stripes!


stripes!
Originally uploaded by jenijen.

I love to color eggs. Every spring I boil at least five dozen eggs and mix up the color stuff and put down newspaper and paper towels and then sadly watch everyone else color eggs. *sniff* I can’t help but get a little pissy about it, especially when I watch them all color the eggs and do such an amateur job of it. Being a preschooler is no excuse; they do art projects, like, every single day. If anything, the kids should be master craftspeople of egg dying.

I suppose I could color eggs with the kids, but there are four of them and they power through the blank eggs so very fast. I feel like if I take any it’s not fair. They are the kids here and all. I can’t really justify boiling a gross of eggs just so I can color along, either.

This year, though, I got to color over two dozen eggs all by myself. It only worked out that way because at something like four in the afternoon as I was making food to take to a party (lemon squares, which I was told were “kick-ass,” and good (but, sadly, yuppie) pasta made with arugula, cherry tomatoes, goat cheese, garlic and olive oil) I realized that OH SHIT I forgot to do the eggs and the Easter Bunny will be here soon.

I got a batch of eggs going, and then remembered a crafty little thing that myfriendM told me about: take a crayon and rub it on the still-hot boiled eggs. The wax will melt and then harden on the shell. Neat-O.

I won’t say too much more, except that they came out pretty (see flickr but know that the light was not my friend) and that more than one hot and wax-slickened egg shot out of my little hand and got melted crayon on the table, floor, counter, and I’m sure other places that I will discover as time goes by.

We went to the party where I met lots of nice people and drank beer while Willow charmed everyone and played with balloons. On the way home Miss Willow fell asleep in the car, so it was just the grownups left to color eggs. (Big kids are with their dad until Tuesday, which is a long time but they are having fun with cousins and don’t miss me.) I cooked more eggs and colored them all while John slept on the couch. I made beautiful deep colored ones by leaving the eggs in five minutes; pale ones that were just dunked in color for a second or two; striped ones like I used to do when I was a kid; and two-tone ones. I even made some with brown eggs, and I liked the olive green and funky blue tones they came out.

Here’s where you would think that I’d get all sniffly and say that watching my kids color eggs is a million times better than doing it all alone and lonely and by myself.

But, I am not going to say that, because I enjoyed being really focused on dying the eggs in the quiet kitchen and they all look awesome and I am never, ever going to let anyone under 18 dye eggs in my kitchen ever again. So there.

2 thoughts on “stripes!

  1. Heather

    One of the harships of motherhood is relinquishing things like egg dying, tree decorating, present wrapping. I want to be supportive of their artistic endeavors, but really? Inside I am screaming, “NO, that’s not right? I could do it so much better!”

    So glad to hear you got to do some on your own this year. šŸ™‚

    Reply

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