Dyeing Ester Eggs

Jasper is so excited for Easter, and I have to admit, I love it too. I really enjoy dyeing Easter eggs and wanted to try a couple new techniques that I spied on Pinterest. Errrr, let's just say we barely made it through the traditional way intact. Between the boiling water, fumbling 2 year old fingers, and DYE, I was hesitant to just let him experiment like I usually do. But all in all we had a good time, only smashed one egg and each have stained finger tips.

Checking on the green

Putting all our eggs in one basket

This is the egg that didn't make it.
We did try a little experimenting with tissue paper and saran wrap.

These turned out to be my favorites!

Easter Egg-stravaganza!

I love how kid friendly our neighborhood is! Between the annual Egg Hunt, Spooky Playground, Block Party, Santa Visits and The Fall Fest, it seems like there is always something for the kiddies to do. And somehow I am involved with the planning and execution of all of them! The Egg hunt is a pretty big undertaking, two age separated hunts, Easter Bunny visit, tattoo stations, cupcake decorating, Easter grass planting, and treasure hunting. Phew! We must have stuffed at least 800 eggs last night. Last year Jasper was sooooo into the Easter Bunny, wanted to pet her and sit on her lap, this year- not so much. The cupcakes and egg hunting were calling.

Jasper being wary of the bunny, but he really wanted an "Easter carrot."

Carrot or cupcake?

Amazingly, the carrot wins, 4 carrots consumed vs. 1 cupcake top.

The 4 and unders patiently waiting.

He has no idea of the chaos that will ensue.

Now, I don't really have photos of the actual hunt, there was a bit of a trampling. By the time Jasper recovered and wanted to try to get eggs, they were mostly gone. :( But we found a golden egg hidden in the play house and that remedied the situation.

And another carrot...

And hanging out with good buddies...

And by the end of the day all was good again.

Painting the Darkness

We got some fun glitter paint this week and wanted to try it out. Jasper wanted to try the black so we decided to paint "darkness."

We drew with some yellow crayon to try out some paint resists. Jasper asked me to draw the stars and moon for the sparkly night sky.

Glowing Easter egg Hunt!

Saturday's storminess provided the perfect opportunity for a special kind of egg hunt. I took the little LED lights I got from the craft store and put them in some plastic Easter eggs. Then I drew the curtains in the living room and hid them while Jasper waited (patiently as he could) in another room. He was delighted to hunt for them in "the dark." We must have hid and hunted at least 20 times!

The hunt begins, couch cushions were perfect hiding spots.

collecting eggs

"Look how many!"

Water Beads

I found some awesome "aqua beads" that are usually used for floral arrangements, and thought they'd be a fun sensory type item to play with in our water table. I got the idea after seeing a post about using them with black light. We aren't there yet with our "experiments," so some good old fashion squishing and pouring is fine for us. The beads grow in size with water and are non-toxic.

Before soaking the beads in water, Jasper is showing how small they are.
"Very, very small!"
Waiting patiently

They're starting to grow!
The next day, after they had been been fully hydrated, we put them in the water table with scoops and measuring devices.

Splashing about, perfect for a hot day.
Measuring and dumping
Counting
*These are not for really little guys, as they are very tempting to put in the mouth. They do look like candy, and are the perfect size for choking. They are totally reusable, store them in a closed container so they stay hydrated, or let them dry out and then soak again to play.

Dirt!

Since we've accomplished a lot inside our house (new kitchen, master bath, master bedroom, Jasper's room), and Mitch's renovation of the rental house is complete, we've turned our eyes upon our yard. So plans have begun for a back yard reno, including a large patio, fire pit, pergola, a pizza oven (!), some more landscaped flower beds, and a serious veggie garden. In the previous years we've had the garden on the side yard where the dogs couldn't trample through it. This was problematic since watering it was difficult and there was a little bit of "out of sight out of mind" happening. I was usually the sole tender to the garden, and really there was only so much I could do with the little strip of earth. This year we have big plans! A large 12 x12 space has been cleared, including moving of a lot of perennials and bulbs, a garden box has been built, and now DIRT!!! Jasper had such a good time climbing up into Daddy's truck and helping to shovel the dirt out. Around here we call it "The Monster Truck." Now, onto seed sowing! So here's to spring and the garden growing!

The Glowing Egg

I found these submersible led lights at Michaels and put one in an egg at bath time. How much fun is that? Glowy, floaty egg at bath time! Net time I'm going to putting in 5-6 and give him a small net to catch them.