Easter, Part 1: Dying Eggs

I don't know if you've noticed or not, but my blog posts have dropped off dramatically.  I think going out of town every weekend this month might have something to do with that.  Life has been so full, I feel like there's barely been time to catch my breath and I really hope things change soon, but the next couple of weeks' calendar indicate otherwise...

To get my 'average' back up (and organize my images a bit), I'm going to share pictures over a few different posts from this last weekend in Ohio.  Given our experience during the period between Thanksgiving and Christmas where Ellie basically only visited school in bodily form (and was visiting her grandparents' homes over Christmas in her mind), we thought it best to not let her know about our upcoming Easter trip to Nonna and PaPa's.  I think it worked, however when we told her the day of our departure we had a big surprise -- that we were going on a trip she got REALLY excited and with her big, big eyes wide asked in a near whisper, "Are we going to an AIRPORT???"  

Thankfully, a four-hour trip in the mini-van wasn't a let down because she was excited to be seeing her grandparents and all that it entailed.

The first order of business on Friday morning was dying Easter eggs.  Ellie was all business and pretty independent in this task.  She did great.  It was Reni's first Easter egg coloring and I'm so glad he has some "firsts" still remaining -- this first year with him is already 3/4 over!

Here Reni and Aunt Rebecca are trying to put on rubber bands, to make our eggs a bit more interesting.  And yes, we just sat Reni on top of the table.  It's really so much easier.  I hope we're not creating any bad habits and going to regret this down the road because we do this a lot...

Note above how Reni has to have an egg in each hand.  He's like this with almost anything... eggs, toy cars, candy, etc.

I'm not remembering this moment very well, but I think Ellie's asking Reni where his eggs went (answer: into the murky waters of the dye)

I think Rebecca was trying to convince Reni to drop his two precious eggs into the dye -- that it is SO much more interesting to have a pastel colored egg than plain ol' every-day white.

Ellie mastered this complicated kitchen gadget quickly and we had a lot fewer drips.  Always a good thing to have fewer drips when you're allowing children to play with dye.

In case you had any doubts as to the whereabouts of the finished product...