A Festive Mess

...Also known as: "Ellie's First Easter-Egg-Coloring Experience."

Easter egg!

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter weekend! Ours was quite nice, indeed. We stayed put in Jacksonville (we're headed down to St. Petersburg to see family next weekend), and although the lousy weather we had altered some of our plans, we had a great time. Our weekend ended up being a perfect combination of fun festivity mixed with nesting productivity, so I was one happy mama by Sunday night.

We kicked things off on Thursday evening by coloring Easter eggs - the first time Eric and I have done so in years, and Ellie's first time in life. Let me tell you, it was a HUGE HIT. That kid was in her glory and she is obsessed with Easter eggs now.

We opted to not use a kit, but rather just made dye out of food coloring (about 20-25 drops of neon-colored food coloring, one tablespoon vinegar and one cup hot water per color). I figured that way, if she got to drinking the stuff I wouldn't have to be worrying about what is in those color tablets from the box kits (I already made my first call to Poison Control on Ellie's behalf a couple months ago, after she mistook baby oil for water, and I was not eager to do it again). The dye turned out great and really left the eggs with nice, vibrant hues. And, Ellie had no interest in drinking it. Success all around!

We stripped Ellie down to her diaper, set up a "tarp" (really a shower curtain liner for the Dollar Store) on the floor of our dining room, laid out the eggs and bowls of colored water and let Ellie do her thing. I was envisioning sort of an experiment, with mixing colors and seeing what came of that and such, but Ellie was very organized. She put three eggs in each color and kept them there. She would take them out then put them back in, but always in their appropriate color. No mix and match here! And that was okay with us. We just sat back and watched her explore. She loved it.

Getting started!

She's already pretty pleased.

Putting the eggs on a cooling rack to dry...or, to sit for a quick minute before Ellie started dunking them back in the dye again.

Hey, a little sensory exploration never hurt anybody.

Taking a moment to plan her next move

Next move decided: JOY.

Finished eggs!

Ellie didn't want the fun to end, but we were able to tear her away from the dye bowls with the promise of a bath. I'm pleased to report that with a bit of scrubbing (thanks, Eric!), all that dye came off her skin. Further success!

Since then, Ellie has been just as excited about eating the eggs as she was about coloring them, and every morning she requests a specific color for breakfast. So, even more success - she's eating eggs!

I'm so glad we didn't shy away from the promise of a mess that coloring eggs with a two-year-old certainly brings, because it was a lot of fun and Ellie sure had a blast. We're all looking forward to doing this again next year!

Happiness!