To Dye For

(Was that title too punny? Oh well, I don't care!) Today Alton and I got together with Karen and *P for the kids' first egg-dyeing experience. We prepped our kits by mixing the cups full of liquid dye, setting out sheets of stickers, popping those little cardboard circles out of the backs of the packages to make an egg-drying station, and bending those little dipper thingies into place. One kit even came with little packets of paints and tiny sponges for sponge-speckling the eggs with color. We got the cousins suited up in mega-bibs with sleeves to ensure that only their fingers would get rainbow-tinted, and then dug in.

Brandishing stickers and a blue-daubed painting sponge, I handed Alton an egg and--SMASH! Before I could encourage him to begin the decorating process, he gripped the egg tightly in both hands and repeatedly whacked it on the placemat in front of him. Clearly, all those mornings I let him watch me make scrambled eggs he was filing that information away for later: "Egg...equals...smack...hard...against...something....Got it!" I think I managed to press a bunny sticker against the forlorn shattered egg before prizing that one out of his hand and getting ready with a second one. With the next egg, I pressed the paint sponge into his hand and he loved dabbing the egg with the paint...until I went to get a new color of sponge paint for some variety, and not only did he smash the egg, he cradled it in his palms and then squeezed, until a big piece of eggshell with hard-boiled flesh sticking to it came loose and fell off, like a decapitated Humpty-Dumpty. As I set aside another war-ravaged specimen, Alton raised the paint sponge to his lips to have a little taste of green. With plenty of eggs in reserve, we moved on to Number 3, and he managed to transfer color with only a few overeager thumb dents pressed into the sides of Mr. Eggo. With that, Alton had pretty much had enough, so we mommies proceeded to get the kids wiped down and decorate the remaining eggs ourselves.




Throughout much of Alton's egg-busting drama, *P was content to play on the floor with Alton's toys, which were new and interesting since it wasn't her house! Karen finally coaxed her up to the table to place a few stickers on an egg (and managing to leave a few cracks of her own on the surface of the shell), but then she was all done! Back to playtime!

When Auntie Karen picked up Alton's Peter Cottontail book, an early Easter gift from Nonna and Papa, Alton made a beeline for the couch and begged her to read it. *P was also persuaded to have a seat for some bunny fun.

Looks like Peter is both surprising and hilarious!


Our crop of eggs, post-color (dented eggs in background, non-dented in foreground, of course).