06 April 2009

A Happy, Cutesy, Cheerful Spring Post

The plans for today? Hot Cross Buns (yummy!), "fluffing" my front perennial garden, making an Easter skirt for Girly-Girl (Silly-Head's is done...), lifting weights (no aerobics; my shins need a rest), and teaching school later when the next batch of April showers kick in - Because, ya know, it MUST be a crime to keep children inside doing math when it's gorgeous outside!

I'm feeling better now. Yea!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Saturday was our little Cookie's second birthday. Ain't she a cutie???



Ji-Ji was in rare form too. He was very silly and giggly! (Sorry he's so "white" looking. My camera and I are NOT friends.)


And here's big-sister, Fireball, torturing her Grampa!


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This week also found us coloring Easter eggs. We decided to use all natural dyes. I'd read some discouraging reports about dull and listless results, but we were not deterred. See, here are all our concoctions, steaming on the stove and counter...



The girls wrapped some of the hard boiled eggs in rubber bands, colored a few with crayons, and left a couple plain. We selected our dyes: turmeric powder, purple cabbage, grape juice, blueberries, onion skins, orange zest, redbush tea, and beets. We simmered the veggies and heated the juice and poured boiling water over the rest. I added 1 tsp vinegar to each bowl, then the girls dropped in their eggs. We made sure they were completely immersed and then let them sit in the dyes overnight. We're not going to eat them, so we didn't worry about refrigeration.

The next morning when we got them out, we were very pleasantly surprised; They were beautiful!!!





Our favorites were probably the spotted beet eggs. The biggest surprise was the redbush tea. Even though the tea is a fabulous golden red, it dyed the egg GREEN! Another shocker were the grape juice eggs. The acid in the juice ate 1/2 way through the shells and rewarded us with sparkly crystals all over the egg! Here are the egg by egg results (You can double-click the pics to see them more clearly):










And finally, here they are displayed in our best Easter fashion.


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Ok folks, that's all for now...I've got to get in the mud and dig before the clouds move in!!!!!

10 comments:

Susan said...

The grandkids are all precious. I like the more natural look of the dyed eggs. Thanks for showing the different things that made the various colors.
Susan

anno said...

Beautiful pictures, every one! I want to try this egg project, too -- thanks for leading the way.

Dawn said...

What a great learning experience that was for you guys - and for us! I love the grape juice and the beet ones. Very enlightening.

I want to say that I am so glad you caught the humor I was trying to get across on my last post - too many took it seriously!

Ms. Kathleen said...

Those eggs are so awesome! You have been busy! I miss having my kids around this time of year - I mean, having them little... If they were hear they'd still be grown now wouldn't they.

Oh well... Have a wonderful week!

Keetha Broyles said...

Oh, they are BEAUTIFUL!!!!

Damselfly said...

What a great science experiment! And it reminds me to do eggs with the boy this year now that he might begin to appreciate it.

notcon4med said...

Wow! I like almost all of them! The orange peel is a bit weak...and I hate tumeric on all fronts, so...

lifepundit said...

Those are just awesome! What a great idea. And how interesting your colors turned out to be. This is sort of like a cross between a science project and a natural Easter. I mean, I'm sure the early Christians used these very same dyes, right? :)

Happy Easter!

Carla Gade said...

beautiful!

Unknown said...

I liked this!