EGGSTRA HAPPY EASTER!

I've been crafting again! I got a cool idea off of Pinterest to share our news during Easter with my family: A message inside of an egg!  The timing was great as Easter marked the end of my first trimester, where chances of miscarriage drop significantly.  This was such a fun project and pretty simple too!  I used regular white store bought eggs for my project.  I made a hole at the top of the egg with a push pin, and used the same push pin to make a larger hole at the bottom.  I made the larger hole about the size of an average blueberry (...haha here I am comparing everything to fruits now that I compare my baby to them each week!)  After you make the holes, I  used the sharp end of the safety pin to break up the egg yolk inside, from the bottom hole. Then I turned the egg around and put a straw (i cut in half so it would be easier to work with) and covered the small hole at the top of the egg with it.  Then, I blew into the straw, over the sink.  The yolk and the whites of the egg came out easily! After this you fill the egg (through the larger hole) with water and hand and a dab of soap, cover both holes, shake the egg to clean the inside and blow out the water and soap.  Then you let the egg dry overnight. After the egg is dry, you dye the egg (food coloring and vinegar). An egg that is hollow will float so you'll need something to hold the egg down...I used shish kabob skewers.  I had the eggs dry by flipping over a strainer and sticking the shish kabob stick in it, and the egg sat on the top of the stick. After they were dry, I decorated them with glitter glue.  I just put patterned dots all over them and had them dry over night.  I wrote my family's name on the bottom of each egg...because each message that I put inside was different.  The messages were made by using ribbon and small letter stamps that I had.  I fed the ribbon through the big hole, without rolling it up like I tried to do in the first place...then it wouldn't fit through the hole. I learned that if you don't roll the ribbon and just feed it into the egg as is, it will stay nicely.  I then put little homemade scrapbook paper confetti hearts in the egg as well.  I didn't

cover the larger hole with anything because everything seemed to be staying inside the egg on it's own. I put birds nest grass inside of a small clementine crate, popped a stuffed animal bunny on top of it and surrounded the bunny with the eggs I made along with mini plastic eggs (with nothing inside...just for decoration and to fill in the space). After dinner Easter Eve I asked my family to come sit at the table because "I made something cool for them for Easter." I told them that they each need a napkin because things might get a little messy. You could tell they were confused and not really sure what I was going to ask them to do. Each person picked an egg, read the name written at the bottom and gave it to the person it belonged to. I told them that on the count of three they all need to crack the egg at the same time. My brother (7th grade) said "Crack it? Well, how hard should I crack it?" lol I told him he could make that decision and he got a smirk on his face. My mom looked like she was ready to "win" this challenge...whatever it was. lol. She was READY! 1......... 2.......... 3......... SMACK. Everyone is looking at the pieces, my mom says "oh what are these? and starts picking at the confetti, while there is a huge ribbon message in front of her. I see my sister's eyes and mouth get really big, but she keeps quiet. both brothers don't say anything, they just stare at it. My step dad said "oh jeez, haha" and then my mom finally gets the clue, she reads her message and starts jumping for joy with a huge smile on her face...she ran and gave me a hug...then my sister, they they both hugged Will. The boys just sat there lol.  It went over well!  I mailed some eggs to my Dad's family, we were going to try and stop by on Saturday for lunch but he called me Friday and said I shouldn't stop by because everyone was sick.  I ended up sharing the news with him on the phone and told him I'd mail an Easter package to him.  I also mailed one to my best friend Tiffany, who lives in Boston. 

Here's how the weekend started:

Saturday morning before we headed to Detroit, Will talked me into kayaking the Kalamazoo River. So, we woke up before 7AM on Saturday and headed out!  It was 22 degrees that morning, but was so beautiful.  One hour into our adventure, half way, I didn't prevent hitting a tree in the river so well and ended up parallel with it.  I tried to use my paddle to push me away from the tree, but that along with a strong current ended up tipping my kayak and I fell in!  SHOCKingly cold...I could barely catch my breath!  But, my hero rescued me. My warm layers were soaked and my iPhone has water damage.  Luckily it sill works...but for how long is the question...  Too bad the insurance I pay each month covers anything but water damage.  UGH!  At least I still have it and it's not at the bottom of the Kzoo river I guess!  Will got me to the shore, I hung on to his boat and kicked and he paddled. I had to climb a mountain it seemed like into this thick woods but got up and will said STRIP...and threw me a spare set of long johns and warm socks he packed (thank God!).  While I'm doing this Will is fetching my kayak by himself, trying to flip it back over while he's in his kayak and get both kayaks and himself to shore. He had a blanket he wrapped my shivvvvvering body in and got me into an open sunny field so I could warm up. I'm glad there was sun and it was just beginning to warm up.  Will took off anything he could donate to me from his layers and I warmed up fast. He took the inserts out of his boots so I could wear them for replacement boots. Everything was just soaked. We kayaked another hour to get to the truck...the 2 hour trip turned into 3.  I was exhausted but Will let me sleep on the ride down to Detroit. Here are some awesome pics of BEFORE I fell in: