One of Chloe's presents was a dinosaur egg that you carve away to find a plastic, dinosaur skeleton puzzle. Chloe couldn't wait to open this and get started. What an absolute mess! Chloe was covered in dust in the end and our hands hurt so much from digging out the fossils. Chloe loved it of course...what kid doesn't enjoy making a huge mess?
I had promised Chloe that we would dye eggs yesterday, so while she was at preschool I boiled some eggs. After the dino egg disaster we went outside to dye the eggs. Chloe loves tie-dye so I purchased that kit as well as a painted, sparkly egg kit. Chloe painted one egg and then we attempted to tie-dye and egg.
Apparently my creative skills don't extend to coloring eggs. In the end, Chloe just wanted to dip the eggs in color and spoon them out. 
This was very big girl to her.
On a side note, I co-oped this week at Chloe's preschool. Her school is not affiliated with a church and they don't do religious activities but they do dye eggs and have an egg hunt. So, during circle time on the day I co-oped I was surprised to hear the teacher ask if the children knew what Easter was all about. Many of the children were eager to answer and many raised their hands. One little girl got called on and shouted out, "Easter eggs!" and the teacher replied in her happy, loud preschool teacher voice, "That's right! And, the Easter Bunny brings them!". Something welled up inside and I blurted out in my middle-school history teacher voice, "NO IT'S NOT!!!!". You could have heard a pin drop and every eye was on me, causing me to say, "It's not about eggs and a bunny!" And I left it at that.
The teacher's eyes were as big as saucers and I think she gave me the stink eye. But seriously?!? First, and I hate to offend those preschool/elementary teachers out there, as a secondary level history teacher, I hated having to correct every silly misconception children came to U.S. History with, the majority of which came from preschool and elementary teachers and D*isney movies. If you don't want to teach what really happened on an age appropriate-level, skip it please. Don't create more culturally illiterate people. Christians and non-Christians in a western country should be able to tell you that Easter is a Christian holiday that commemorates the crucifixion and death of Jesus. And really, the point is this, I can't fathom why the teacher thought that was a good question to ask anyway?! Its a non-religious school but that doesn't mean I want someone telling my child that Easter is about a bunny that comes and leaves eggs in your yard! So, I had to do some cultural literacy damage control with Chloe, on an age-appropriate level of course.
Funny thing, I am friends with the aunt of one the girls in Chloe's class. She came to dinner this week and without me telling her about my co-op experience she shared that her niece randomly told her that she learned at school that Easter is about a person in a bunny costume that puts eggs filled with candy in your yard! Oh my....
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