The Simple Wealth

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Egg painting

1.Buy some plastic eggs-I went to one store to look for some plain plastic eggs, and I did not like the colors, so I went to another store, and found these eggs in beautiful soft colors. You can use real eggs if you like, either boiling some or poking a tiny hole and draining out egg yoke and egg white, I use plastic eggs because it’s much cheaper-two dozens only cost $1-and convenient.

2.I used the leftover porcelain paint from painting a tea set, a birthday gift Katrina just received. Katrina and I did this project together. We used small brushes, and washed the brushes off in a jar of water, and dried the brushes on a paper towel before dipping into another color. Egg painting is a lot of fun for kids and grown-ups.

The Easter centerpiece

1.Gather the materials: some grass with roots from the garden, some painted eggs, a cake pedestal plate.

2.Wash off the grass in the sink, get rid off dirt and soil.

3.Add some water to the cake pedestal plate if it has edge to hold water, if not, wet a few paper towels and lay them on the plate. Arrange the grass on the plate. The grass should be able to stay fresh for a few days with roots on and water.

4.Arrange the painted eggs on top of the grass.

It’s a very simple centerpiece for your Easter party if you are planning one, if not, it’s a great Easter deco for the house.

Easter wreath

1.Gather the materials: plenty of rosemary, some ribbons, floral wire, two plastic eggs, a hot glue gun.

2 .Hold a few sprigs of rosemary in one hand, and use the other hand to wire them tightly together. Add a few more sprigs of rosemary at lower position and wire them together with the previous bundle.

3.Keep wiring a new bundle to the previous one until you reach the desired length to make a circle, then wire both ends together.

4.If the wreath doesn’t look very round yet, add 1 sprig of rosemary to the spot by poking it into the wreath or cutting a piece of wire and wiring it to the wreath.

5.Decorate the wreath with ribbons.

6.Glue the eggs to the wreath.

Easter egg hunt

1.Gather the materials: small toys to put in eggs, such as stickers, cute erasers, small balls, girl’s plastic rings; some plastic eggs; candy. If you like, you can stuff eggs with candy only, but I prefer them not to have too much candy. They enjoy having small toys as well as candy.

2.Call a few friends or neighbors with kids to have an Easter egg hunt event. You can all prepare some eggs for kids to hunt.

3.Whoever has a big garden could host the event. Otherwise do it indoor. Hide eggs in the drawers, under pillows, under table and chairs, in boxes, etc.

4.Moms and Dads could enjoy some tea and coffee, share some emotional energy.

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1 pound bow tie pasta

2 crowns of broccoli, cut into florets

2 chicken breasts with skin on and bone in

4 gloves of garlic, finely minced

1 pound of bacon, about 5 slices

1 red onion, finely sliced

1 1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/4 teaspoon black pepper

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1 teaspoon white pepper

1.Preheat the oven at 375 degree F. Season the chicken breasts with 1 teaspoon each of salt, black pepper, garlic powder, and white pepper. Put the chicken breasts in a baking sheet, and put it in the oven and roast about 35 to 40 minutes. Then take it out and let the chicken rest for a few minutes, then dice the breasts.

2.Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil, add the pasta and cook until tender. Turn off the heat and get the pasta out and set aside. Add the broccoli florets into the pot for 2 minutes, then take the broccoli out and put in a big bowl, add the extra virgin olive oil, and season with ¼ teaspoon of salt.

3.Heat a large sauté pan and put in the bacon slices in one layer, brown one side for a few minutes and then brown the other side. Take the bacon slices out and dice them. Add the minced garlic into the pan, sauté for 1 minute then add the pasta and 1/4 teaspoon each of salt and black pepper and sauté for a few minutes, add the pan drippings and juice from the chicken breast, add the diced chicken. Turn off the heat, add the red onion, diced bacon, broccoli. Then it’s time to serve.

Tips:

1.Instead of roasting 2 chicken breasts, you can roast 4, and make chicken Caesar salad first, then make this pasta dish next day. Remember to save the pan drippings and juice to add to the pasta. It adds a lot of flavor.

2.I like broccoli to be crunchy, so I do not cook broccoli, but only blanch them in the hot water for 2 minutes.

3. Bacon is very flavorful. I usually keep plenty of bacon on hand, and I always use bacon grease.

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I decided to do a big birthday party for Katrina mainly to entertain my neighbors and her friends. It’s a wonderful neighborhood where I live in, most neighbors know each other, and some host annual gatherings. I have been to a few of those gatherings, so I used Katrina’s birthday as a chance to invite some neighbors over.

The center piece for the buffet table

I have collected some branches while taking a walk with Katrina and Maiya. A week before the party, Katrina and I did the stamping project together. The materials we used: some foam stamps, paint brushes and paints, decorative hole puncher, paper, scissors, some wool threads. We used small paint brushes to paint the foam stamps with different colors, and stamped on the paper, then cut the picture off, and punched a hole, and tied it with a thread. We did one side first, let it dry, then did the other side with the same foam stamp. Then we hang the little pictures on the branches. I added some ribbons and beads. It’s a very playful center piece.

The Menu

1.bow tie pasta with roasted chicken breasts and broccoli

2. Chinese style stir fried noodles

3.Zeppole with cinnamon sugar-I like the recipe from Giada De Laurentiis.

4.sweet potato tart

5.cole slaw

6.Thai milk tea

7.grapes

8.chips, coke and juice

The activities

1.Play Katrina’s baby movie on TV-some short clips of the movies we took when Katrina was a baby. At some point, we stopped taping because she started tracing the camcorder.

2.Open gifts

3.Hit piñata-We hang the piñata between the arch way.

All the kids took a turn twice but none of them able to make a dent to the tough piñata, so Michael had to hit it. When the piñata was finally broken, no candy fell down. Everyone was disappointed. Michael went to the kitchen and grabbed a bag of candies and dropped the candies down from the broken piñata. Because of his quick response, the kids had fun collecting candies from the floor anyway. This was my first time to buy a piñata, and I didn’t know that I was supposed to add candies into the piñata myself. Well, next time I will make a piñata myself and make it easier for kids to break it. It’s not so much fun if they can’t actually break it. It will be a fun project to do with Katrina.

4.Sing Chinese songs-We actually didn’t get to do this before some guests started to leave. Three kids in the party could sing some Chinese songs. It would be nice for them to take turns to sing in front of guests.

5.It’s time for the cake!-I spent 3 hours to bake a not-so-impressive cake last year, this year I bought a big and beautiful birthday cake from Costco for $15.99 and saved a lot of time.

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