Easter Sunday

This Easter was a joyful time with 2 of my siblings...That afternoon we went to the Newlywed's place in Sugarland (and yes, they are doing very well! :) ) My sister, Anna, and her husband Ben and four kids came over too. (they are doing a medical rotation here for a month) Andrew and Shayna hosted all of us. First, it started out with an Easter egg hunt in the apartment coordinated by Andrew and Shayna. It took the kids a few minutes to pick up on what to do (Alex, the oldest, learned he had more subtle hiding places than the rest) Dear Jane (the baby--two in June--) never did figure out what to do so Emily (four in June) had to help her find her eggs. Jane, of course, was happy to sample the treats in her eggs however!

Next, we adjourned outside for a bbq lunch of grilled hotdogs, the toppings, fries, yummy spinach salad (thanks, Shayna, for a tasty new recipe), gelatin salad, and drinks. Below, Jane pauses from a bite after eating half the gelatin salad herself! :) This view is the same one as from Andrew and Shayna's second floor apt. Just gorgeous!!! (waterfall, pool, marina and tropical landscaping) The kids did swim (although Alex was too smart to go in more than briefly at the beginning). Fritz and Emily came out of the water with blue lips! Next, the Easter weather, turned cold from the day before, brought us back inside to the warmth of the cozy apartment. The kids donned plastic bag aprons and prepared to dye Easter eggs. Even Jane had to wear her "bag" dress, despite being too young to take part in they dying process. But, first, the Brown siblings (sorry, Andrew and Anna, I sat this one out), perform surgery on the eggs to dye them the "proper" way...while the Brown-in-laws look on with wonder and consternation.

Directions for dying Easter eggs the "proper" way:
1. Gently prick a hole in both ends of the egg.
2. Enlarge the hole as necessary (if you are a novice, you will find it easier the larger the hole) and stir the egg yolk to break it for further ease.
3. Blow the yolk and white out of the egg into a waiting bowl.
4. Keep blowing until you hear a spitting sound and all yolk and white is out.
5. Rinse the egg under running water and blow again to get out all water/yolk mix residue.
6. Dye the egg as you would a hard-boiled egg (only you can carefully wrap, pack up, and keep from year to year since all the egg is gone!!!)
7. Use the remaining egg yolk and white to make scrambled eggs.

This is more work, but so worth it when year after year you can display with the eggs from last year and add to the collection! And then, it was time to actually dye the eggs...Thank you Uncle Andrew and Aunt Shayna for your help. My what lovely GREEN hands you have, Emily! While they waited for the eggs to dry, they ate more candy and I took a few more pictures. They even tried their hand at a few pictures (Emily was the natural). This one was taken by Emily. And this one was taken by Fritz. The eggs finally dried and the Wilson clan packed up their bags and eggs and headed back home. The Browns and the Weylers visited a bit longer and then shoved off to bed for an early day the next day.