Easter Sunday

Gabriela was so excited for Easter. In fact, we made an Easter countdown banner out of Easter bunny and egg shaped cookie cutters and colored each one. We wrote the date on the back of each one so she could check to see how many days were left.

The Easter Bunny did not disappoint Easton or Gabriela.  

 We decorated eggs this year using natural dyes.  I was so impressed with how they turned out - I wasn't expecting the colors to be as vibrant as they were! We are totally doing this again next year.

 Our egg dyes included 100% cranberry juice with some added raspberries, onion skins and paprika, turmeric, spinach and basil, red cabbage, and beets.

 That army looking green egg was dyed with the spinach and basil. I wasn't too hopeful about this dye, so I mixed some of the yellow and blue dyes together.  The actual dye didn't change to green, but it sure made a beautiful green color on the egg. I still can't get over the fact that the red cabbage makes such a blue color. 

 So, I am pretty sure I had more fun during this process than Gabriela. The trick to getting the colors to be so bright is to refrigerate the eggs in the dyes for at least a day.  The process was a slow going one, but it was cool for Gabriela to watch the water change from clear to the deep colors we got. 

Next year I want to do some drawings with wax crayons before we dye, or imprints of flowers and leaves before we dye.  I can't wait.  I saved my onion skins and glass jars for ages in preparation for the big egg dying festivities.

Oh, and I baked the eggs instead of boiling them! It totally worked. Have to remember that technique ;)

Back to Easter, that sneaky Easter Bunny hid eggs all over our dining and living rooms for the kids to discover.  They had bunny gummies, bunny cookies, yogurt covered raisins, and some chocolate covered peanut butter pretzels.

 Whoa, the Easter Bunny got a little carried away this year.  Gabriela got Hello Kitty gardening gloves, some stationary, lip gloss, new coloring pencils, a fairy coloring book, and a Tiptoes Lightly book about spring and Easter. We are loving the Tiptoes Lightly books. The stories are so cute about the fairy Tiptoes Lightly and her two gnome friends - Pinecone and Pepper Pot. She got some other fun stuff too, like bandaids and a little basil growing kit and some radish seeds.

 Easton got an Odwalla cereal bar, a super bouncy ball, some animal crackers, a board book about spring, and some Eric Carle swag - some flashcards and an opposite book.

After the Easter basket exploration, egg hunting, and treat eating, we got ready for Heather and Serkan to come over for brunch. Heather brought the cutest felt Easter eggs that she sewed by hand and we feasted on gourmet BLTs, a quinoa beet salad, a fruit salad, an herby potato salad. 

They left for a little while, but then came back and we spent the evening together also since they were getting ready to move out of town. We needed one last hoorah before they left town.