Kelly Crack Off

We have never visited the Kelly's around Easter time. Granted, they visited a week or so before Easter, but it was close enough to introduce them to the Crack Off. It just needs to happen.

We came home from the museum and got right down to business decorating our eggs. It is so fun that the kids are getting older and their eggs are creative and original. I really believe that we all enjoy decorating them more than cracking them, but both parts are essential.

Here are all our eggs on display.

Tyler took a close up of some of them. Let's take a peek at some of the contenders. This is Tyler's Cadbury egg.

His other egg was very detailed. I wish he had taken a picture of the whale on the back.

Robyn's Penguin was fantastic. She held that thing forever in the dye to make sure the belly stayed white.

Here is Ivory's Lady Begg and my Pistachio.

June made Quizzle, Tim decorated Killer Grouper and I was very proud of my simple, easy Baymax.

I wish we had pictures of all the eggs. I really liked June's Connect, and Tim had an awesome Albert Eggstein that was great. Jeannie had some beautiful eggs too. They are in there somewhere. Ethan didn't decorate his eggs so much as name them after sports figures. (This seems fitting for a boy.)

The voting was intense, but our big winner was Robyn, with her Penguin.

Ivory was so proud of herself since she came in second.

In fact, the Cazier's, with their intense art skills, swept the podium.

Now to the cracking, in which you don't need any special art abilities to contend. I put Ethan in charge of the bracket. He knows sports and I figured he would do a great job being in charge. He did.

We do draw names at random, but it is frequent that spouses square off. May the odds be ever in your favor.

Pearl had some trouble reaching the table. That's what mom's are good for.

June looks pretty intense here, but I had to tell her sadly that even though Pistachio had smashed Ethan's egg, he too had cracked in the process. (Actually, the double crack was entirely too rampant this year. It happened here, twice at Tyler's work, and once in Robyn's class. I wonder if we have people that roll too roughly. Maybe holding them and hitting them together would be a better way.)

Jeannie helped Erin the first time around, but after that, Erin knew just what to do. She was a great cracker!

Everyone feels differently about their eggs. There are those, with no love lost, who just eat their egg once it cracks.

There are others that treasure the eggs. Daisy would not crack hers this year, and not only that, but she developed a strange attachment to my Baymax egg and practically cried when he cracked. Then she carried him around the house and put him in a bag to keep him. I had to get her a Baymax substitute so she would finally throw him away.*

Tim would step aside and whisper encouragement to his egg.

It didn't help. Jeannie beat him and went on to the semi-finals.

But alas, although Jeannie came back from the loser bracket, it was not enough to beat Tyler. He was the champion, with no cracked eggs by the end. Cadbury put away the competition.

This is actually comforting, since Robyn won two years in a row. I was beginning to think she was invincible.

After the Crack Off, it was time for the Kelly's to go. Everyone was so sad to see them leave. Robyn was the only one with any sense to take pictures. (We already know I am scatterbrained when it comes to things like that.) So one more time.

Erin

Jeannie

Ethan

Tim

We love you all! Come visit again soon! Or we will come your way. We always love an excuse to come to sunny CA.

Other great memories from the trip - Going shopping with Jeannie and getting special jewelry gifts. Also the most confusing game of 'My Team' we have ever played. (Are you Robin?)



* We did try to buy a Baymax for Daisy, but they were all over in China and our order was canceled as soon as it was supposedly shipped. So we opted for a shirt instead, since our resident designer can bust those out.

Here is the front.

And the back.

Daisy loves it, but she doesn't like wearing it to school because people read the back over and over again. I guess that is what happens when you are in first grade and everyone is learning to read. (Actually, it would probably happen in the other grades as well.)