Easter Time!

[This is taken off our Family News page that my side of the family uses to keep track of each other. It's in my color from that page - Hope that's not too annoying. It's one of those updates that I wrote and it kinda stands out since not too many of us write lengthy entries...]

Well yesterday [Saturday before Easter] - aside from doing about a dozen small projects around the house, not the least of which was weeding the back yard and planting our garden - we had the kids dye Easter Eggs! It was a mess!! Newspaper is a good thing! As is 'painting shirts' for the kids! Shelly and Jason both managed to dunk their whole hands into the cups to get the eggs out - mostly they used that wire thingy though - and at dinner Shelly had signs that some of the dye had run down her arm... Mom bought a ham to eat (who knew there was a traditional meal for Easter??) and we're breaking out some corn from the farm and we're in the middle of making rolls and homemade mashed potatoes (those of you from Idaho or a farm, forgive this house - we grew up on the fake stuff and I have only recently discovered that real potatoes can be good! It's a trick remembering to cook them for Sunday dinners though... I often forget and then it's back to the flakes for us! :-) ). Later today, after Mom and Dad get back from church, we're going to go on an egg hunt with all the stuff that Mark's mom sent down for us. We each get to find a bag with homemade caramel popcorn and some other small candy, as well as 5 eggs per person to find, I think that number is right but I'm going to have to count to be sure. Some of the eggs have numbers inside and if you find an egg with a number you get to pick from the stash of loot that came in the box from Elaine (small stuff - probably mostly from the dollar store, and mostly stuff the kids would enjoy, but it's still fun!!) That's about it here. I'm just waiting for the dough to finish rising so I can go finish the rolls... The house is otherwise silent (kids are napping and I'm not convinced they're the only ones - I just wish I could join them!)

I'm adding some pictures...

Uncle Doug helping make sure Shelly doesn't make a mess
Jason trying to get the egg out with getting his hands messy - he didn't mind the mess for too long...
Shelly showing off her 'dyed' hands
It quickly became clear that it was easier to let Jason put the eggs in empty cups!
Emily (Becca's friend who we like to have visit) trying to help Jason. I'm not sure he sees it quite that way though...
Play time!
She's eating the egg - shell and all!
Not quite as good as it seemed now is it?
Jason learned from his sister, and peeled the egg first. It took them quite the long time to try to peel those eggs!