I am delighted to report that Easter 2017 was our best year yet for egg dyeing! We lost only one egg due to cracking (during cooking, in the onion skin dye), and we lost one to the garden during the hunt. Fun fact: Naturally dyed eggs camouflage very well in nature.

Not only did we get amazing color from both of the methods we used (this tutorial and this kit), but the eggs were cooked perfectly. We steam boiled the eggs for the kit dyeing and with the homemade dyes, we cooked the eggs in the dyes. Whether or not the eggs are cooked well matters greatly to us because most years, I hide the eggs, Wyatt hunts them, and then we all work together to make egg salad of them for lunch. The steam boiled eggs were easier to peel than the others, but whatever. Our lunch was scrumptious.

I still have no idea where I hid that one missing egg. But my memory lapse probably made a raccoon's Easter pretty happy.

E. Bunny made Wyatt's Easter pretty happy, too. ("E. Bunny" followed by a drawing of rabbit ears is how the Easter Bunny signs notes to Wyatt. Same at your house, too, right?) Easter was so happy, in fact, that Wyatt reported the butterflies in his stomach continued fluttering around for hours even after he had discovered his gifts. Wyatt received a pretty large (but hollow, because E. Bunny knows our limits) chocolate bunny. It was the "best breakfast dessert ever." Wyatt also received a huge box of colored pencils and a sketchbook, just like he had been requesting for months. If the number of new drawings around the house are any indication, there's nothing like beautiful new art supplies to inspire creativity.

After spending Monday morning on housework (because spring break continues this week!) we headed downtown to check out the Diane Arbus and Matisse/Diebenkorn exhibitions at SFMOMA. Wyatt opted to leave his camera at home and bring his sketchbook and colored pencils instead. He requested that our first stop be at Richard Serra's sculpture, Sequence. We walked through it, and then he sat and drew (for just shy of two minutes) what he had experienced.

Once in the Matisse/Diebenkorn exhibition (which was crowded), we looked at the various paintings and discussed similarities and differences we saw in the artists' works. We also noticed a woman sitting awkwardly, perched on the corner of a bench full of people. She was fully engrossed in sketching a Matisse using two colored pencils, one in each of her hands. After watching her for a few moments, we walked on, and we talked about how amazing her drawing was. About mid-way through the exhibit, Wyatt suddenly stopped and scooted himself into a little spot on a corner of a different bench full of people. While I juggled the trays of pencils, he began selecting colored pencils that would match Richard Diebenkorn's Ocean Park #6. He then sketched for about ten minutes, totally oblivious to everything else that was going on.

When Wyatt was done, he declared he was starving, and we had to hustle through the rest of the exhibition in search of the cafe.

How better to top off magical artistic moments than by sharing a flourless chocolate cake at a table adorned with an orchid? Well, one way would be by having your very own flourless chocolate cake at that same pretty table. Regardless, shame on me for waffling on whether to renew our SFMOMA membership next month. Of course we will.