The Quirky Tokyo Disneyland Spring Celebration, Easter 2019

Tokyo Disneyland once again brought the magic.

Yesterday I blogged about DisneySea's Easter celebration which is full of cuteness.

Tokyo Disneyland had its own theme where eggs are on the loose, and everything is fun, zany, and quirky.  I love that both parks took such different twists on Easter and Spring.  At first, when I saw this Easter stuff online, I didn't know what to think.  It was kinda weird!  But being there in person, seeing the eggs all throughout the park, I grew to appreciate the little egg creatures, usatama, and their sense of humor.  I grew to love the crazy Disney character outfits.

It's all fun.

Very imaginative.

And it was fun finding eggs throughout the park pulling pranks and whatnot.

The ultimate egg hunt.

Springtime at Tokyo DisneySea, 2019

 Last week Tokyo DisneySea finished their Springtime Easter 2019 celebration which lasted from April 4th to June 2nd.  It's a two month event full of cuteness.  The Tokyo Disney parks are expert at theming and celebrations.

Every season they go full out with decorations, costumes, shows, and merchandise.  When I visited in October 2015 the current theme was a "spooky yet elegant Halloween," which was really cool. Their Summer DisneySea theme is all about Pirates.

In Which I Finally Discover Pho and The Easter Bunny at the Mall

 I feel like a child wandering around life, only to learn at age 10 that Santa Clause isn't real.  (True story: I found out about Santa in the first grade.  My classmates spoiled it for me. -_-;;) 

I've heard about Pho, a Vietnamese noodle soup, but never managed to give it a try.

Last November I took the plunge at the Fashion Place mall food court.

The booth is called Lua, next to Panda Express, and it's a small business, which is why I want to share this on my blog, in case any of my friends find themselves in Murray UT at the mall.  I love supporting small businesses.

Even though I've never tried any other Pho, so there isn't anything to base their soup on, it's still an incredible tasting soup.  The broth is so fragrant.  And I love the ability to add fresh mint and sprouts to the soup.  Mint smells so good.  But it's an aromatic experience.  I don't know what's all in the broth, but it awakens my soul every time I have some.  (And I know that sounds all corny poetic, but that's what it feels like.)

So if you ever find yourself at the Fashion Place mall, Lua's Pho is worth a try.

P.S. At the Fashion Place Mall you can get your photo taken with the Easter Bunny.

I'm losing faith in humanity.

P.P.S  I think the Easter Bunny is wearing a bath robe.  Or maybe that's a sleeping robe, but still, what message is this trying to send?

(In all honestly, I'm just amused by it.  The Easter Bunny.)

Symbols of Easter

 Several weeks ago I was in the grocery store and found these pre-colored eggs.  What fun is that!!??  One of the joys of Easter is dying your fingers different colors as you create egg masterpieces.

 Then at IKEA I found this, a drink bottle labeled "Swedish Festive Drink."  Under the ingredients there's something called "HOPS FLAVOR."  I don't trust a dink with "hops flavor" when there are pictures of bunnies on the label.

Bunnies and eggs aside, we can't forget the true meaning of Easter: Remembering in reverence the atonement of Christ.

A decade ago, can't believe its been that long, I was fortunate enough to perform with the Latter-Day Celebration choir from the Orem Institute of Religion.  The second year I was in the choir we performed the program "Seven Days to Glory," which is all about the Saviors last week on Earth, leading up to the crucifixion and resurrection.

It was an incredible experience, traveling and sharing my testimony of Christ around the 2004 Easter season.  This really helped me focus on Christ in a way I never had before.  I always remember and cherish those memories now, and try to focus and ponder Christ as I did then.  Such a blessing. 

Lets never forget what makes this season so special.

Let's never forget the great gift our Savior and Redeemer has given us.

Because of Him the impossible has become possible.

Coloring Eggs with Natural Dyes

 My sister-in-law found a blog post from Blisstree about naturally dying eggs, and we tried some of the tips out.  The whole experience was quite interesting!

We mainly tried the Red Cabbage for blue, tea for red, and the turmeric powder for yellow.  This is what happened:

 The red cabbage test was the most interesting!!!  Blue from red cabbage?  But boiling red cabbage really does turn the water a deep blue color.  Then we noticed something quite startling (and promptly experimented a little because it was too cool of a discovery not too), when you add vinegar the blue water turns purple!   So we did two over night tests: leaving eggs in blue water without vinegar, and leaving eggs in the purple water with vinegar.

The different shades of purple come from the length of time the red cabbage boiled and steeped in the water.  The deeper the hue, the longer it steeped.

 For the deep red water we used Red Zinger tea from Celestial Blend.  Red Zinger tea with honey is so good! (This last bit has nothing to do with dying eggs; I just thought it was a good idea to mention the fact.)

 We attempted green by boiling spinach and beet leaves, but the water was a yucky yellow color, so we never actually put the eggs in to see if it worked.  I now wonder what would have happened.

The results after letting the eggs sit overnight!  This was really fascinating.  The beautiful blue egg came from the purple "red cabbage" water with vinegar.  The second egg, that is still quite white, came out of the blue "red cabbage" water with no vinegar.  The third egg, a beautiful yellow, was from the turmeric, and this egg really didn't need to sit all night, because, unlike the other eggs, the yellow color started working immediately.  And the brown speckled egg came from the tea.

Overall I'm still overly fascinated by what I learned about red cabbage.

For kids, because the other eggs have to sit in the color water dye for so long, this wouldn't be terribly fun as an activity, but maybe there are other natural color dyes out there that work faster.  But who doesn't like a little science!?

For more information and tips you can check out the Bliss Tree blog post "Health Hack: Natural, DIY Easter Egg Dyes."