Providing Resources to Equip and Inspire your Home School

Mary's Eggsellent Adventure

Have you ever bought 546 pounds of confectioner’s sugar? I had that unique experience this morning. Along with several of my children and two members of our youth group, I headed to a local warehouse store to stock up on supplies for our annual youth fundraiser. Other notable purchases included 134 pounds of butter, 50 pounds of peanut butter, a quart of real vanilla extract, nine pounds of maraschino cherries, eight pounds of coconut, four pounds of pecan halves and three pounds of cocoa.

It was a great opportunity for practicing math skills as we assessed the overall quantities that we needed and made conversions to determine how many super-sized containers of each item to buy. My nine-year-old was the self-appointed regulator of confectioner’s sugar; he kept a running tally as the rest of us stacked boxes of seven-pound bags on a flatbed cart.

Believe me, it’s quite an attention-getter, even in Sam’s Club, to waltz through the store with that much powdery white sugar in tow. I wish we could have made a sale for every time someone stopped to ask us what in the world we were going to do with all that stuff.

In case you’re wondering, a group of youth and adults will spend 12-15 hours over the next several days, making 1600 large candy Easter eggs in five flavors and dipping them in chocolate. Last year we produced 2000 and, after selling them for $5 each, were largely able to fund a youth mission trip for 18 people.

By the way, today we savvy homeschool shoppers discovered that we’re better at math than some of the store personnel. They ended up miscalculating our confectioner’s sugar haul by 18 bags, so it was back to customer service for a refund. Thankfully, the helpful ladies there not only took care of our problem but placed several orders themselves and promised to solicit more from fellow employees. I guess it’s true that there’s a silver lining in every cloud (of powdered sugar).

If my new friends come through on their promise, that billing error may well prompt my single biggest sale; last year my largest haul came from—you’ll love this—the staff at my children's dental clinic. They did promise they’d brush extra afterwards.

A photo of the finished product:

Comment

You need to be a member of The Homeschool Channel to add comments!

Join The Homeschool Channel

Comment by Crystal Listerman on March 22, 2010 at 2:18pm: I have a recipe around here somewhere for peanut butter egg candies. I can try to track it down. I know that it included powdered sugar and crushed cornflakes (I think) as well as peanut butter (or soy butter for peanut butter allergy people). I'll look for it, and if I find it, I'll post it here. We can make those instead.

Mary, will your church be doing mail orders of your candies? Tee hee

I sold some cub scout chocolate bars to a gal who was going to ship them to her "adopted soldier" in Afghanistan. I told her she'd better make sure that the package had a cooler in it. Chocolate + hot deserts = disaster.

Comment by Mary Friedeman on March 22, 2010 at 12:42pm: Kimberly, wish I could share, but it's our youth pastor's secret recipe!

Comment by Kimberly on March 22, 2010 at 9:47am: This was a great story. Is there any way of geting this recipe in the smallest quanty ? My children love this candy. Great way for them to fix something they like and get in some schooling which is what I am always aiming for.

Comment by Laurie Fuller on March 18, 2010 at 4:52pm: Thank you for sharing this adventure. :)

Comment by mary mustard on March 18, 2010 at 4:13pm: I LOVE that "eggsellent " story. The eggs sound like a fun and delicious project. Guess they wouldn't mail too well. I also enjoyed Crystal's banana info. Bet the postal service folks love those types of parcels!! Reminded me of the coconut i received in the mail many years ago. :o)

Comment by Crystal Listerman on March 18, 2010 at 3:23pm: ...and by posting it on here you've new started a mail order service. LOL. How much is the shipping on a large candy egg?

Did you know that you don't have to wrap a banana before posting one in the mail? Take a banana, weigh it, put on the correct amount of stamps (I recommend using stamps to avoid the awkward questions from the post office teller) and write the mailing address of your unfortunate recipient on the side of the peel, and off it goes.