Easter Bags & Easter Buns

Oooo, I took a nice two month hiatus from blogging again . . . and I'd aaaaallllmost made it through the spring. Drat!

We arrived home from D.C. just a day before Easter Sunday, which meant I could keep Easter fairly low-key this year. Luckily, I'd already made and purchased all the goodies for it. No procrastinating here! Gotta keep the anxiety at bay :).

The kids have been needing new church bags for a while, so I made these simple lined tote bags using this awesome tutorial. I love the stuff on Purl Bee. So classy. Then I filled the totes with some churchy things. They each held a notebook, a pencil and pen, a pencil sharpener, a pack of coloring instruments (pencils for Phx, markers for Lutece), a pack of gum, and a book (that was the one non-churchy item).

Aaaaaaaand the Easter baskets held the candy.

Because it's just not Easter without it . . . no matter what anyone tries to tell you.

I thought the hot cross buns were good, but the kids were not as excited by them. Fine. Next year I'm sticking with something more recognizable and easier to make . . . like candy.

Easter: Little Effort, Big Returns

I actually don't feel like I put a ton of effort into Easter this year. Despite its being in mid-April, it crept up on me without warning. Perhaps I was too engrossed in pulling off a last minute Spring Break vacation to Florida to plan for Easter.*

Nevertheless, I couldn't let the holiday pass with making some little handmade item to put in the kids' baskets (see here for past years). Since my sewing machine is currently broken, I came up with something that didn't require sewing, just some yarn and felt and a glue gun.

I made the pom-poms with some plastic pom-pom makers (did you even know they existed?) that I bought many years ago and have used a handful of times. These were so easy; I whipped them up in a couple of hours.

I almost just glued two little white store-bought pom-poms on for their tails, but then my dignity got the best of me. I just wrapped the yarn around one of my fingers to make the pom-poms small enough for tails. I was pleased with the end result.

Saturday night, I put the baskets together, which was mostly just candy this year, with a couple of nic-nacs tucked in for good measure.

I almost just left it at that, but then I remembered that Lutece had hinted ALL WEEK LONG that she loves it when we have a treasure hunt for the Easter baskets on Easter morning. Sigh. So instead of working on my Sunday School lesson, I made up a treasure hunt for the kids.

It started out like this.

This year, I tried to give them something with each clue. I figured that way they might take the time to appreciate each item instead of just noticing the candy.

I'm not sure if it worked out that way, but it was worth a try. They also got a year's subscription to Ranger Rick (something I had been planning to buy anyway), and a new book each (in the pictures below).

So maybe I did put a little effort into Easter after all.

 It IS still fun for me when all is said and done.

* When I say "Easter" here, I mean, of course, the worldly trimmings and trappings of the holiday. I hope I am never too busy to think about the religious significance of it, something for which I am daily grateful.

The Fluff of Easter

I don't know why I still care so much about Easter clothes for the kids.* No one else at Church seems to care much about it. Still and all, it became something of an obsession for me this year. Cute (modest) dresses for girls are not easy to come by, especially if your daughter has very definite opinions, which mine happens to have. I justified my obsession by telling myself that the kids needed some new Church clothes for the summer anyway.

Lutece picked out this very lovely dress (of which I approved), and I bought her the capri tights from another online store to match. You can't see her cute new GOLD Saltwater sandals in the picture (again, she chose the color). Then I dressed up Phoenix to (kind-of) match. So cute!

p.s. Can you believe he's taller than she is now? Oh, my. This is the first year he's passed her up. Not here. Or here.

* Maybe part of me knows that this tradition isn't going to last. Let's face it, the kids are not going to want to match for much longer. This may be my last year.

A Rainbow of Eggs

So, yes, I'm finally getting around to posting about Easter. As per tradition, we dyed eggs in a rainbow of colors. Nothing fancy. Just dye and crayons.

We didn't get around to dyeing the eggs until the Saturday before Easter. The kids were still in their soccer clothes from the morning's games.

 

I boiled up 20 eggs the day before, so they each had 10 to work with.

They enjoyed collaborating though.

 

I wonder when they'll get too old to care about dyeing Easter eggs? Hopefully not for a while.

This one may still be small, but she just keeps looking older and older to me.

The Eating of the Candy

Even though the family (read: Stayc and the kids) decided to keep Easter on Sunday morning, it was very low-key this year, a tradition I've decided to keep for the future. When did Easter baskets get so out-of-hand? I confess, I have been guilty of this over the years. Instead of simply cutting down on the candy, I've felt the need to replace it with other non-edible goodies. Tsk, tsk. Shame on me.

We were very fortunate this year in that we weren't even deprived of our favorite Easter candies. My wonderful sister-in-law Annie found every single item on my candy list. The original plan was to send them with Shawn to Shanghai, but of course, Stayc ended up being able to pick up the candy himself. A HUGE thank-you to Annie!! (Who may be wondering where all the candy went, since this is less than half of what she sent. Hey, parents need Easter candy too :).

