Birthdays, Easter Eggs, Dinosaur Museum Gnomes

Six dozen large eggs (on sale for 98 cents each). Two large pots of boiling water. Nine tablets of egg dye in vinegar water. Seven people. Masking tape, rubber bands, and scissors. Two and a half hours. Thursday night. Voila!


On Monday we celebrated Pengbo's lunar birthday because she will be gone on her actual birthday with the school choir (they are headed to Disneyland...wish I was going!). We did all of the usual birthday fun: streamers and balloons put up everywhere O. and his best friend could think of or reach; birthday cake and ice cream; yummy food for dinner (I made Thai food); and singing and presents. Here's the cake. And it just goes to show that I'm no Lauri! And while I had ambitions to try fondant, I just ran out of time.


And here's the birthday girl. We got her some fun piano music (Scott Joplin, Harry Potter V, Pink Panther theme), a book, and a pretty leather bracelet. My parents got her a 5 Browns CD. She was thrilled.


And I just have to say that going to the Dinosaur Museum with fourth graders is quite a wild event, especially when one's van is filled with five fourth grade boys. They travelled reasonably calmly in the car there and back, and we had a good picnic lunch in the balconey gallery...I was impressed to see how well these kids cleaned up after themselves. Going around the museum ended up being crazy, though. I told the boys there were 13 gnomes hidden throughout the museum, some painted and some actual figures, they could look for. I was feeling omniscient, important even, because I've been through the museum many times now and knew where all 13 gnomes were. Well, I realized quickly that I only knew where the painted gnomes are. The museum staff has changed some of the exhibits' contents, and not only that, they REARRANGED all of the figures! Ack! However, trying to keep track of my five busy charges meant that I didn't have time to carefully look for the figures. I did find three of them for sure, and had to take the boys' word on a fourth one, but in the end I had to settle for pointing out the painted ones. They're pretty tricky to find. And in a flash of serendipity, I bumped into a former ballroom tour team mate I hadn't seen in years. She was at the museum with a group of Cub Scouts, and she walked up to me in the erosion table room. We had a fun chat before moving along with our wild ones. Anyway, now I have to go back when I have more time so I can find all of the gnomes again. Dang.