Egg Time

We conquered the Easter eggs this morning.  Another ordeal, but what isn't with 3 little boys and only 1 of me?!  Plus, it's snowing like crazy AGAIN so what better time to dye Easter eggs...as if I can maybe fool myself into thinking that it really truly is SPRING?!  But anyway...

I didn't get beets (was too lazy to go to the store just to get beets, and obviously I didn't plan ahead as well as I could have!), but decided to go for it this morning with stuff we already had around the house.  Last year we had okay success with spinach, blueberries/raspberries, and turmeric, but the colors weren't very vivid (except the turmeric).  The boys didn't mind because #1: they got to play around in pretty colored water, and #2: they got to eat the eggs afterward, but I was hoping for more vivid colors this year (a la Paas egg dye kits!).  Yeah, that didn't happen, but we had SLIGHTLY more success this year.  The boys had fun, and Archer threw a couple of eggs around and cracked them so we'll be eating those for lunch!  Overall, success.  Here's what we did:

1.  Boiled the eggs.
2.  Got out 3 different pots and put the following in them, along with water: pureed spinach/green tea, blueberries/raspberries/chili powder, and turmeric. 
3.  Boiled the various concoctions for around 15 minutes or so.  I just checked the water periodically to see if it was bright enough.  The spinach looked SO good...until it cooled!  Then it was kinda blah, but the other 2 turned out really nicely.
4.  Let them cool off a little (while the eggs were cooling), and added some vinegar to them.  I also strained the berry pot but didn't strain the spinach and probably should have.  I thought since it was pureed it would be okay, but we ended up with polka-dot eggs (the boys actually liked this, but I thought it looked kinda gross!).
5.  Plunk the eggs in and let them sit!  I am pretty sure that they would have been brighter if we had let them sit a little longer, but I could only convince the boys to wait for 15 minutes.  And even that was a stretch for them! 

B adding an egg to the berry dye

The berry dye was their favorite, as you will see when we get to the finished product!

Archer was kind of a disaster, truthfully.  He kept throwing the eggs and he made P&B pretty upset a few times when he grabbed their eggs and threw them.  Oops.  Maybe this should have been a 2 adult task!  He did have fun though, and he successfully dyed a couple of eggs by himself.

Arch checkin' out the turmeric dye

The finished eggs!  Front row: turmeric, 2-3 rows: berries/chili powder, 4th row: spinach.  The last 2 rows are undyed, so don't mind those!

P&B with their favorite eggs.  They ended up liking the turmeric dyed eggs the best, and I think they were a little disappointed that they dyed so many with the berries!