Also in the baskets this year were Easter Tic-tacs from Shalee (do I have the best sisters-in-law, or what?!), various plastic animals from a Safari toob I had shipped to Shawn and Annie's home, and books (one left over from Christmas and one e-book) . . . oh! and jelly beans from China.

Lutece, of course, woke up earlier than Phoenix. She was very good about staying quiet and letting Phoenix sleep longer. When he finally woke up, she was excited to explain his entire basket to him.

 

He was especially excited about the How to Train Your Viking book. I purchased this tiny addition to his favorite book series by Cressida Cowell from a British company, who outsourced it to a Canadian company, who outsourced it to an independent bookseller, who shipped it to China. It only took two and a half months.

 

I couldn't let Easter pass without making something for the kids . . . my favorite Easter tradition. My children seriously do not appreciate this tradition like I used to when my Mom made us something each year. I looked forward to my Mom's creations every Easter. I almost, almost let it slide this year, but I pulled off some simple origami at the last minute, just to keep up the tradition. A shameful effort, but at least it was something.

Happy Easter!

The Weaving of the Baskets

There have been no traces of Easter in China, not surprisingly. Unlike other western or religious holidays, Easter has not gained a foothold in this country, a welcome break from the commercialization that often tarnishes other holidays.

As we have done with other holidays this year, we sifted through our traditions and selected the ones that felt important to us and were worth the effort. We spent the week focusing our family scripture study on Christ's last week of life, we watched the wonderful Bible videos on the Church's web site. (Are these new? They are really well done.) We had a delightful pot-luck lunch with all of our Church friends, we dyed Easter eggs, and we decorated Easter baskets to set out for the Easter Bunny.*

It was not easy to find baskets, but the more readily accessible plastic containers just didn't feel right :). We found these small rectangular baskets from a street vendor last week. I cleaned the dust and grime off, and they were perfect, but plain.

So we bought some ribbon with which to decorate them. The kids each chose their own colors. No pastels in this house. My original idea was to let the kids weave the ribbon through the baskets themselves, but the task proved too difficult for Phoenix's fingers since the basket weave was fairly tight. Under his direction, I decorated his basket for him (left). Lutece completed most of hers by herself.

It was a fun project to work on together, and when Easter has come and gone, the kids will have a nice container for all the junky nic-nacs littering their desktop. The baskets that keep on giving.

* My friend Erin wrote an interesting post about their family's decision to divest themselves of the tradition of the Easter Bunny and celebrate the secular aspects of Easter on Saturday. We've never done the "Easter Bunny" thing, other than as a silly joke, but we've always had Easter baskets on Sunday, although I've toyed with the idea of a switch to Saturday for a couple of years now. When I suggested it to Stayc and the kids this year, they were appalled. Lutece responded, "But it's a family tradition to do baskets on Sunday. You can't just change a tradition." Well, uhm, yes I can . . . but I didn't. I think Easter baskets are a stayin' on Sunday in this family.

Free Range Easter Eggs

What with Easter around the corner, we thought it would be fun to dye some Easter eggs. We do have eggs here in China, after all. But wait . . . the eggs are brown. What to do?

As it turns out, you can find semi-white eggs here (yes, the ones above are "white") as long as you are willing to pay a premium. It's because these white eggs came from free range chickens. It cost $3.00 for 13 eggs.  Eep.

Phoenix wanted to eat an egg right away, so I cooked one of our normal brown eggs along with the white ones. You see? The other ones really are white in comparison.

One of the women from our Church group is constantly finding random items in her apartment that have been left by past BYU teachers. She occasionally gives us the odd toys and books (a foam puzzle of China's provinces, Anne of Green Gables, a wooden tangram set), and food items (taco seasoning, chili powder). Last December she found some food coloring that she passed along to me.

Did you know that all you need to color eggs is some vinegar and food coloring. Why have I been buying Paas egg-dying kits all these years? I hang my head in domestic shame. Now I know better.
 

The kids had a blast dyeing eggs. It just never gets old.

I brought out the watercolors so they could paint the eggs as well (just trying new things, you know?), but they seemed content with the colored vinegar.

So I painted an egg.

After I stepped away from the table, they must have gotten the watercolor bug. When I came out of my room a bit later, the eggs were decidedly different than when I'd left.

Why is it so fun to paint round objects? Rocks are the best, but eggs are a close second.

The best part? They've already eaten four of them!

Reminiscing Monday

Last week Lutece asked me about past Easters. She wanted to know if I had pictures from when she was a baby. Of course!!

It got me thinking that perhaps I should post some of those pictures on the blog. The hard part is, where do you stop? There are so many cute pictures of the kids from before I started this blog. Here, at least, is one picture from each of the Easters in Lutece's (and Phoenix's) life before blogging.

Easter, 2004 (Lutece is 7 months old)

Easter, 2005 (Lutece is 19 months old)

Easter, 2006 (Phoenix comes into the picture! He is 7 months old, Lutece is 2 1/2 years old.)

Oh, my! What a chub, chubaroo he was!