Let's call this our dry run for the Bunny.

Last year I stumbled across a website that had the most vibrant dyed Easter eggs - and everything you needed to do to hollow out, dye and fill your own eggs for an Easter egg hunt.  Since I didn't have the time or the energy or, actually, come to think of it, my own house (we were in the process of packing and moving, so Easter was at my Mom's), I just read the post for it's recipe on how to dye eggs.  This year, however, I'm taking Easter to a whole new level.

I am going to make the eggs for our Easter egg hunt.  I did a trial run over the weekend to ensure that this was, in fact, going to be a feasible undertaking.  We all know that sometimes I get these grandiose ideas in my head, but fail at the executions (see: Finn's 1st Birthday Cake). However, this time was different. The process is a bit time consuming, it's not something that can be done in an hour or two, but I think the results are going to so much fun in a couple of weekends when we have a full-on Easter Egg Hunt in our back yard.

Step 1: Crack a small hole in the bottom of your eggs - or drill a small hole if you have a drill. I chose to use a pointy nut-cracker thing that I found in my junk drawer because: a) I wanted to be able to eat the eggs after I got them out of the shells and b) we don't own a teeny-tiny drill. I probably should have taken a picture of the eggs as I cracked and emptied them, but I didn't. Sorry.

Step 2:  Following the original instructions, empty the shells, clean them out of remaining egg matter and then boil the shells for 10 minutes to make sure they are good and clean and ready for your Easter fillings.  Allow the egg shells to dry completely.  Note: THE SHELLS ARE FRAGILE!  They will crack easily.  That's the point later on when the eggs are found and need to be cracked open to get the surprises out, but for now, be gentle!

Step 3: Following the original recipe, make your egg dyes.  Boiling water, vinegar and both regular and neon food coloring will do the trick.  After you've made your dyes, submerge one egg in each color.  The original recipe has soaking times for each color, as well, to get the optimal color.  I didn't really follow the time guidelines - mine were in longer, although for how long, I can't really say.  I sometimes don't pay attention to time.  Also, I was taking pictures.  Go figure.

Step 4: Allow your son to run around the back yard in just a diaper and some shoes.  If you're lucky, the neighbors will think nothing of you taking pictures of a bunch of colored jars and begging your half-nudie baby to "not touch!"  And yes, he's just beyond each shot, pointing and giggling.

Step 5: Continue to allow them to soak.  They get so much prettier the longer they soak.

Step 6: Remove eggs from dye when you think they've soaked enough.  I used a lone chopstick and my fingers to get the eggs out.  Place them on a cooling rack with a paper towel underneath so you don't stain your counters.  You want the air to circulate up into the bottom of the shells to dry out the inside, too, so if you don't have a cooling rack, you can let them dry in your empty egg carton, just flip them over when the outside is dry.  Allow them to dry completely.  I left mine out overnight.  This is where the time-consuming part of the project comes in.

Step 7: Fill the eggs.  I used pastel colored M&M's over the weekend (because I love peanut m&m's more than just about anything in the whole entire wide world), but I'll probably find some really small surprises to put in the eggs for our hunt.  To cover the bottom of the eggs after you've filled them, use small muffin papers.  Again...I forgot to take a picture - sorry.  I was having too much fun!  I found mini-white cupcake liners at the Wals-mart, I put a little glue around the bottom of my egg, near the hole, then attached the cupcake liner and put them back into the egg carton, paper side down, until the glue was dry.  Voila!  And we have eggs for a hunt.

Step 8: Hide the eggs and practice finding them.  I think he's got it down.

Big FUN plans this week:  Uriah's birthday is tomorrow!  (I love birthdays!).  We are also going to make some more eggs.  We are going to make some Bunny Bait.  We're going to try finger painting.  We are going to get some Easter books from the library.  And Abby has her first school dance.

If you'd like to see some more fun pictures, head over here to I Should Be Folding Laundry.  Last week I had such sweet comments left after participating in the black & white challenge, it made me smile every time I read something someone wrote!  I love that inspiring feeling!  Anyway, I have a feeling I will be adding fun pictures all week...like the two newest additions to our family that I will be sharing with you tomorrow!


Next week's challenge: White


See you later, alligators!