Easter Eggs

Easter time means Easter eggs. I boiled dozens and dozens and far too many of them cracked, but we still had over four dozen to dye and decorate. Kara found some new techniques to try on Pinterest. 

First the children tried food coloring mixed with backing soda painted on the egg. After the egg was painted vinegar is poured over it. The egg fizzes. The children enjoyed painting with the food coloring, but it was time consuming. After thirty minutes we still had three and half dozen eggs to decorate. Kara had planned to put Lincoln to bed before we decorated eggs, but I advocated for his participation. He was very good at this technique. (I don't recommend this technique. It's unduly messy and not superior in any way to other techniques, so why do it?!)

Kara brought out the electrical tape and used it to decorate an egg so that when you dye it, the covered portion doesn't take the dye...it works somewhat. I'm not sure why they suggested electrical tape. It's easier to cut because it's thicker than masking tape, but I don't think it sticks that well to the curved top and bottom of the eggs. Only two or three eggs were decorated with this method.

We pulled out the egg spinner. It's always a big hit with the children, but it doesn't usually produce pretty eggs. All the colors get layered and the egg ends up black or brown. However, spinning is fun, fun, fun. We were surprised how good Lincoln was at spinning.

Next it was fancy napkins and Mod Podge (thick glue). This technique was slow and sticky, very sticky. Bentley did three or four eggs and Jake and Viva did one each. There were still three dozen eggs to color.

Lincoln was sent to bed before we started dying eggs in color baths. This technique, the traditional one, is the fastest, but has a high potential for disaster. We have a wooden floor and we don't want it turned blue or green or pink. After Lincoln left the children finished coloring the rest of the eggs.