An Easter Story
It is the last day before the Easter holidays. In school Zena, Connie and Lily have been reading a story about someone blowing eggs and decorating them.
It looked great, they think they would like to try doing the same. So after school they all go home to Bobby and Zena and ask Mum if they can blow eggs.
“Yes, of course you can,” Mum says, “but I don’t think we have all that many eggs. You’d best go down to the farm and buy some.”
Just down the hill is a little farm with eggs for sale. Zena, Connie and Lily knock on the kitchen door and the farmer’s wife pops her head out.
“Hello, could we please buy some eggs?” Zena asks.
“Yes, because we’re going to blow eggs and paint them,” Connie says.
“And decorate them with beads and all sorts of pretty things,” adds Lily.
“That sounds like a good idea. Did you bring some egg-boxes?” the farmer’s wife is about to put on some big wellingtons.
The girls look at one another.
“Egg-boxes?” Zena repeats.
They hadn’t thought of that.
“No,” they mumble, staring glumly at the ground.
“Does that mean we can’t have any eggs?” Zena asks.
“No, no, don’t you worry,” the farmer’s wife says, smiling. “Let me just fetch some boxes.”
The girls follow the farmer’s wife over to the barn, where the hens are.
“We’d better take plenty,” the farmer’s wife suggests. “A good cake needs lots of eggs.”
“But we’re not going to bake a cake,” Lily says. “We’re going to …”
“Decorate eggs,” the farmer’s wife says. “Yes, I know, but you can use the insides to bake a cake.”
“Mmm,” the girls are all licking their lips. They hadn’t thought of that. Just think, you can have fun blowing eggs and bake a nice cake.
Back at Zena’s house they get started right away. They sit round the big table in the kitchen. Mum shows them how to scald the eggs in boiling water first.
“Can I try?” Zena asks.
“Yes, but be very careful not to burn your fingers.” Mum hands Zena an egg and a spoon.
Connie and Lily watch, holding their breath, as Zena gently lowers the egg into the pan of boiling water.
“Great! Now you take a needle and pierce a hole very, very carefully in the top of the egg and the bottom, like this.” Mum shows them what to do. “And then you blow.”
And hey presto, the insides of the egg slip smoothly out and down into the bowl.
Blowing eggs can be a bit tricky, though. You must take care not to squeeze the egg too hard. And it can be quite difficult to blow everything out of the egg, especially if the holes are too small. But they shouldn’t be too big either. It’s tricky.
Bobby comes home. Vincent and Elmer are with him. As always.
“What are you doing?” they ask curiously.
“We’re blowing eggs,” Zena tells them.
“And afterwards we’re going to paint them and make them look pretty,” Connie and Lily explain.
“You’re a bunch of egg-heads,” Bobby says and goes off up to his room with Vincent and Elmer.
Shortly afterwards they hear the sound of loud music from upstairs.
“Egg-heads themselves,” Zena says. “And I bet they’re talking about football.”
Connie and Lily just nod. They are so out of breath from blowing eggs that they can’t speak.
Soon they have blown enough eggs. Now it is time to decorate them.
Zena fetches glue and paints and beads and ribbon, all sorts of nice things that they can use to decorate their eggs.
“How would it be if I baked a cake while you decorate your eggs?” Mum asks. “Yes, yes – coconut cake,” Zena cries.
Mum looks at her for a moment.
“You and your sweet tooth, Zena ...”
“Oh, please, please, please” Zena says, giving Mum a big smile.
“Oh, all right. Coconut cake it is.”
“Mmmmm, yummaroo!” the girls chorus.
“I think all three of you have a sweet tooth,” Mum laughs. She starts mixing the ingredients for the cake together in a bowl.
Zena, Connie and Lily start to decorate their hollow eggshells. They paint them in beautiful colours and lovely patterns and stick scraps and beads on them. They stick ribbons on some of the eggs. That looks really pretty. When each egg is finished, they hang it to dry on some branches stuck in a big vase. “Oooh” and “Aahh”, Mum says every time they show her what they have done.
The coconut cake mixture is ready to go in the oven.
“What about making some sandwiches?” Mums asks, “And we can all have some lunch and cake for desert.”
Zena and Connie and Lily set to work, making sandwiches and mixing squash.
Soon the whole house is filled with the smell of baking. It drifts upstairs and draws Bobby, Elmer and Vincent down to the kitchen.
“Something smells good, what is it?” Bobby asks.
“It’s coconut cake and we have made sandwiches and squash too,” Zena explains, “but it’s only for those who’ve blown eggs.”
“I can blow the stuff out of an egg too.” Bobby picks up an egg, but he hasn’t pierced holes in it, of course, so he can’t. And he squeezes the egg so tightly that it bursts right in his face.
“Ow,” he yells. Zena, Connie and Lily laugh so hard they almost fall off their chairs.
“You have to pierce holes in it, like this.” Zena shows him what to do. Soon the three boys are also sitting at the table, blowing eggs and decorating them in all sorts of lovely ways.
What a day and what a lovely start for an Easter holiday.
How to blow and decorate eggs:
- Ask a grown-up to let you have some fresh eggs
- Scald the eggs (use free range/organic) briefly in boiling water
- Pierce a little hole in the top of the egg with a needle
- Pierce a hole in the bottom of the egg with a needle
- Carefully blow the contents of the egg into a bowl – and save them for a nice cake
- Decorate the egg by painting it, sticking on beads or whatever else you can think of
- To hang the egg on a branch, take a matchstick and break off a little piece of it. Then take some thread, tie it round the middle of the piece of matchstick and very carefully slide it through the hole at the top of the egg and twist it so that it wedges there. Then the egg can be hung up.
Have fun!
