It's Spring, Right?

Oh my - it's snowing outside, and the high today is only going to be in the 30's. Much more typical of a February day, but spring comes slowly here in the East. Like a child hiding behind his mother's skirt, poking his head out, then retreating behind. Those robins who returned are going to be a bit chilly today.

I'm trying to ignore the fact that it's 68 and sunny, both in Denver and Dallas where the rest of our family lives. No use dwelling on the fact that it's too early to put away sweaters and such. 'Is what is' as our family says...

Today Landon is coming to play with me for the entire day! I often have him here for a few hours but today he should arrive with that sleepy look still on his face, probably in need of some breakfast, and he'll be returned to his parents after he wakes up from afternoon nap, whenever that is. His parents are busy getting their house ready to move into, and I'm not at all sure they're going to be able to pull off egg dyeing this year, so Landon and I will just get that job taken care of.

He and I decorated Easter Eggs last year when he was visiting, and I decided to repeat the tradition. This time next year I'll be living in Texas, possibly dyeing eggs with three other little ones, but for now Landon and I will make another memory.

But I don't have one of those kits. Don even volunteered to pick one up for me, but it made me think back to a sweet memory of my years growing up. There were six of us, and every single year our mom would boil six dozen eggs, cover that laminated kitchen table with newspaper, and let us go at it. Dye was put in the coffee cups around the table, crayons were scattered about and off we'd go. We didn't have Paas kits or stickers or little metal scoops to pick our eggs out of the cups when they were done. We had vinegar and food coloring and kitchen spoons. On Easter Sunday we'd scurry across the lawn, donned in our best clothes with baskets in hand, and dig through the monkey grass, hunting for eggs. After they were all found on the first round, the kids would take turns hiding them for each other. Of course eggs were placed in glaring places for the little ones to 'discover'.

So this year I'm going to go back a bit. Do it the way my mom did. Here's the recipe in case you don't have a Paas kit either, or maybe just want to do it the old-fashioned way:

Place 1/2 Tbsp of food color and 2 tsp of vinegar in a deep cup. Fill 2/3 full with boiling water. Let water cool a bit before allowing kids to help. Some supervision is good with this method, since the water will be hot. I don't remember a single one of us ever getting burned, and I'm confident it was a bit chaotic with six of us at it. Kitchen spoons will work just fine to remove the eggs and they can be placed back in the egg cartons to dry. Slotted ones might be helpful.

Crayons can be used to decorate the eggs before dyeing. We used to write everyone's name on an egg. One Tbsp of oil can be added to a cup for a marbled effect, and rubber bands can be placed around eggs to give them a different look too. You can go here for more ideas.

I expect we're going to have so much fun it won't matter one bit that it's snowy and cold outside.