Happy Smingus Dingus Day!

Did you know there really IS a Smingus Dingus Day?

I didn't, until today! But it's a Polish holiday and the day after Easter.

From a website: "It traditionally is a courting holiday." "A young man would ask the mother of a girl he fancied for access to their home in the early morning. If access was granted he would come in with a bucket of water and dump it on his sleeping object of affection. For the most part it seems the young ladies were happy to be fancied, and to show thanks they'd rise and beat the suitor with a pussy willow branch (Smingus.) So, the full name for the holiday is Smingus Dyngus, with dyngus being the dumping of the water."

Well, I hope no one gets soaked or beaten with pussy willows today! There are better ways to court!

Here are a few images from our Easter -- and a tutorial for something really cute to remember for NEXT year!

First, our egg dyeing!

Rick really gets into it.

He did this egg, which my my favorite!

Here are some of the others.

Then cooking! The rest of the dinner was pretty regular looking -- scallopped potatoes (I almost had a serious scalloped potatoes accident, leaving out the flour, but rescued it in time, and they were delicious!); ham, asparagus, salad.

But you've got to love dessert!

And doing the table was fun.

Thanks to Jan's suggestion, I found small galvanized buckets on the dollar table at Target, stuffed them with tissue and grass and filled them with treats like hot sauce, fortune cookies, seed packets, socks and sachet (for Molly, Kevin's friend -- it's so fun to buy for girls!), the requisite candy and an egg.

The eggs were in little bunny nests, which I made from washcloths! They were really cute and done in a heartbeat. Here's how. (I saw it on CBS Saturday Morning and instructions are probably on that site, too!)

Bunny Egg Cups

Supplies -- one washcloth (not too plush, solid color), a rubber band and about 8" of ribbon. (Optional -- googly eyes and pom pom for nose, which I didn't do.)

Fold cloth on diagonal. (A long skinny fold...)

Fold in half.

On "ear" (pointy) end, fold back points and put a rubber band around the fold (leaving about 2" of points). This makes the nose.

Tie a bow around the nose.

Put egg in "cup" part.

(If you're doing this with kids, you can add eyes and a nose, but I wanted them to USE the cloths, so I didn't do it.)