Halloween Egg Hunt

Ez has been asking to color eggs every time he spots an egg carton for the past six months or so. Somehow little bits from our Easter egg coloring kit keeping popping up around the house, like the bunny stickers, or that wire dipper spoon thing, and his obsession is ignited all over again. I guess when you stop to think about it there's really no good reason that egg dyeing should be limited to once a year, so we decided we'd dye some Halloween eggs this past weekend. 

Knowing my kids we stuck with eight eggs because I knew none of them would be in edible condition once they were through with them. One bit the dust as soon as we pulled it out of the dye when Ez decided to test his Hulk strength by smashing it immediately. That was a fun experiment to put mommy's hypothesis that eggs are breakable to the test. Turns out mommy's right. Remember that one kids. 

We dyed them outside using ziplock bags to minimize the mess. My fingers were stained green for a few days, we poured orange dye all over the patio, and Declan stomped in a nice big puddle of dye with his white shoes. Not sure why I even try to avoid messes anymore. I should really know better by now...

Once the eggs were colored to our liking we let them dry and then I drew monster and jack o'lantern faces on them. It's around this point that the "we want EGGS!!" chant got pretty overwhelming. It was time for the egg hunt before a riot broke out. Uncle Avery entertained the kiddos while I scattered eggs around the backyard, then we armed the kids with buckets and let them go at it.

Declan knew the concept of collecting eggs in his bucket immediately. Along with rocks. And limes. And lemons. And then throwing the eggs out of the bucket to make more room for rocks... He's definitely improved since Easter when he just threw eggs at us.

Ez caught on to the fact that the little plastic pumpkin eggs I got from Target had crappy candy inside. Each one he found he'd immediately bring to me exclaiming "open it??!" and those little suckers were tough to pry open. That extended the egg hunt by a good twenty minutes. 

True to my predictions all the eggs were good and smashed by the time we were finished and the kids were on nice hyper sugar highs before lunch. Definitely a successful Saturday morning. Ez even gave me his unprompted super big happy smile several times and then asked to do egg hunts on repeat all through Declan's nap. Eventually the eggs disintegrated to the point that we had to discreetly sneak them away to the trash can, one by one. For the few remaining ones Ez decided to smash them and peel them and find out what exactly was inside an egg. The fun ended with egg yolk smeared everywhere, a bucketful of egg shell and bits, and baths for everyone. 

Only one weekend left before Halloween!! Any last minute Halloween activities planned for you and your family? I think I've got about ten things too many on my to do list, so we're going to be busy!