I’ve been dying Easter eggs with my kids for, what?, 12 years, I think. We’ve colored hundreds of hard boiled eggs. And over the years, we have collected quite an assortment of egg decorating accessories. So each Spring, we pull out the bag of egg dye equipment and set to work.
This year, though, seems to have been more of an egg fail than anything else.
TIP: Boil the eggs the same day that you plan to decorate.
Last Friday, I hard boiled 27 eggs, but didn’t find time to decorate with the kids until Sunday. By the time I pulled out the egg carton, 13 eggs were left. I ended up having to buy another dozen eggs to cook.
TIP: Don’t leave 4 kids alone in the kitchen with eight cups of dye. Things could get messy. Even in the time that it takes to run one load of laundry.
TIP: Encourage kids to dye the “old-fashioned” way–by dropping eggs in a cup full of colored water and stinky vinegar. It works.
My kids are determined to have “tie-dyed” eggs. Kinda cool, but very messy. And most of our eggs look brown or green now.
TIP: Don’t dye eggs if you want your kids hands to look clean anytime in the next week.
TIP: Don’t dye peeled eggs. They DO hold onto the color really well….however, they feel really disgusting when you pick them up out of the cup, and they don’t smell very pleasant, either.
TIP: Don’t use dye of a questionable age.
Tip: Don’t worry about what the eggs look like. Just have fun.
Despite the mess (my counter is still green and red), the fact is that the kids had fun. Our eggs might not be the most beautiful but they still make a pretty good Deviled Egg.
© 2010, Food Fun Family. All rights reserved.
Dear Friends, Happy Easter!!
They look like they had so so much fun. I am sure it was quite the mess! Thanks for the tips!
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So fun you captured some great photos’ we do ours this Friday
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What a darling family you have! I have fond memories of dying Easter eggs as a child, and not so fun as a parent… I think that’s how it goes sometimes.
Travelin’Oma sent me your way. I’m glad I took a look.
I bet they had a lot if fun..:0 I haven’t done those yet..better buy some eggs tomorrow..;)
Cute post and adorable pictures. These are the eggs that memories are made of :)
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What great pictures! Thanks for the dying tips. hee hee ;-)
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They look terrific! And very vibrant. *Smile* Having fun is the most important part of all.
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I haven’t been brave enough to try this with my small children yet. I am trying to overcome my fear of messy activities. You have inspired me to try, even when it is sure to be a disastrous mess!
I followed Travelin’ Oma over here and am glad I decided to stop by.
I had something nice to say and then I read about the “rubber cement” method. Huh? Had never heard that. All other thoughts left my mind.
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Looks like the most fun way to die eggs!!
This is how great of a Mother I am– I FORGOT about Easter this weekend. THIS WEEKEND!
We will be dying eggs toot-sweet!
Those are GREAT tips:-)
Great pics…we haven’t done ours yet…we will probably do them a week after Easter, due to the fact we are having trouble getting together with our grand kids…
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I adore coloring eggs. I always make sure to take pictures of the mess. Especially since da hubbster is a neat freak.
LOVED your pictures. FUN!!! Oh and deviled eggs are delish. Just watch out for the egg farts that are soon to follow :)
Alita
My kids always want to over dip too. We end up with the same brown eggs, lol. Last year we used old ties and boiled the eggs with the ties rubber banded to the eggs. They pick up the print of the tie. Very cool and no dye!
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LOL…those are great! Evan kept trying to eat the colored water and egg last year! I hope that he enjoys it this year..I can’t wait to do it this weekend.
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they look just great. Oh I know about the dyed hands. We haven’t done ours yet, however I will make them use food gloves, so those little hands will be just right for Easter Day.
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Here is Dumb Mom’s Tip: Don’t dye them at all, buy the plastic ones! Okay, okay I know that’s not traditional, but what do you even do with like 30 hard boiled eggs?!
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You got dyed eggs and hands! Two crafts in one!
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The eggs look marvelous – like serious fun happened in the process. And the pictures are great!
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I love your fun pictures and hints for Easter. My readers are here on an Easter egg hunt. I’ve hidden a “hard-boiled egg.” We’ll be back to explore your blog!
Okay so I was going to dye eggs with the kids tomorrow night but ummmmm yeah I think we’ll be doing it in the garage and with gloves on!
But they eggs came out great and the kids are adorable!!
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Great pictures! We haven’t dyed eggs yet, but I think this year we might try the rubber cement method. Put rubber cement on them, dye them, then peel the glue off. I hope it works better than my cheater way last year of eggs in a colander, poured vinegar over them, then dropped dots of dye on them. My husband was deployed though and I was looking for the easy way out. It turned out pretty sad though. This year, he can be in charge!
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We haven’t done ours yet (not until Saturday when Russ is here!)
looks like your kids had a wonderful time and their eggs look “perfect” :)
I always just do traditional egg dying. Makes for pretty vibrant eggs .
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I think your eggs look fantastic! We’re decorating some this weekend, the first time for the kiddo. I have no idea what to expect. Other than a mess of course.
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You forgot?! Good thing you still have some time left. I expect some good egg dyeing pictures next week. ;)
Their fingers are already looking better….but their finger nails? Um, not yet. I’ve been enjoying a deviled egg every day. Yum!
We (as in me and my siblings) always did the traditional egg dyeing kit. I love your Iron Tail Egg story. I’ll have to tell my kids about that. The only problem (seriously) is that they would ALL want to make a black egg. ;)
I think you’d get along great with my kids, too. Want to take a couple for a few months? I love your summer time dyeing idea!!
Fun times four! You’ll have to try it out and take lots of pictures!
They really did have fun. I think they just like getting messy. :)
CRAP.
I FORGOT about decorating Easter Eggs.
Seriously FORGOT.
I LOVE these shots.
Thank you for the reminder. :)
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Oh man, I wonder how long it will take for their fingers to look normal again! Fun though, they made me hungry for deviled eggs!
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Hi Lolli,
That is a great post and so timely! I grew up decorating Easter eggs the “the old fashioned” way, too. Is there another way other than the Haas Easter Egg Kit? We loved it as kids and I now do it with my own kids. The funnest (most fun?) part was making what we called the Iron Tail Egg. In the annual cartoon TV movie, Here Comes Peter Cotton Tail, there was an evil rabbit (voice played by Vincent Price) called Iron Tail who was up to no good through the whole movie. He had this black tail made of iron. We used to take one egg and let it soak for a few minutes in EVERY color until it turned black. We called this the Iron Tail Egg. It was the BEST part of decorating eggs.
Thanks for reminding me of some fun times as a kid!
Holly
I love coloring eggs. I always end up purple for a week afterward. I think I’d get along fabulously with your colorful kids.
A few years ago I had the bright idea to buy an extra box of dye and save it. We dye eggs sometime in the summer outside and it is AWESOME.
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I love dying Easter eggs. We have do it with Hayden for the past couple of years. It will be interesting to see how it goes when we add the little kids. :)
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They look great to me and it looks like they all had so much fun!! I will admit, I enjoy dyeing the eggs just as much as the kids do. :)
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