Messy Easter Egg Decorating Idea And a Quitting Story

(the pictures have nothing do with the post. happy Easter!)

I'm looking forward to a weekend filled with Easter egg hunts (no rules!), melted chocolate on finger tips, and time with my family and friends. This week was rough. I quit my job and my teaching assignment at church. I'm ready to talk about my teaching assignment. Here's what happened (and more pictures of our eggs) . . .

The Satisficer's Way to Cross the Brooklyn Bridge

Thank you so much for your encouragement yesterday. I'll very carefully post more details about my decision to move on from Elizabeth Street soon. 

this picture of the ny skyline will suffice

So many times I try to maximize my experience in NYC that I over complicate things unnecessarily. Take the Brooklyn Bridge. The best way to walk across the Brooklyn Bridge is start in Brooklyn and walk into Manhattan (check out my post here- the boys were tiny.). The view is unreal, but it takes longer. By the end, my kids are always exhausted--even with scooters. Regardless, it's usually the only way I take people when they are visiting. It's the best.

But one of the nights my sister was visiting, it was getting late and I wanted to do something very NYC!NYC!NYC! before the day was over. So we took the 2/3 train to Chambers St. and walked east until we hit the Manhattan entrance to the Brooklyn Bridge. We walked half way across towards Brooklyn and turned around. We still got a great view of the city without exhausting the kids.

I was hoping to catch the Wafels and Dinges Truck when we walked back into Manhattan, but it closed as we were picking out key chain souvenirs. So we ate at a Baskin Robbins/Dunkin Donuts combo restaurant. We all made our orderes, with Owen stealing the show with his chocolate chip mint ice cream with gummy bears. Not exactly a quintessential NYC experience, but who's to say it isn't? Any satisficer would say it was an amazing evening. And I really couldn't disagree with them.

Gloomy Easter Egg Decorating Ideas

If Easter eggs were a personality test, my eggs would say: 

1. Beware. Be very aware! Don't mess with me until the weather gets better. At least 70 degrees. 

2. I quit my job at Elizabeth Street. Feeling conflicted about the decision.

3. At Easter time, Christian's celebrate the resurrection. I'm ready to resurrect this blog. Let's face it, it's been dead for a few weeks/months. Here's to rebirth! 

What do your Easter eggs say about you?! 

More Easter egg decorating ideas from my cheerful past: 

Melted Crayon Shaving Easter Eggs 

Super Dye Easter Eggs 

and (just added) 

Splatter Paint Easter Eggs

Healthy Salad Idea: Green Goddess Salad

While discussing meal ideas, my friend Kendra Smoot suggested a Green Goddess salad. I asked her what's in it and she said, "Anything green!" Sounded easy enough, so I headed to the grocery store and bought greens—and only greens. I had fun narrowing down my choices by color. After a while, I had to edit my basket down--out went the celery, green peppers, and sprouts. Maybe next time. I haven't tested it out on the kids, but they will probably hate it. Every time I give Oscar a salad, he strongly reminds me he's a meat eater. What's your favorite dressing? I tried this salad with Annie's Green Garlic dressing and thought it was awful. I know with the right dressing this salad could be stellar.

yellow broccoli for the win. 

When to Hire a Good Babysitter: 3 Things I love about Amanda Marcum

I love finding any way to relate to a Maxim cover model . . .
3 things I love about the clip of Amanda Marcum watching her husband's huge game at the NCAA Championships:
1. The look she gives her son 33 seconds into the video.
2. The girl behind Marcum's family trying to ignore the disaster taking place below her.
3. The fact that Marcum's taking it on all by herself. How many times have you gone into an event alone saying, "Oh this will be fun for the kids to see!" And then regret it? I hope she hires a good babysitter for Sunday's game. Because if there's a few with her off camera, they are doing a horrible job!

Good luck to FGCU (my neck of woods)

Cupcake Decorating for Easter AKA I'm back and ready to celebrate the only way I know how (with frosting).

she's decorating a cupcake that just fell on the floor. 

My sister taught me the art of cupcake decorating last week. She took me to the store, told me everything I needed to buy and the next day gave me an amazing two hour lesson. I can't tell you how excited I am to be the owner of enough cake supplies to open a bakery. All my dreams of creating an Amy Steven's cake are finally going to come true. I say if you're even the slightest bit curious about decorating cupcakes, buy this cake decorating set, white frosting, white cake mix, and go at it. You'll figure it out with trial and error. As I watched my kids, I realized your can't mess this up. When all the cupcakes are put on the plate, it comes together nicely in a messy way.

But first: My sister taught me the secret to turning regular grocery store frosting into decorating frosting. All you need to do dump all the icing into a mixing bowl and slowly stir in powdered sugar until it stiffens up slightly by forming peeks. About a 2/3 cup per a regular 16-ounce container of frosting.

We spent a lot of time touring the city last week, but this domestic activity was one of my favorites.

i swear i bathe my kids. 

Owen modeling perfect technique.

always always poke your finger in the cupcake to test for freshness. 

More posts about my love for cake: Ella's three layer birthday cake, Rob's ombre cake fail, a Christmas cupcake fail, and a Mardi Gras cupcake fail.

more pictures of the final results after the jump . . .

5 Tips for Taking Your Son to the Ballet

I've always wanted to attend a performance by the NYC Ballet. I've walked past the theatre in Lincoln Center numerous times and daydreamed about one day seeing it for myself. It was a splurge I kept putting off. But then I got an idea. What if I pitched the idea to Elizabeth Street as a story? Perhaps writing about my experience of taking Oscar to the ballet? They loved when I wrote about the time I took Ella to the opera, maybe they would give me another opportunity? I was stoked when they said yes! Here's me and Oscar minutes before we left for one of NYC Ballet's final performances of Sleeping Beauty. It was a date we will never forget, not a perfect date (I have one major regret), but a memorable one! Read my 5 tips to taking boys to the ballet here. 

After the performance. Such a jaded NYorker already. 

Weight Gain is a Bitch/Feeling Husky/Eating Alone, Check.

I've gained some weight since Christmas, but I'm still squeezing into all my clothes. It ain't pretty. I decided to do something about it. As a desperate cry for help, I reconnected with my health coach with this simple plea, "I feel awful and want to hide." I bought these deli roses for myself on the way home to cheer me up. Here's to rose colored glasses and all that jazz.

Kid Crafting Ideas Inspired from Literature

here's the gang reading Show Way. Looks like somebody need to get their eyes checked. 

Last month I created a simple project for Elizabeth Street inspired by the Newbery Honor book Show Way. Have you read it? We love it! Read more about the paper quilt here. Outtake pictures below. I love when kids take crafting seriously.

Above is their finished product. It's NOT the one I featured as the finished product here on Elizabeth Street. haha.