Family Traditions- Sugar Eggs

Sugar eggs have been a fun family tradition in our home ever since Nani invited the girls and I to do eggs at her house 8 years ago. This activity requires many hours of preparation. Each egg shell has to be made ahead of time. First the sugar has to be mixed, color added, molds filled and then set to dry for hours. Then carved and dried again. We usually use three DOUBLE batches of royal icing to decorate the eggs. Once the preparations are complete the creativity is endless. It is amazing how everyone creates something more beautiful, more dainty, more creative and more unique than the previous year. The first time creators usually make the years favorites. This year is no exception. This year the outstanding egg awards go to Jennifer Madden Lambert and Ben William Frei. Both first time sugar egg decorators! Ben's egg 'Carrot-topia' is pictured below. Jennifer's Kung-Fu Panda creation and her Dino Egg will be displayed at a later date/blog.

Keep watch for postings of all the eggs decorated this year. We'll let YOU decide which ones are the best!

Creating an Easter scene on the inside.
Another one of the eggs Aurelia created today.

Celestia working on the outside decorations of her sugar egg.



An assortment of cute bunnies, bears and chicks.

This represents three DOUBLE batches of royal icing.

Sugar Eggs

'Carrot-topia' by Ben Wendall Frei
Sarah's precious egg

Notice the adorable grapes on the vine

Celestia created a beautiful rainbow in her egg

Details on Aurelia's egg

I am NOT a morning person.

Lexie and Andi-

Some people are always cheerful and smiley!

We all know that Karen is not the type of person

who jumps out of bed each morning

perky and excited for a new day.

But for the joy of spending hours on a bus

with young and talented people

she will brave the cold and the dark

and drag herself out of her cozy bed.

Laramie, WY

On the way to Denver

we were able to stop for lunch in a pretty park in Laramie.

We soon found out that the park

we stopped at was a tourist site closed for the winter.

The caretaker, Gary offered to show us around.

Gary took us into the old prison and told us the history.

This is a cool tree which was near the spot we ate
our sandwiches, chips and fruit.

A watchtower.

The Eyes Have It

So we already know that Andrea is BEAUTIFUL...

but add some glitter and rhinestones and she

S-P-A-R-K-L-E-S.

Guard Buddies

Angela, Andi, Lexie, and Gloria .

This is one of the bigger floors.

The Utah teams help each other

in removing and carrying out the floor.
This part makes me image that a

big, humongous snake is being carried away

by adventurous safari hunters.

Gorgeous Girls!

Part of the UVU IA team!

The Floor

The floor takes a lot of muscle to handle.
To begin with it has to be removed from the belly of the bus.

After each show the floor has to be re-folded

and made ready for the next show.

The only place there was enough room was outside.

Gravel and dry grass can be a big nuisance.

This is a small floor-

so it doesn't take as many people to take it out.

The exhausted performers are the ones who

have the privilege of removing the heavy floor.

What a workout!

Before the performance the dancers position the floor

in preparation for their show.

This all has to be done quickly as the set up

is part of the allowed performance time.

THE GRAND CANYON!

ANDI'S FIRST TRIP TO THE GRAND CANYON!!

woot woot!

just some random pictures, not the best...

It was SOO beautiful! and grand... haha

So the story is... one of the four cars that we took to our competition in Arizona last week, broke down. so since we were behind schedule anyway, we all decided to take a 30 minute detour to the Grand Canyon. It was a LOT of fun. Most of the team hadn't been. And this last picture is one of Justin's socks... He has GREAT style, we know. his Zac Effron socks brought us luck ;) haha, um... this is AFTER the car broke down that he got the lucky socks...