An Easter Craft

I have never made blown eggs before, but yesterday when I was looking up a chickpea salad recipe on Epicurious.com, I saw this "recipe" for robin's egg place cards.  I thought the kids and I would love to make them, so I called my crafty helper (the marvelous Miss Becky Miller) and this is how we spent our Sunday afternoon. 

The best pictures would have been of Becky and I (with occasional help from the two kiddos), blowing out 16 eggs.  That was harder than it sounds!  We were definitely all turning bright red from the effort.

These pictures are of us painting the eggs, and of the finished product. 

 Jack's ready!

 Caroline concentrating while Aunt Becky helps out. 

 Beautiful Becky.

 Jack starting on his second set of four is wearing some paint already.

 Hold your mouth right Caroline!

 The clever holders were a suggestion in the recipe, although the skewers that we had at home were too wide, so Becky and I modified them by taping toothpicks to the top with electical tape.  We thought we were pretty clever:)

 The finished product.  We won't put the rest of the names on until we get a final Easter head count, but we figured we'd be there for sure.  The speckling turned out to be harder than I thought, so I finished that after my helpers were in bed.  A fun project for sure, but probably more suited for kids a few years older. 

Next I saw a marbelized egg project on marthastewart.com when I was searching for the best way to blow eggs.  It looked a little simpler for kids, so we might try that later this week.  It's spring break around here, and today it's raining, so indoor projects are in order!  Happy Easter!

Tuesday: Becky's Birthday

Well I don't know how you like to celebrate birthdays in your family, but in our family we like to have friends over and share a meal. I think we should have been born Italian. Yesterday was Aunt Becky's birthday, and boy did we eat. She had talked to Trace earlier in the day about her favorite foods, and I think he cooked them all. At least it seemed like it halfway through the meal! For those of you who weren't there, enjoy the pictures of the party:

Jackson helping me make the cake. I had to include this picture because it is the first time Jack has been allowed to use a sharp knife, and he was concentrating so hard, and being so careful--good job Jack!

Eating the appetizer Becky requested: roasted garlic, warm Brie, carmelized onions, and a fresh baguette.

Trace, the creator of all the wonderful food, working at the barbeque. I'm pretty sure he cooked for about four hours straight, and maybe more. Thanks babe!

The first course was spinach salad with a warm poached egg on top, bacon, onion, and fresh goat cheese. The egg becomes part of the dressing, if you haven't tried it before. Becky and Tiffany definitely look ready to dig in.

Then we had roasted artichokes with a red pepper aioli in the center.

After that . . . well after that came the big lull. We hadn't even had the main meal yet, but no one was very hungry, since we'd had three courses already. So while Trace barbequed the meat and I worked on the cake, the rest of the guests rested. Some literally . . . I'm pretty sure Andrew fell asleep. Then we gathered around the table again for the finale: grilled air-chilled chicken, T-bone steaks, grilled mixed vegetables, and fresh corn with roasted poblano chiles.

Finally it was time for dessert. It was a modified strawberry shortcake, made with vanilla cake, strawberries, and whipped cream. Yum.

The candles are significant, because if you read the small print, it's a 24 pack. That means that Becky, on her 25th birthday, is a two pack girl. Of candles that is.

Perhaps the funniest moment of the evening came as we were all giving hugs to Becky as she and Tiffany and Tracy gathered their stuff to go home. I looked for Jackson and Caroline to have them say goodbye too, and was I surprised when I saw them on the counter (not more than two feet away--I just wasn't paying attention), putting candles back in the remains of the cake. Any that they accidentally put in upside down they were licking the whip cream off and trying again. I grabbed the video camera and took a quick video of their shenanigans. In case you're wondering, they used all the candles they could find, and the quarter of the cake ended up with 43 candles in it. Who knew you could fit so many in a cake?

Happy Birthday Becky!