I've mentioned our enjoyment of books by Beverly Cleary before, and the one currently in our house is no exception: Ramona Quimby, Age 8. I'll just have to quote her. " There were a number of ways of cracking eggs. The most popular, and the real reason for bringing an egg to school, was knocking the egg against one's head. There were two ways of doing so, by a lot of timid little raps or by one big whack." (The part that comes next is worth tears of laughter, but I don't dare spoil it for you. Get thee to a local library!)
I read this aloud to both boys the day we were dyeing eggs for Easter. They were, of course, rolling with laughter, as was I. And how could I not say that they'd be able to try it with our own eggs after Easter? Of course I suggested it! I predicted Bug to be a whacker (as would most people) and that Pook would probably be a rapper unless he was strongly influenced by Bug. I thought I'd prove to them both what a cool mom I was by whacking an egg myself.
So the time came at which all beautifully colored Easter eggs become egg salad. In my opinion, the only reason to dye them in the first place. You can't hide candy in a hard boiled egg. Kids don't usually like hard boiled eggs. You can't hide and re-hide and re-hide hard boiled eggs for the days following Easter. You dye them, enjoy them briefly, then eat egg salad.
The kids were incredulous. "You mean we can really whack them? Really?" I pulled out two bowls, one for eggs, one for shells (ha! that's what the floor was for!) and told them to go for it (as soon as I got out my camera to videotape the whacking ceremony. And which we will post on our family's website, eventually.)
Pook picked up the first egg, carefully dyed blue on one end and green on the other with a rubber banded white stripe in four directions as if it were a small package. Then he whacked that egg on his head. Hard. Bug immediately followed suit. They picked up egg after egg to whack them, then, surprisingly, they completely peeled them for me. And then ate egg salad with little pink and blue specks from having a few slightly cracked eggs placed in dye.
Me? I was a timid rapper. Those eggs are hard!
A mom after my own heart. I can just see this in my head. Too funny! It reminds me of our own egg adventure in our family:
ReplyDeleteOne day we were discussing how microwaves heat, or maybe it was the mechanism of explosions, I don't know, but for whatever (sound pedagogical!!) reason, we ended up putting eggs in the microwave.
Two or three had pin-holes bored in one end -- those spun like mad (before, usually but not always, blowing up).
And ONE just went in whole. It was very exciting. BOOM! Scrambled eggs splattered all over the inside of the microwave! It was GREAT!!!
I have since learned that this in fact a Very Bad Idea, as it could damage the microwave in a big, bad way, so I am NOT suggesting anyone tries this.
But we sure had fun, right down to cleaning the microwave.