coloring eggs.

let's just pretend that i haven't been totally mia for a month and jump right in, okay? eventually we'll be up to date.

we colored easter eggs friday night.

we were outside in the evening before dinner and the girls were playing dinosaurs: eggs hatching and predators attacking. (poppy makes a great predator, in case you were wondering.) i gave them a five minute warning and told ellie we had to go inside and take a bath so that we could dye eggs.
"no!" she screamed and covered her nest of bouncy balls, "i don't want them to DIE i want them to LIVE!" and i am embarrassed to say that it took a minute for me to connect the dots and correct myself.
we were going to decorate eggs. color eggs. no eggs would be harmed (unless you are counting the hard boiling, i guess).

ellie had grabbed one of those cheap, tacky egg coloring kits while "driving" along in the car cart that week. at the time i was holding a whiny, teething poppy with one arm and grabbing groceries with the other, so i told her to toss it in and she could have it if she behaved the rest of the trip. i bribe. you would too, if you were shopping with them.

so friday night i boiled some eggs and we plopped the little tablets into some vinegar and watched the colors appear. poppy wanted to sample the "juice" so we set her up with some crayons at another table, which surprisingly worked for a minute (they are on a huge coloring kick).

i had some vague memories of last year and i know my ellie, so i gave up all ideas of control and possibly cute little pinterest eggs and let her at them. i think she dipped each egg in each color at least once, then i noticed that the colors weren't sticking very well. i added some food coloring to the colored vinegar and around that time, poppy got interested again and started trying to open the food coloring and squeeze it in the floor. ellie stopped trying to use the little wand that came with the kit and started plopping the eggs from cup to cup with her fingers. it was insanity. they love insanity.

in the end, the eggs ended up mostly brownish and acid-washed-looking (and so did ellie's hands), but ellie took a page right out of wreck-it ralph and declared them the most beautiful eggs in the world. i convinced them to let me "dry" the eggs and get a couple of pictures before they covered them with the nonsensical stickers (putting stickers of eggs ON eggs? and then random sports stickers? i don't know.). the paper towels we used for clean up ended up more vibrant than our eggs did.

i truly do love the eggs, even if they might be slightly embarrassing. they are all her and she was so proud. that's what matters, even if i am already trying to figure out how to remember to try and get out of dyeing (sorry, coloring) eggs next year.

after the pictures, poppy got her hands on an egg and smashed it in her hand. i was surprised it took that long, honestly. i told the girls we would go ahead and eat that one. instead of throwing a fit, which i expected, ellie wanted to crack one of hers open and eat it, too. i couldn't believe it. it was very UN-ellie-like behavior.

we cracked another, they ate most of the yolks and then suddenly they were totally over the whole activity. well, really i think they just wanted to smash all the eggs but i couldn't take that additional mess so we wrapped it up and called it a night.

i love my girls and their creativity and imagination. i love watching them smile with pride over what they've done, but at the same time it seems like they realize that enjoying themselves and expressing themselves matters so much more than the finished product. it's a reminder of what's really important.

and those eggs are so not important. those smiles are.

(one blurry smile, ten stained fingers)