Easter

Well, I am really behind on my blog.  It is now June 7th and I am finally writing about Easter.  There were many things that happened for Easter here.  It was amazing to see another holiday in Brazil.  We are so lucky because we got to enjoy our familiar traditions and learn some new ones.

We love to dye easter eggs, which is not done in Brazil.  Luckily, an easter egg coloring packet is not required to color easter eggs.  Some food coloring and vinegar actually worked better than the coloring packets I used to buy.  Here are the boys dying eggs.  They had so much fun, and loved a decorating trick that my mom taught me.  We wrote on the eggs with a white crayon before putting them in the dye.  I think Isaac made an egg for everyone in our whole extended family with their name on it.  Oh, another note, I had not seen a white egg here until just a few weeks before Easter.  Now I can find them quite often.  I was glad to have some for coloring eggs.

Traci got to color eggs with us over Skype.  We always talk with her on Friday mornings.  She is always a good sport about helping the boys with things.  We had fun having her with us for egg coloring and joking about her being on the computer.

This city put up a really cool little Easter Village.  It was really cute with big stuffed bunnies and chocolate.  It looked like a Christmas Village, only for Easter.  I feel like Christmas is a little less commercialized and emphasized here, and other holidays get more emphasis.  I like it.

The boys and I in the Easter Village.

Scott and the boys in a giant easter egg by some giant chickens.

Easter wreaths hung all around city hall and the town plaza.

Oh look!  The Easter Bunny came!  The boys made quite a haul.  One of the traditional presents in Brazil is a giant chocolate easter egg.  The boys each got one all wrapped up in pretty paper and each one came with a different colored cup.  They boys love their cups and use them for at least one meal per day.

Notice the Easter basket.  Since we could only bring a certain amount of things we could not bring things like Easter baskets.  We have been able to recycle food packaging into lots of useful items.  The most useful items are the plastic ice cream boxes here.  They make great little storage boxes, and we even made them into easter baskets for the boys.  Fortunately, we have an abundance of empty ice cream boxes.

Ethan is showing off some chocolate that he is ready to eat.  Lots of chocolate here in Brazil.  The boys also got puzzles and giz, chalk.

After church, Isaac discovered an easter egg hidden in the front yard.  Then the boys were off finding eggs.  It was a beautiful day!

Again, large empty yogurt cartons make great easter egg holding cups.  Looks like Ethan found a lot!

Owen did not really know what was going on, but he had fun running around the yard.

Ethan and I showing off a Brazilian Easter Egg.  They are real egg shells with a big hole in the bottom and candy inside.  A little glued on paper cup covers the hole in the bottom.

We heard the tradition was to crack the easter eggs on your head.  Scott was the first to give it a try with the encouragement of the rest of the family.   All the boys cracked all the eggs on their head and then danced on the shells.

Here they are crushing the eggs really well.  What a mess!  It was very fun and only took a minute to sweep up.

We had another American family and a German over to celebrate Easter with us.  It happened to be Ella's birthday on Easter, so I made her a birthday cake, from scratch banana cake.  I am getting better at my cakes from scratch.  Learning all kinds here in Brazil!