Easter egg hunt

On Easter afternoon we held an Easter egg hunt at a local park. We had an egg hunt here last year too. It is a really nice place. There are lots of flowers, trees, and quiet paths. It is a perfect place to have an egg hunt.



While Jon and some others went to hide the eggs, the kids ate cupcakes and brownies (made by Josh).

Everyone loves cupcakes!

Then the kids went hunting....

We hid about 50 eggs. Some were real, and some were plastic. There were 8 kids hunting, so it did not take very long.

After all the eggs were found, the kids ate some eggs, candy and more cupcakes. Then they played while the grown ups chatted. The weather was wonderful and the fellowship was even better. This is a tradition we will try to continue the whole time we are in China.

grilling out

Barbecue grills are becoming more popular in China, but they are pretty expensive and usually not very sturdy. Jon decided that he could make his own . And it would not really take up that much space. He took a flower pot and added some charcoal. The charcoal here is made from chunks of wood. The briquettes in the US are made from charred compressed sawdust. They work about the same.


On top of the pot, he added a grill...


Then we had to find something to grill...

These look like hot dogs, but the taste is far from Oscar Myer! I smothered mine in mustard but could really only choke down one. The kids loved theirs. Jon said the big one in the middle tasted like spam. Hmmm.... grilled spam on a stick.

Since we have no back yard (we live on the 4th floor), we sat around the "grill" on our balcony. This is where we usually hang our laundry to dry.

After we finished the "hot dogs" We toasted marshmallows and had s'mores. Well, sorta. We did not have any graham crackers, so we used digestives (a kind of cookie a lot like graham crackers). The chocolate was a little too thick, but they were still pretty yummy.

We have to be creative and substitute here, but we still can have a taste of home (almost).

Dying the eggs

I thought we might be too busy Saturday night, so we colored our eggs Friday evening. We covered the table with newspaper and got to work. The girls just had on their long johns because if they got stained it wouldn't matter.

We used two different coloring kits this year.

This was the traditional egg coloring kit.

This is one of those things that the kids look forward to every year!

It is a lot of fun to see the colors.
It seems that the colors are much brighter now than they were when I was a kid.

We colored the second set of eggs with a "tie dying" kit.

You add drops of liquid dye to the egg and you kinda smoosh it around on the egg. You hold the egg in a plastic bag and use the bag to smoosh the colors around. The bag is supposed to protect you fingers from getting too stained....

It doesn't really work!

But the eggs turned out great! We colored a total of 35 eggs.

making cupcakes

Maybe I mentioned that Hallie has a new friend...
Bliss and her sister, Carissa were both born in the US. They moved to China this past summer. Although, she speaks Chinese she does not read or write it very well, so going to Chinese school would be very difficult. Bliss goes to the International school. Since they have met, Bliss and Hallie have spent every Saturday (and any other chance they get) together playing, talking, and giggling.

This past weekend , I invited her and her sister over to help decorate some cupcakes for Easter. I put out bowls of colored icing and sprinkles and let them decorate! It took the girls about 10 minutes to ice and decorate 24 cupcakes.





Carissa said she wanted to eat a cupcake, so, when they finished, I let them. Then she said, " I want to eat two cupcakes." I sent them home with a few.
I think they had an enjoyable afternoon.

Ever since we met this family, Hallie has been praying for them. She asks that we will say the right things and that God will open their hearts. We know that they attended a Chinese church in the States but do not go here in China. Jane (the mom) asked if we go to church. Maybe they are looking. Will you join Hallie in praying for this family?