natural dyed easter eggs

Yesterday and this afternoon Oliver and I worked on dying some Easter eggs.  Instead of the little kit we used different foods and spices.  We did this last year also, but it worked a lot better this time around.

You can google or pinterest search plenty of ideas.  Here is the basics on what we used and did.
Before cooking the eggs we gave them a little wash with dish soap and warm water
For the food items we chopped and boiled them then poured the colored liquid into a smaller pot with 3-4 eggs.
For the spices we just put a palm full into the small pot and added the eggs.
We used raw eggs and cooked the eggs in the colored water. 
We also threw in 1/4 cup of vinegar while the eggs were cooking

Once the eggs were cooked, about ten minutes, we spooned the eggs into a bowl and poured the color over them and let the eggs set until they reached our desired color. 

Ha.  This was the "cleaning out the fridge recipe"

Chopped up a red cabbage & boiled it
these are my favorite
Oliver enjoyed eating the boiled cabbage while I made dinner...isn't he awesome?

my house smells like and Indian restaurant

Now, in my kindergarten teacher brain I think mixing some of that red cabbage liquid with some of the turmeric will yield me with green eggs.  No, that's not the case...you just get light yellow eggs.  Oliver really wanted some green ones, so we cheated and added a squeeze of green food coloring, not so natural.

the beet liquid was really beautiful, we saved it to try to make paint

 

I read that paprika would make orange, it didn't work.  I threw those not so orange eggs into the beets and it made these awesome speckled eggs.  A lovely fail. 

on the table

Give it a try.  Super fun and easy.  Oliver really loved it and said things like "blue, I thought it would be red"
"oh my it got spots"  "that yellow looks smooth" 

minus those green ones...

glow in the dark egg hunt!!!

This, by far, is Oliver's most favorite Easter activity.  He runs around like a little crazy man hiding and seeking the eggs.  A perfect pre bed activity and a perfect motivator to get those jammies on and teeth brushed quick!

supplies

-eggs

-basket

-LED lights

We pick our LED lights up in the wedding isle at Michaels and we use a 40% off coupon.

open egg

twist on light

put light in egg
hide
seek

*note, I've never purchased a package of these and had all the lights work

they are finiky

ready to play!!

eggs in the bathrom

eggs in the office

Lydia found one!

egg in the plant

eggs in the basket on the move

painting paper eggs

Oliver loves painting, who doesn't?  So today we cut out a bunch of eggs and got to it. 

We used

-a muffin tin

-paint

-q-tips & paint scrapers

-paper bags

-scissors

-paper

-sharpie (I adore sharpies)

-something to trace (egg cookie cutter)

                                                                              ready to go

                                                                           hard at work

        finished product drying

     once dry we piled books on them to flatten them

    

life sized easter basket

A fun Easter activity for the small one...

Items needed
-kiddie pool
-cozy blanket
-stuff to play with (colorful eggs, basket, etc..)
-baby
-sibling (optional, but adds fun)

Line kiddie pool with cozy blanket

Add fun stuff and unimpressed baby

Practice sitting

Tummy Torture time

Hanging with Cozy Bear

Add brother for extra fun

tis the season

It's that time of the year.  Temperatures are slowly rising, spring is in the air, refreshing times are upon us (though I do love winter and snow, and prefer it over the hot summer) and it's time for some indoor refreshing as well.  Not spring cleaning, just getting on some projects that have been neglected. 

Last spring I did a lot of work upstairs on our bathroom, Oliver's bathroom, and Lydia's room.  Now it is time for some more attention on the lower level. 

So here is the list for the next few months.

I refreshed our porch last spring, but see that ceiling fan
yeah that ceiling fan needs spray paint

see those hardwood floors, we just had them refinished

and they look amazing now
I'd add a amazing "now" photo but I just learned my
camera battery is dead and the charger is...well I'm not sure.

now that our floors look awesome
our table looks awful, so add table refinishing to the list

also, the place where the baseboard meets the floor really
would benefit from a quarter round molding to really finish things off
I called my handy man, he has us on the list


I've hated that light since the day we moved in
get on it already!

In review...

Kitchen table refinish
Adding quarter round molding around the baseboard
Spray paint ceiling fans on the porch
New dining room light
Whatever random projects show up along the way

GO! 

3 months

Happy 3 months to baby Lydia

Likes...
long car rides
drinking baby milk
bath time
diaper changes
kicking her legs
watching Oliver or her hand or the ceiling fan
thinking about rolling

Dislikes
getting strapped down in her car seat
being hungry (after waking up from a long sleep)
bright sun (the curse of the blue eyed)

poopy pants

This story is a tad dated.  I think it happened a month ago, but a month ago I didn't have enough time to type stories....

Listen, I've got a problem.  I'm an over eager diaper changer.  If I hear that something has happened, I'm all over getting it cleaned up in helps of preventing diaper rash and keeping Lydia happy. 

So, I hear that it's happened (come one you know what I'm talking about, don't make me spell it out) and I give it another minute, just in case.  I lay her down on the diaper changing part of her pack and play.  I've got all the necessary goods; fresh cloth diaper, load of wipes, good to go.

I open the diaper, it's there as expected.  Then it happens, mid way through this diaper change Lydia makes a little grunt and before I can cover the exposed area poop just SHOOTS all over.  When I say shoots, I really mean it.  This changing area has raised sides all around it, yet I am covered in poop.  Poop on my hand, arm, shirt.  Poop on my pants and socks.  Luckily, I guess, I managed to "catch" all the poop, so there isn't any on the floor.  Also, of course, there is poop all over the dirty diaper and most of Lydia's bottom half. 

Now what?  What does one do when covered in baby poop?  Try not to move to much.  Avoiding poop on the light tan rug is of up most importance.  Off with my poop clothes, wipe the baby down and the affected changing pad.  While all this poop is going on Lydia is cooing and enjoying looking at the over head light.  I guess I'd feel pretty great if I'd just been though what she had. 

I toss my rolled up poop pants (breastfed baby poop doesn't really stain, so no need to wash right now) and socks into my closet, redress and move on with life.  No here is the real problem, a month of so ago when this occurred I was pretty tired and my head was in a pretty thick "mother of an infant and preschooler" fog.  That night or a day later or something I'm wearing some pajama pants and Jim asks "what's that on your pants?"  Yep, I'm that awesome.