Easter eggs

I keep coming to the holiday-preparation party late this year.  I dream of making them all magical, but then realize that I am sorely out of time for magic.  Easter this year has been no exception. I wanted to try a variety of food-based dyes again -and planned this whole big science-experiment type of family fun. But a week of meetings and open houses and practices, life was in the way.  So we did the best we could - some turmeric, beet, and red cabbage water and a bunch of crayons.

The food-based dyes are fun - we did them last year.  But the time that it takes for the dye to set is beyond the patience of my boys right now.  Instead of having them focus on the dying, they used crayons to design their own eggs.  And boy, did that show us a lot about each of them and their understanding of the Easter holiday.  The oldest one?  He drew a family outside a church. The little one? Some sort of Star Wars battle (which he has never seen).  Yeah. But they had a great time using crayons on both cold and hot eggs (which gave us a beautiful, melted wax affect).

Once they were done coloring, we placed the eggs in the dye, and put them back in the fridge while we headed off for a soccer game.  When we came home, they were done.  And I have to admit that I was a little disappointed in how they turned out.  We had much better luck last year. But once again, the kids didn't care.  They were so proud of their eggs and how they turned out.  They were happy to be part of the process, and didn't care that we didn't make charts or try a million combinations. For them it was Easter.

 I'm so thankful for the easy delight of my boys. 

They are my Easter joy, my Easter miracle.