Easter Egg Dying - The Old Fashioned Way

So, is there anyone else out there, besides me, who still likes to boil eggs to dye at Easter? I know that, if you go to an Easter egg hunt, it really isn't practical to boil several hundred eggs to go hide in the grass. Besides the fact that kids don't really want an actual EGG to eat as their prize, but would much rather have CANDY, if you miss any of the eggs, there will be a TERRIBLE stench within just a few days, and you are guaranteed to find any that were left. But at home, my kids and I still LOVE to sit around the table and color our eggs whatever beautiful colors we can imagine.

This year, Baby Girl was old enough to join in on the fun. She is two now, so I knew it would still be a crazy MESS, but I also knew there was no way we could leave her out. She already thinks she's as big as the other three, and if she saw them having fun and she wasn't allowed to participate - well, let's just say it wouldn't have been a pretty sight. So I made sure NOT to let the other kids do the eggs until after Baby Girl's nap.

We all gathered around the table with our three dozen boiled eggs, vinegar, and food coloring. YES, I boiled three dozen eggs! I would have boiled four dozen, but the man that I buy from didn't have that many white eggs. So we had to settle with only nine eggs per kid. Trust me, if you ever try to dye eggs with four kids and have to explain to them why they can only have THREE eggs each, you'll won't be laughing at me anymore. You'll understand then!

All three of the older kids knew what to do, and Britches and Little Man went to work dying their eggs just perfectly - well, sort of. I was trying to help Little Sister, but I was too busy trying to make sure Baby Girl didn't drink the colored vinegar water or dump the cups everywhere, so I was glad Little Sister caught on pretty well and was able to handle hers alone. Baby Girl LOVED putting her egg in the spoon, dropping it (with a splash) into the dye, and immediately pulling it back out to see the new color. She squealed with delight over each egg. It was the greatest sound in the world. And even Britches and Little Man quit with their eggs for awhile just to watch her excitement and listen to her squeals and laughter! They both told me this year's egg dying was the best time they had ever had.

My sweet Baby Girl had so much fun dying her eggs, and everything else!

Two sweet sisters, aka partners in crime!

Baby Girl was just too excited to worry with pulling the eggs out with the spoon. She would pull some of them up with the spoon and then grab them with her hands, and then for the rest, she just reached her hand down into the cup to get her egg.

 Little Sister is hugging her egg. Yeah, that was a mess.

She was very proud of her eggs!

Little Man was actually PATIENT this year, and left his eggs in the dye longer. So they actually came out really great colors! 

And when Britches finished, she said, "Look mama. It's Roy G. Biv. Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet." (That would be the colors of the rainbow, in case you didn't know.) She amazes me with the things she comes up with!

We had the best time together dying eggs! I was so glad I set aside time to do that with them. This is a tradition in our house each year. I would encourage you, if you don't already, go beyond the plastic candy-filled eggs, and make some memories of your own with your kids over a few mugs of egg dye. And if you did dye eggs with your kids this year, I would LOVE to hear about it! Leave me a comment and share all the fun your family had!