Coloring eggs

It's Easter time...tradition dictates it's time for coloring Easter eggs. Well, Easter was last Sunday, so I'm a touch behind on these posts.

I can fondly remember dying our eggs when little. Some times we did this with plastic sleeves that shrank around the eggs, some times it was the vinegar dye, some times it was some wacky kit with wax pencils and glitter. I also remember my Grandma Elsie hard boiling TONS of eggs for all of us kids to color in her kitchen. She would use the big roasting pan to fit all the eggs. And of course there were cookies after for munching down.

Since neither Brian nor I really like hard boiled eggs, I decided to blow out raw eggs instead of going the traditional route. We then used the egg guts for french toast and pancakes. At the time I did this last week, we only had 7 eggs in the house. Then the clean, dry, hollow WHITE eggs, sat on our table for days...


At the last minute, the night before Sunday, we decided to finally dye them. I had Brian buy a kit on his last grocery trip...but I totally left it up to him what type to purchase. He came home with one that used dye that had the consistency of gel, rather than the liquid/vinegar dye. The box tooted that it was "no mess" and "beautiful eggs in seconds." Sounds like a great kit to use with a toddler who is ALL MESS.

I tried it on two eggs...can you guess which two in the photo below? It was easy, and the eggs came out rather pretty with a shimmery quality.

Then Tam noticed that I was doing something cool and wanted to get involved. After a quick wrap in a vintage apron and the addition of plastic bags over the hands as toddler-size gloves, Tamlin was ready to participate.

I would drip the dye on the egg, and he would swirl it around with his hands. He chose which colors to use and when the egg was considered all done. He really liked the purple color, maybe because it was the darkest of all and spread around the easiest. His attention span lasted through five eggs...perfect.



A bunch of eggs that will display beautifully next year.

Easter & Peeps

Peep humor. . . he, he, he :-)

Peep invaders from space

Godzilla Peep


Peep show

'
Goodnight moon (peep)...from the Children's book

No wire hangers! - From "Mommy Dearest" movie

Peep pun

Peep Trek
My favorite!

What week am I again...

Each week I can't believe the wee one gets a bit bigger and causes my stomach to get a big bigger as well...

Officially, I've just reached the 35week mark with 5-6weeks to go for full incubation period. If I was living back in the 1700s and rich, I would be starting my laying-in period in a closed room with closed curtains and staying in this claustrophobic room until about 1 month after the birth. Well, that's not for me. I'm hanging in there and still teaching all my classes, including a walk or two each week identifying plants around the area with my taxonomy class.

I'm still feeling pretty good, but noticibly slowing down and becoming tired more quickly. My feet have started to swell by the evening and my back hurts almost the entire day. Indegestion is still high 'cause the little one hasn't fully dropped yet. However, weight is staying steady as is my blood pressure.

As to Baby, he's still active in the morning and nighttime (11-1am). The movements aren't as quick or frequent anymore 'cause he's running out of room, but they are still pretty strong. It is still very odd to stare at my belly and see a lump move from one side to the other :-)

The doctor appointment today went fine. She's really pleased that I'm doing so well, and doesn't foresee any problems unless my BP shoots up. I'll start my weekly appointments with her next week...every Tuesday. Hard to believe it is almost go time!

Baby Center's Comments:

How your baby's growing:

Your baby doesn't have much room to maneuver now that he's over 18 inches long and tips the scales at 5 1/4 pounds (pick up a honeydew melon). Because it's so snug in your womb, he isn't likely to be doing somersaults anymore, but the number of times he kicks should remain about the same. His kidneys are fully developed now, and his liver can process some waste products. Most of his basic physical development is now complete — he'll spend the next few weeks putting on weight.

Wordless Wednesday : Playing with Friends

We ran into our neighbor last week while both of us were outside with our boys. Collin is only one day older than Tamlin. And, to both of our surprise, Collin's mom is due again at the end of August (not too far from my May time)!

The boys had a blast running around the backyard...

2nd photo journal done!

With all these projects I want to complete, and seemingly in the middle of so many, I forced myself to stick with ONE to the end.

My choice was the project I was furthest behind on...publishing this blog alongside of family photos from the previous year. This was both easy and time-consuming. Easy because with the Blurb.com software, I just clicked a few electronic buttons and SLURP my blog entries were in journal album form. Time-consuming because I not only wanted these written blog posts, but desired adding in additional photos and comments. Add to that the plethora of page formats and arrangements. All together a wonderful time-sink project.

I had already finished Tam's birth in November of 2008 until August of 2009. We published prior to Christmas so that we could show it off to family. I love the result: the colors are vibrant, the smiles are genuine, and all the spelling errors are my own :-)

These past few months I been bent on trying to catch up. Yeah... I was trying to go from August 2009 to February, um, March, egads, APRIL 2011. I did eventually realize that this was a no go since only so many pages will fit into a book (certainly not 2 1/2 years worth). In the end, I settled for the minor goal of August 2009 to July 2010 finished, spell-checked, and published.

AND....I'm done!

300+ pages later and I'm ready to click publish! Now I'm just waiting until next pay day to justify the expense :-)

(plus I've started on the next one)

Drawing with chalk

The chalkboard was made by Brian and sits into the coffee table when it doesn't have the normal wood stained top. It has made a great toy for when we are stuck inside due to rain. More often it is used as ramp to launch toy cars instead of a chalk board.



But last night, Tam drew with the chalk all over the board, several times over. He was WAY into it. I couldn't believe that it held his attention for nearly an hour! And the majority of the time HE wanted to do the drawing and not have me draw the cars for him. With this much excitement, we may have to get some color chalk for him too :-)






According to Tam, most of these doodles are cars...some with two tires, some with more...some that are "wee-ooo" (emergency vehicles)...some that are wearing hats like daddy...some that roar like dinosaurs. It's awesome to hear such imagination :-)

After the board was filled with sketches, Tam used his trusty sleeve to wipe them away so that he could make more.


Great job, Little One!