Days with the Dorans

Well, I didn't have egg dye so we got creative and used food coloring to color our eggs this year!

So I LOVE hard boiled eggs!!! I actually got this little thing that cooks hard boiled eggs easily so I cooked up a lot! I mean- I did 30 eggs!!!! Each kid got 6 eggs to dye and it was fun! They started with drawing on their eggs and just chatting and cracking jokes. I love sitting back and just listening to them. They're so fun! We really are lucky to have kids that get along so well!  They of course started out with their own colors (Joey-blue, Ali-pink, Zach-yellow, Seany-green) but I'm happy to say they did branch out a bit and do other colors!  I found dyes from previous years which was awesome and easy and one of the kits came with these little wraps! So fun! You just put them on your egg, put it in hot water, and is just sucks it up! So cool! I'd say the eggs turned out pretty cool! We're ready for the bunny!

Well... I'm kind of a last minute kinda gal, so we colored our eggs the day before Easter (which also happens to be Z's TENTH birthday!!)! Because I'm also a cheap gal, I found some old egg coloring kits in the basement so just used those. The kiddos started out using their own "color" but eventually they tried some variety. Ali was especially proud of her "barf" egg.

 So mad at myself!  I know I took more pictures than this but I must have deleted them!  Thank goodness I posted these to FB so could get them back! The kids had a blast coloring eggs this year and for once, I didn't feel rushed.  We did them on a busy day but I had boiled the eggs the day before and had everything ready. I gave them each 6 eggs (since 3 went so quickly) and ate LOTS of hard boiled eggs for the week after (yummy!). I love coloring eggs!  All the excitement wiped Marty out! ;-)

The day before Easter (AKA our anniversary this year) was a busy one for me. Jeff was still super sick but I did run out to get some Easter things including of course EGGS! I also got some Easter duds for everyone. Blue shirts for the boys, matching blue dress for me. Pink dress for Al, matching pink polo for Jeff (in hopes he could make it to worship on Easter). Egg coloring was fun. I cooked 16 eggs, but since Seany only needed one (and as you can see he did a great job dying it... and his hands) the 3 bigs got 5 each! When Seany saw the Bigs got more eggs, he went bizerk ! It was late though so I took the opportunity to put him to bed. Somehow the Bigs found pipe cleaners while I was upstairs and they used them to further decorate their eggs. I was surprised at how patient the Goose was with his eggs. He waited and his eggs turned a nice deep color. Once all the eggs were colored, I tried to get the kids up to bed. That's when I noticed Joe (my little thinker) ha...

Our lives have gotten very busy lately! It seems like there is never a day that we have NOTHING going on. So, it wasn't until late Saturday night that we finally got around to adding a little color to our hard boiled eggs. Waiting so long wouldn't have been a problem if it wasn't for the littlest Doran . Sean was already ready for bed, but I thought he should have a little fun too. Fun may not have been the correct adjective to describe what Sean had. He immediately took his hard boiled egg and squashed it! I decided to give him one more shot and put his egg directly into the green egg dye. He would pick it up and put it down and then it looked like he was going to throw it. So rather than losing another egg, Jeff took him to wash up and it was off to bed for him (and trust me- he needed it...). Poor Sean has been a victim of our crazy life schedule as of late and I think that he was as cooked as the hard boiled eggs and didn't really mind leaving the party too ...

The bigs LOVE coloring Easter Eggs! Their eggs love it too as you can see from their fun conversations! Zach on the other hand isn't too sure about drowning his little eggs in something called 'dye'- something about it just isn't right...

Last year's Easter Egg coloring experience left with Joe in tears and lasted MAYBE ten minutes. This year's Easter Egg coloring experience lasted FOREVER and I thought that we might never get the kids to get their eggs out of the dye. I hard-boiled a dozen eggs this year- (since last year I think I only did a half-dozen and it went way too fast). Zach loved sucking on his egg and then banging in. He wasn't too thrilled when I showed him how to put his egg into the dye. He kept pulling the cup back to himself trying to get that poor egg back into his little hands. Much to my surprise, Ali Jane did not opt for the pink or red dye, but for the green coloring- and that is all that she did- color green eggs. She would have sat there all night with one egg and one cup- occasionally lifted it out to have a little conversation with it which was exactly what she and Joe did (which probably is why the egg-dying lasted so long). The eggs would come out of the dye and talk to ...