Easter Eggs

I know I said this week would be about highlighting the fun foods I made for our Irish night, but I figured maybe I should throw in something about Easter, since that is a holiday you still have time to prepare for! I read an article today from Mother Earth News that I found very interesting about using natural plant dyes for your Easter Eggs that seems easy, fun and educational.

Eggs done with natural dyes.

Picture from MEN's website.

My mom never seemed too big a fan of doing Easter eggs. Perhaps the idea of trying to control the chaos that can ensue when you hand dye over to a couple of rambunctious prone to fighting kids wasn't her idea of a good time. I, however, love doing Easter eggs every year and even as a high schooler would sometimes do a little basket of them just for fun. I did experience a bit of the fear I imagine my mother felt last year when I dyed eggs with small children for the first time. Watching those little cups of dye teeter tottering on the table top as the parents tried to focus the little ones on gently dipping their eggs in them was...a bit scary to say the least. That's not to say I'm not looking forward to dipping a few eggs with the same family this year, I'll just be a bit more prepared for what's in store.

Like many mothers who hear the, "when I'm a mom I'll..." stories and chuckle with the knowledge of what motherhood is really like, I think the mother of the children mentioned above gets a kick out of many of my future child rearing schemes (cloth diapers being a prime example). This natural dye thing might be added to that list, but I think it sounds easy enough to replace the store bought dye sets. If you have a range of kid ages, it can also give the older kids something to contribute by letting them take the reigns/assist in the dye making process.

I could rewrite the basics of the Mother Earth News article, but honestly, theirs was pretty awesome. You should just follow this link and check it out for yourself. It teaches your how to easily make the three primary colors, then you can mix them from there (also educational). Enjoy!