How NOT to chop jelly beans

First I tried chopping jelly beans with my chef's knife, the way I would if I were chopping nuts.  Not so successful.  Jelly beans kept ending up on the floor, the sink, the stove, or hitting me.

Second, I tried using my food chopper.  Even less successful at chopping the beans but really good at crushing the candy coating on the outside.

Third, I went back to my chef's knife (because I didn't want to get another set of dishes dirty to try the food processor or the blender) and basically cut each bean individually.  Successful but time consuming and oh, so slow!

Why was I trying to chop jelly beans?  Well of course the answer is to add them to cookies.  I had seen a recipe on Pinterest for jelly bean cookies.  The lady that made them said they were great and that she loved having them when she was pregnant.  She also said that they were colorful and festive and fun for the kids.  Well.... this pregnant lady did not find the cookies very good.  They were colorful and festive and fun for the kids.  Let's just say that betweeen the chopping of jelly beans and the tasting of the cookie, that recipe will not be repeated ever.

Today, Saturday, was our annual Family Easter Egg Decorating and Hunting party.  Every year since we moved into a house we have done this party.  Usually we dye hard boiled eggs outside and leave them for the Easter Bunny (read: any husbands in attendance) to hide while the kids do an Easter craft.

Two years ago our craft was to make these super cute bunny masks from paper plates (by far my favorite craft.).  Last year we had foam shapes and stickers for decorating Easter designs on Eggs and bunnies.  Good, not much prep and lots of glitter all over the house.  This year David requested a coloring contest.  Brilliant idea!  I covered the table with craft paper, put out the colors and a bin of stickers/foam shapes and let the kids create.  I loved this!

The kids came up with some wonderful pictures or could just scribble on the table.  I particularly liked Shelby's Easter Eggs (I forgot to get pictures of everything) but David chose her brother Jakob as the winner for his Easter Bunny drawing.

Due to chilly temperatures/missing husband this year I had to modify our party a bit.  The dyeing occurred in the kitchen as 3-4 kids would color their eggs at a time.  The remaining children hung out in the living room either drawing their pictures or playing with the train table.  While the kids were busy I found one unsuspecting husband (thanks Jeremie) to hide the plastic eggs in the backyard.  When the eggs were all dyed I kicked the kids out to find three plastic eggs each.  It didn't take long for all the eggs to be found.  Once back inside the kids were allowed to add stickers to their eggs and eat snacks.  Our snacks were vegetables and dip and the infamous jelly bean cookies.

All in all I would say that we had another successful Easter Egg party.  It was a good start to our spring break festivities.  I have to say that I really like some of my modifications and they may just stick around.  First, I really like having everyone bring their own eggs to decorate.  This means that I don't have to have a head count of how many people are coming and I don't hear complaints about not having more eggs to color.  Second, I really like that only the plastic eggs were hid this year instead of the colored eggs.  No one went home sad because their egg was taken by someone else or that their egg got stepped on and no one was sad that we couldn't find their egg before going home.  Everyone took all their eggs home, decorated with colors and stickers.  Everyone got to have yummy snacks.  Everyone got to visit and have fun even though we were stuck indoors for a majority of the party this time.

I like being able to hold this party for my boys and they really look forward to it.  I had originally decided not to worry about it this year with Dustin being gone.  The more I thought about it though, I realized that we can't put our lives on hold just because Dustin is gone for a time.  There will be other times throughout his Army career that he will be gone and the rest of us aren't to just be in limbo until he returns.  If we did that we would have a very boring life that would end up with many regrets, the kids would miss out on many opportunities to develop friendships, serve and explore.  I learned an important lesson with this party - to keep on keeping on, it's good to learn this at the beginning of his career.  I am glad that I did the party and it was nice to have other adults in the house.  Here's hoping for many more Family Easter Egg Decorating and Hunting parties and warmer party days!