Happy Easter, and the perfect hard boiled egg

The Easter bunny came last night!  We opened baskets first thing, read our new books, played with some cool new toys, ate chocolate before breakfast, worked in the yard, took a siesta, and then headed for a picnic to share cuban sandwiches and cupcakes under warm sunshine. It was a beautiful day.

Yesterday we dyed our easter eggs. To prep them for coloring, I boiled a dozen a la Martha Stewart and they were so good we ate every one of them before the afternoon was over. The boiled egg isn't fool proof, but this is as easy as it gets.

• Place a dozen eggs in a pot and cover with cool water  
• Bring to a boil over medium heat
• Remove the pot from the heat, let eggs sit for 12 minutes
• Transfer eggs to a colander and run cold water over the eggs until they are cool to the touch  
• Eat, eat, eat. Repeat

Happy Easter!

An Early Easter Egg Hunt

We co-hosted an easter egg hunt this afternoon. It rained some, but the kids weren't bothered. When the excitement of the hunt was over and all the eggs had been cracked open in search of treats, we piled high some ah-mazing ice cream sundaes (wish I had taken some pictures!!) and tried not to be too piggish in front of our new friends. We can't wait to see what the Easter Bunny brings us next weekend!

Easter eggs

I've been wanting to try natural dyes for Easter eggs, and since Roscoe's little paws are in the mix this year the timing is perfect. I bought a short ebook online and gathered my supplies.

We took the easy route and used ingredients that we already had on hand: saffron, beets, paprika, chili powder, and grape juice. For each color I combined two tablespoons of spice in two cups of boiled water and let it simmer for 10 minutes. Then I poured the dye into a bowl with two tablespoons of vinegar. I boiled three dozen eggs and prepared the dyes the night before so that we were all set to go when Roscoe woke up this morning.

I rolled out the splat mat (one of our best baby/toddler purchases to date) and set out the bowls of dye. Roscoe hand dropped all the eggs into his bowls of choice and then stirred them around with a spoon. We let them sit over breakfast and when he pulled them out they were so pretty!

Once they dried, we rubbed each egg with a few drops of olive oil intensifying the color and giving it a glossy finish (maybe we used a tad too much!). I love how they turned out though--more beautiful than any dye from a Paas box.

Now that we've tried it, I can't imagine going back to our old ways. There's a lot of opportunity for creativity with this method too. Different ingredients, different colors, lots of fun to be had reinvigorating an Easter tradition. I'd love to make green and blue next year.

Good lesson, cute package

In addition to a basket full of Easter chocolate, which Momma and Poppa happily devoured for him, Roscoe also received from his Grandparent's a great book called I Love Monkey.

The book begins with a little monkey, in socks, who really wants to be something special. He tries to be a bunny, but finds that the role is "too floppy". He tries to be a cucumber but decides that it is way "too cool". He continues to try on different roles that just don't feel quite right to Monkey.

My favorite is when Monkey tries to be sushi:

You can probably guess how the book ends. Monkey has "a wonderful thought" that perhaps if he can't be any of those other things, then he can be "one very special thing"--himself!