Hoppy Easter

Term 1 of school ended on Thursday, because Friday was Good Friday. Did you know that Australia pretty much closes up for the day on Good Friday? Post Offices, banks, malls, shops, business, all closed. As a sign of how sacred the day is, they don't even play footy! Which is unusual because I think--in Melbourne at least--people are more interested in football than organized religion.
   Saturday was multi-cultural day in our house. The girls dyed Easter eggs at our house while eating matzah with their friends, one of whom was Jewish and one who was Greek Orthodox.

Matzah with lots of Mexican cheese on top

If you look carefully at the pics below, you might notice that there are a few brown eggs. Most of the eggs in Australia are brown, not white. Which is no big deal when you just want them scrambled (as Alanna does every morning!) but not so good when you want to make Easter Eggs. So I was thrilled last month when I found some white eggs at a local fruit & veg shop. I also had several egg coloring kits in our Easter box-o-stuff from the US. This was fortuitous, as they don't sell them here in Oz. I boiled some eggs, set out the colors, and the kids went to work. They had so much fun Andy had to go back out for more white eggs.

We did dye some of the brown eggs. If you let them sit long enough, especially in a dark color, they turned out quite nicely. But we still preferred the white eggs as you had a lot more coloring options. Here are the results.

Aliya's friend arrived bearing a chcolate egg as a present. Aliya was worried about someone taking it, so she insisted that Andy lock it up to the kitchen table....

Saturday night we went to a friend's house for dinner. Their daughter is a friend of Aliya's, and her dad grew up in the house we are now renting. Also at dinner was the mom's sister and her family, because one of her daughters is a friend of Alanna. Got all that? The funny thing was I had no idea these two women were sisters, until Alanna and Aliya figured out that their friends were cousins. Small world! We had a lovely time at dinner, and it was what we now consider to be a traditional Aussie bbq: lots and lots of meat (no prawns, aka shrimp.) Aussies also traditionally serve a large platter of fruit for dessert, to which we added Andy's lemon tart. Yum!
   Sunday started off really early for the A-team, as Andy dragged took us all to Sunrise Service at church at 6 am. I dragged myself out of bed at 5:15, and wondered how I left for Temecula at 5:30 am for so many years...The girls knew they'd have to get out of bed promptly if they wanted to find their Easter baskets.
   Aliya had announced the previous night that she hoped the Easter bunny wouldn't put her basket anywhere obvious like the cubby under the stairs. Still, that was the first place she checked:

No luck though. Alanna found hers pretty quickly behind the TV and surfboards.
With a little help from Andy, Aliya finally found hers in the laundry room in a basket hidden under a dirty shirt. They eagerly examined all the goodies, which included a few dvds, chocolates, fairy floss (cotton candy) and marbles, the latest fad at school. 

We got to church right at 6, collected our candles, and joined the group in the dark outside the church for a little ceremony. Then we headed inside and listed to some readings, mostly in the dark. We were a bit startled when, after almost 40 minutes of stories from the Old Testament, the priest announced, "And now we begin the regular mass..." 
   After the service, Andy dropped us off and went in search of hot cross buns. He returned with the choc chip version, and the girls insisted on eating them this way:

Later, our just-returned-from-Bali friends came over for dinner. It was wonderful to hear their stories, and now we are eager to go to Bali ourselves.

Today is Easter Monday, another public holiday. Andy got up at 6 am to finish off our US taxes. Yes, the U.S. is one of the few countries that requires citizens to file taxes regardless of where they reside or where they earn their money. Meanwhile the girls and I slept in! After lunch, Andy took the girls into the city to explore. The last text from Alanna said they were eating Krispy Kremes donuts. Andy and the girls definitely miss their traditional Sundays back home where they'd bike to Vons for donuts and get smoothies. The donuts here don't seem to compare. Andy also hinted he was taking them to the Eureka tower, another activity I am happy to miss out on!
   This just in...they did go to the Skydeck!

Happy Easter everyone!