Friday we colored our Easter eggs, for our annual family Easter Egg Hunt. Even if we go to a larger hunt with friends, we always have our family one as well. The kids look forward to it for several weeks in advance. I boiled 25 eggs this year, giving each child 5 eggs to color. 2 cracked in the pot, leaving only 23. Hmm, what to do? I didn't really want to cook even more eggs. We weren't going to eat all of the ones I had already cooked, not by a long shot, and it just seemed so wasteful. Fortunately, Alexandra, although very excited about coloring eggs, is also still young enough to be a bit clueless. So we gave her 3 eggs to color, and she was happy as a clam. Everyone else got 5. 🙂
They have some really cool egg coloring kits here. But as I found out last year, some require the eggs to still be hot in order for them to work. Small tender hands, and hot fragile objects are not a good combination. So this year, I stuck with regular vinegar dyes and watercolor paint.
Oh, and I did bust out the crayons for a touch of the exotic. The kids didn't understand what I meant by drawing on the eggs with the crayon to create a pattern, so I had to show them on one. Noah let me use one of his eggs, and it turned out so cool looking, that they all wanted to try it at least once.
We learned that large patterns work best, as thin-lined drawings blend in too well when you dye the egg. But you can use a light or dark crayon, that didn't seem to matter. Both looked really neat when the egg was colored. We are already thinking of new techniques to try for next year. I may have to get some really sticky contact paper, let the kids punch out small shapes with it, stick those on the egg, and see what happens. We have tried regular stickers in the past, but they tend to not stick so well, so that is why I am thinking something even stickier. Also, we need to find more recipes to put hard-boiled eggs in. haha!
It was a fun afternoon, with surprisingly little mess. (first time ever that someone didn't spill an entire cup of dye all over the table!) And what else did we do that day? Well, Noah learned to ride his bike, with no training wheels. Yippee! Phase one of Project Bike ride around Lake Constance is complete.
Tomorrow is a new day.