Eggs!

Can you guess what we used to color our eggs this year? It was not something we had tried before. And at least three of them ended up looking exactly the same, so I'm not sure we'll do it again. But it was fun to try. I'm thinking of our warm, sunny NC Easter last year and missin' y'all. I doubt the chocolates will melt in the eggs around here. Hope everyone has a nice Easter.

Easter Egg Hunt

The town Easter egg hunt which was supposed to happen last Saturday while we were away was postponed until this week because the fields were too wet. Lucky us! We got to go to the park in the sunshine, hunt for eggs, meet the Easter Bunny, and play on the playground. It was finally a sunny day that wasn't freezing. Despite the wind, it did feel almost like spring could be here soon. (I mean in reality, not just the calendar).

Nature Class

Tuesday Ethan and I started attending a new class at a nature center in Monroe. We listened to a story about an egg, went on a hike that was also an egg hunt, and did two crafts. It was not very warm, but it was nice to get Ethan out in the woods.

Thomas Edison National Historical Park

We decided to break up our drive home with a stop at the Thomas Edison National Historical Park. We saw his laboratory, his library, and his machine shops as well as the first motion picture studio. We didn't have enough time to visit the house too, but we can do that another time.

Goodbye Philadelphia

Sunday morning we headed over to Redding Terminal Market for breakfast before hitting the road. We got a roast pork sandwich from DiNics, tea from the tea lady, cookies and cheese- you won't believe it but the cheese was made in Honesdale! We had to buy some. It is really good. On the way back to the hotel for check out we strolled through love park and played dominoes.

Academy of Natural Sciences

The second museum was Drexel University's Academy of Natural Sciences. As you can tell they had dinosaurs. That was enough to win approval.

The Franklin Institute

Last weekend I spoke at a conference in Philadelphia. James and Ethan came with me and spent Saturday hanging out at museums. They started with the Franklin Institute, which I have to rely on Ethan to describe since I wasn't there. Here's what he says:
"I  sat on a bone bench!
When you close the mirrors up it makes as suitcase. When it's open it makes a window.
I got to go inside a heart.
The 3D movie was about meerkats.
I pretended to drive a plane. I pretended to drive a train. There's a train and we got to go inside and drive it but not all the things turned and I liked that."

What Week is it??

On Monday morning I got an e-mail from the PTO informing me that we should have received a package of info about "Nutrition Week" and that the theme of the day was wear the color of your favorite fruit or vegetable. Ethan was already at school wearing gray by the time I got this message. It also said he could participate in their "5 a day" fruit and vegetable challenge. Since he skipped fruit at breakfast, that meant we had to get four more servings (juice can count as one) at dinner time. Somehow we made it- he had pasta with tomato sauce and broccoli, a "salad" of baby spinach and snow peas (no dressing), a pear for dessert with a box of raisins. Phew. So today was a bit easier since we started in the morning. We also found out that K-2 could be part of a poster contest so Ethan and I made this poster using paint and some fruits and vegetables. We sacrificed one banana, one potato, one orange, and half an apple for this project. We were able to use just the top of the pepper so most of that was spared. I thought adding the fruit stickers was a particularly nice touch. Besides the idea, Ethan did nearly all of it without help. I did hold the stencils so he could trace the letters w/ a pencil before painting them in. I also helped him spell the words. It was so tiring that we went to the library and relaxed with audio books when we got home.

Personally, I think this week was poorly timed- it's also American Chocolate week. Oh, don't worry- Ethan and I managed to celebrate Chocolate Caramel Day today even with all the fruit and veggie eating :)

Easter Bunny

Saturday afternoon we headed to Good Ideas so we could get Ethan some big pencils with the grippy things. While we were there we found the Easter Bunny! Ethan stopped to say hi and have his picture taken. After that, we went to check out the chocolate cafe down the street. That was something! They had gelato, chocolates, and hot chocolate. We tried them all. While I'm on the subject, I beg of you all, please do not get Ethan Easter candy. We still have a chocolate bunny from last year, not to mention Halloween candy, Christmas candy, Valentines day candy. I wish I were kidding. I'm sure the Easter Bunny will take care of more chocolate needs than he can possibly consume. Meanwhile, I think I need to melt some of this candy down into a really good batch of brownies....

Cleaning

Saturday morning we cleaned the house. Ethan got in on the action. He decided it was more fun while rocking.

Leprechauns

On Sunday the Leprechauns visited our house. They spilled the Lucky Charms and left a trail of them all the way downstairs where we discovered that they had rearranged Ethan's green Lego building, driven his green hotwheels car, left footprints on the table, and turned his puzzle upside down. (There is a picture on both sides.) We found clues like this green star on the floor with the Lucky Charms. When we got back upstairs, we discovered that they left Ethan some chocolate coins in a bag with a pipe cleaner rainbow. Later on, we went to a hockey game in Bridgeport. We determined that Ethan doesn't actually like hockey, he likes zambonis, pretzels, and popcorn. The game was boring as all get-out though, it was a 0-0 tie in the third period when we left. I don't think we'll be doing that again soon because despite the event being heavily kid-oriented, there were three fist fights on the ice. What great role models.

Spiky Potato Chip Day

I made an appointment for Ethan to get his hair cut today. This morning while he was brushing his hair, he informed me "Dontcha know Johnny and Justin style their hair?" Oh boy. Well we got to the salon after school and he told the hair dresser he wanted his hair spiky. So that's what she did. He looks so grown up! At least she didn't talk him into a mohawk. After lunch we celebrated potato chip day by sharing a mini can of pringles.

Guess What Opened Tuesday?

We didn't make it until Wednesday. The special flavor was peanut butter chocolate chunk. Yummmmmy!

Updates

So here's our snowman! We thought it looked really funny, like it's buttons were now it's eyes and the hat made a big gaping mouth so we decided to share a picture. The bottom pic is of Ethan's crystals. You can't really tell but they are sort of purple now. The food coloring we used was purple, but the initial crystals looked blue.
This morning I got to go to school with Ethan to help prepare for the pig project- I'm sure we'll be updating on that later. After school we went to the store and library. It was a pretty mucky day with lots of rain. We came home and made a spring to-do list with all the things we want to do before summer.

Snow play

Saturday morning was relatively warm so I even agreed to play in the snow. We made a great snowman, but it was so warm out that he fell over in just a few hours. Oh well, at least we got a picture. Ethan had fun rolling down the hill and doing some sledding in the back yard.