Hippity Hoppity Easter on it's Way

Spring has sprung and Easter preparations are underway. I'm always excited for our annual gathering which has grown from four kiddos to somewhere in the neighborhood of fifteen. This party was one of the reasons we chose our house with its amazing backyard. I live for excuses to fill my house and yard with happy children. Every year we invite friends and family over for Easter egg pancakes and egg hunting.

Miss Roo filling eggs for her classmates.

The eggs we dyed and decorated

Treats and favors

An Egg of a Different Color

It's egg dying time again! I ended up hard boiling 4 dozen eggs yesterday (most of which were free or just over a dollar). I sent half a dozen to school with Roo this morning to color there. Here's her artsy eggs:

They used an egg dying kit with stickers and glitter. They even marbled some with shaving cream. Pretty, aren't they?

Preparations

Last year we decided there HAD to be a better way to dry eggs. I think we always punched the the discs out of the back of the egg dye kits for egg drying when I was a kid. Mike and I always use food coloring and never buy egg dying kits. I did some Googling and found this: egg drying rack. Now in my example picture the pins are a little too far apart. Push them down as far into your foam as you can for stability.

Other than the drying rack we switched my pretty fabric table cloth with a vinyl one. Make sure to put a dark towel under your drying rack as well. Each kid put on an apron, picked a whisk (for egg dipping) and was given some eggs. We mixed color in mugs. We put a roll of paper towels on the table, a wet wash cloth, paint brushes, 2-3 sandwich bags, glitter, food markers, and plastic cups.

Another clever thing Mike did for Roo was to put a bit of foam into a color as floater. That way she could leave an egg in one color and then flip it over and color the other half the same way in a different color without having to holding her egg half suspended in color. It worked wonderfully.

Make Art!

Soap bubbles make cool dinosaur egg looking patterns, but it's best left to grown-ups as my tables been flooded with colored soapy water in the past. Painting the eggs with a glue and water mixture and rolling them in a baggie of glitter was fun, but those shed glitter (they'll probably be tricky to peel). Rubber bands worked well, easy and effective. I used rubber bands to make a Ninja Turtle egg. I tried marbling with olive oil and a few drops of red and blue. It came out like a jaw breaker! Those stay oily to the touch though. Foam floaters and food markers where a big hit with the kids.

Finished Product

Eggs To Dye For

Egg dying is a big deal in our house. Mike and I love to dye eggs. We'd probably do it even if we didn't have kids. We always use whisks to hold the eggs. This year I put an apron on each kids. In past years we've taped newspaper or even thrown a tarp over the table. This year I just scooted over the tablecloth and let it ride. Probably a poor choice. We never buy egg dying kits. We use food coloring, most boxes have instructions. It's pretty much the same vinegar and boiling water and a few drops of color. We always use coffee mugs. Those stupid plastic cups they sell in the kits always tip over.

A few years ago we discovered food markers at Joann's. They're great for Easter eggs. They're just food coloring in marker form. Riley's using on in the picture. We used crayons to make the dye resist sometimes. This year we did a few where we dipped the egg in a lighter color first. Then cut shapes out of tape, stuck them to the eggs, washed them in water and vinegar and then dipped them in a darker color.

We've done some lightly cracked because they make a neat design (and very festive egg salad). A few years back we discovered a technique where you add a little dish soap to the dye and blow bubbles with a straw. It make a cool speckley effect like a dinosaur egg. This year we couldn't seem to get that to work. We did try a new technique where you roll the egg in dye and olive oil for a marbled effect. We also make splatters by dripping a bit of food coloring onto an egg and then blowing on it.