OVO-Delic...

A side of Saturn in our kitchen?
Mad Scientists Dalee & Zozie experimented with colors and eggs this afternoon.  Single colors were combined into a primordial soup of chroma.  You can get some pretty funky results with this fun activity!

Back to "Old School" egg coloring for Easter.
No plastic shells, no candy.  Just a coloring kit and a dozen eggs.  It's such a versatile medium, the egg never stops to amaze me...or Zozie.  We've done several fun OVO Presentations, and are always ready to discover more.  Dalee not only created the beautiful eggs, he also created the beautiful photos below...

Chinese + Egg Hunts?
Growing up, it always grossed out my Chinese immigrant parents when I would insist on coloring real eggs and hiding them for a hunt in the back yard.
You may ask...What's wrong with that?
Well, it just didn't make any sense to them that you would boil perfectly good eggs, dunk them in really artificial coloring, throw them into the dirt, then pick them up again, just to peel and eat them.  All the while, the eggs were not refrigerated and could be out all day.  It just wasn't appetizing to them.

But, C'mon...
all this coming from people who enjoy "Century Egg" or Pídàn (皮蛋).  
Also known as perserved egg, hundred-year egg, thousand-year egg, and millennium egg.
Ok, just by the name, you get that the eggs are probably left out for a REALLY LONG TIME.  This is a Chinese delicacy made by preserving duck, chicken, or quail eggs in a mixture of clay, ash, salt, lime, and rice hulls for several weeks to months.  Result?  A dark green grey yolk smelling of sulphur and ammonia, while the egg white becomes a dark translucent brown jelly....yum...wait...yum???

As for us, at the end of the day, it was great to see Zozie so excited just to peel and eat an egg that he colored.  We skipped the "tossing it in the dirt part".  Guess the Chinese thing did rub off on me alittle.  And I guess I do also enjoy the flavors of the Bizillion-Year-Egg, jelly yolk and all.  Either way, eating the egg WAS the prize, for me and Zozie.  Now that's a sweet reward inside a shell...with alittle extra protein.

 

artist at work.

my prize!

Final Atlantis.

The last mission in NASA's space shuttle program is now complete.

Atlantis rocketed into orbit on July 8th, 2011

It returned today ...

I remember watching the 1986 Challenger launch in my elementary school.  TV's were rolled into our classroom for the special screening.  68 Seconds into the launch, an explosion occurs. GASP.  Confused but knowing something went terribly wrong, our teachers rushed to turn the screen off and quickly wheeled the TV boxes away in hushed tones...That mixture of sheer excitement and utter disbelief can still be tasted as soon as I heard that Atlantis took to the skies a week or so ago.

We took the opportunity to make a "Space Lesson" out of this historic event for Zozie.  The evening began with a special viewing of the final Atlantis launch on You Tube (see below).  We brought out the blow-up space shuttle and the random astronaut figure that previously had no real purpose. 
We then busted out our Planets Table Puzzle that shows earth...
"That's my home, that one.  Errfff." says Zo.

After bathtime, we concluded "Space Day" with a reading of one of his old favorites:

This is the end of an era.  
We are pleased that we could share this historic milestone with Zozie, whether he fully comprehends it or not.
Through tragedies and triumphs, we are now looking to see how our future exploration of the universe around us evolves. 
Welcome home Atlantis, for the last time.

For the launch:

Baby Jars

Want to know how to make nifty kids crafts at home....on the cheap?
Leah, a mommy friend of mine, started a craft blog featuring her 2 adorable kids as the stars!

Still have extra baby food jars laying around the house?  We gave her a bunch and she's doing great with em'.
http://andrewandisabella.com/2010/11/baby-food-jars/

Holiday ornaments?  Paper crafts?  Fun fun blog..., and don't forget her "Andrew Says" section. 
Priceless.

Gobble Gobble.

 A recipe for Happy

1)  a few sheets of paper

2)  a couple of staples

3)  a pair of googlie-eyes (mis-matched)

4)  a tracing of hands, cut out, attach as "wings"

voila.

Funny...how a funny paper hat is the COOLEST thing to a 2 year old.

Grateful for the simple things in life.

We give Thanks this year.

From our own Native Turkey Whisperer...

A "Mickey" Cake!

Today is cake day.

Actually...it's "Turn a Book into a Project" DAY!

For classwork, we wanted to do a project based on the theme of a current book we are reading.

One of Zozie's favorite books....

In The Night Kitchen 

by Maurice Sendak.

It's a fantastic story about a little boy named "Mickey" who falls into some cake batter and gets baked into the big cake by three GOOFY bakers...

Meet our own "Goofy" baker.

We started by gathering the ingredients.

Then, we got to work.

Stir it, Scrape it, Make it, EAT it....hey, wait a minute.

Zozie helped measure the milk, mixed, and scooped batter.
He also really liked his "Baker's Apron."
After popping the batch into the oven, Zozie wanted to finish our project by "acting out" his favorite page.

No, I don't think so.

Not at the dining table.

Enjoy the little baker hard at work below...*Smiles*
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