazingly, finding white eggs was the most difficult part of the project. I actually had to go to three different grocery stores to find them since brown eggs are more common here.
Around 10am on Wednesday morning, I started assembling all of the supplies while the girls excitedly looked on and once Chikara went off to work, we settled ourselves around the table and got to work. I had boiled four eggs for each of them and I had 8 different colors of dyes, 3 pages of stickers, two white crayons, 3 special color markers just for eggs (!), two different kinds of sparkly glue and then other assorted shiny decorations. I set Natsuki in her high chair with a cookie and off we went.
Here are the girls dyeing their eggs.
Natsuki didn't get to dye eggs, so she "drew" a picture instead!
Once they had finished dyeing their fourth egg, the first egg was dry so we moved on to "decorating" which was their most favorite part. I had little egg cups for holding soft-boiled eggs when you eat them so I brought those out to hold the eggs while they were working on them. They all did so well.
An hour and a half later, we had a finished product. They were so excited.
Taking a snack break after a job well done!
I decorated some eggs, too. I didn't boil mine but once they were decorated, I blew out the inside (more difficult than I had remembered) and hung them up in the doorway between the kitchen and the living room. Sorry for the mess but I wanted to get a picture before Natsuki and Sakura woke up from their naps!
I was really pleased with how the day went although by the time Chikara came home and the kids went to bed I was exhausted. I fell asleep on the couch at 8:30pm, woke up at 11:30pm and moved to my bed and slept until 8am the next morning! It's such hard work to be a good mom!
Happy Easter!

8 comments:

Annagrace said...

You all did such a good job--the eggs are beautiful! And your girls are kind of staggeringly cute...all that pretty hair and those eyes!

Anonymous said...

You rock, Sarah! Happy Easter! Say hi to C.

M said...

AWESOME!!! I have never dyed eggs before (not sure why, have just never done it) but it looks like so much fun and the end product is amazing. Might have been hard work but it looks like alot of fun!!!

Christelle said...

You call that a mess??? Your house looks so nice, (even nicer with the decorated eggs). What a great memory for your girls, it looks like they had a good time and it looks like they all get along so well!

Anonymous said...

The eggs are gorgeous all gathered together in their little nest. I'm not surprised - them girlies have got a flare for the adorable! I can imagine how pooped you must be, but I couldn't help thinking how becoming pooped being a good mom is so much better than laying awake at night because you have no peace with your mothering skills. I'm proud of you baby, but I miss colouring eggs with you!
love Mom

Hannah said...

I know we're supposed to be commenting on your egg-colouring skills and your good mommying, which are excellent, but I can never get over how gorgeous your girls are! I love seeing pictures of them, with bits of you and bits of Chikara on each face, yet they are each uniquely their own. I can't wait to see you guys in August - I don't think I've ever been this excited to go camping! I love you, and Happy Easter!!

Anonymous said...

Great to see pictures of your beautiful girls, and love reading your stories. Hope you are all well and have a lovely Easter break. It will be a quiet one for us in Edinburgh. --Tracy

Anonymous said...

An easy way to dye eggs is to wrap a colorfully patterned piece of cloth tightly around the egg, and boil it ina cup of vinegar. Notonly is the egg colored, but has the patternflycrk on it aas well. Thiw is a Martha Stewart thing, that she did with old used ties. Love Nana