Colorful Eggs

On Good Friday, we kicked off a weekend of Easter celebration. Eric had the day off work, and we started things off with a Good Friday family event at the church where Ellie will be attending preschool in the fall. They had "storytime" for the children in the courtyard, which chronicled Jesus' life, then we moved into the auditorium for craft time. Each child completed a series of crafts that would remind them about Lent and Easter. Ellie really got into it and, considering we weren't gung ho about attending a church service as solemn as Good Friday with two little ones in tow, it was nice to get to some sort of kid-friendly church on that day.

Ellie at craft time

That evening, we colored our Easter eggs. I got everything set up on a plastic tablecloth in the backyard, and then let the kids have at it.

Let's get ready for some egg-dying!

We let Ellie get things started before letting Hurricane E.J. in to join her. She enjoyed putting the eggs in the bowls and rolling them around, and was much more eager to experiment with mixing colors than she was last year.

Ellie coloring eggs

Closer view

Splash!

Colorful fingers!

When the dying was good and underway, we added E.J. into the mix. That lasted just long enough for a dear photo of the kids dying eggs together...

Teamwork! Family togetherness!

...before it went exactly as you may have expected dying eggs with a nine-month-old would go.

Yup. That's about right.

He has the best "who, me?" forehead.

Naturally, he found the eggs to be delicious, because he finds everything that is not actually food intended for him to be delicious.

I'm feeling pretty happy I just used vinegar, water and food-coloring and not a more chemical-y dying method.

Delish.

He also enjoyed the Styrofoam bowls, because of course he did.

Crunchy.

Needless to say, we dyed more than just Easter eggs.

Oops.

But, the eggs turned out nicely...

Our finished eggs!

...and we had a perfect way to clean up: by rinsing off in the new kiddie pool!

Now this is how you get clean!

E.J. did not care for being forced to skinny dip (that baby was PURPLE, and desperate times call for naked purple babies in the pool)...

Not having it.

...but Ellie had a great time!

Definitely having it.

We also moved her slide over so she could slide down into the water, and that was a hit.

So much fun!

Big splash!

She also loved the hose!

This is going to be a fun summer in our backyard!

Meanwhile, E.J. and I hung out on the back steps while Ellie played and Eric took pictures.

My sweet baby boy

It was a really nice little family activity. I'd say E.J.'s first Easter weekend was off to a great start!

Little Easter egg!