An Eggstra Special Family Home Evening (yes, I'm a dork)

Monday night we had our very first family home evening with all seven kids... It was bumpy at first, but actually quite great once we really got going.  Blending two families is never easy and this dating period is wonderful not only for Eric and I to get to know each other better, but for all of the kids to get their feel for things.  We had a great lesson focused on the Savior by my girlies and then we colored Easter eggs!

When I told Eric I was planning Easter egg coloring for the activity, his response was, "That sounds messy"... and it was!  But it was messy fun!

Here are a couple of tips for great Easter eggs:

1- The trick to boiling eggs that will be easy to peel is to cover the bottom of the saucepan completely with eggs.  Don't stack them up, but don't leave much wiggle room either.  Cover them with water by about 1".  Bring to a full rolling boil and then turn off the burner.  Let the eggs sit on the burner in the hot water for about 20-25 minutes then rinse with cold water.

2- You don't need to buy fancy (or non fancy) dye kits for eggs.  1/2 cup of cold water with food coloring and about 1 TBSP of vinegar work great!  If you add a bit of oil to a couple of the colors, the eggs come out fabulously marbled!

3- It's super fun to color on the eggs with crayons before coloring them.  The wax repels the dye so the coloring shows up perfectly.  I discovered Eric doesn't own crayons, but he improvised with wax pieces and the kids still had fun making designs.

4- Let everyone know how many eggs they'll have to color right up front.  The littlest ones may still complain when they run out, but if the limit is set at the start it's easier to deal with melt-downs.  It worked out well for us because Clark whipped through his eggs in no time but one of the other boys decided he only wanted to do half his eggs, so Clark got to do a few more than anyone else.

I love coloring eggs!  It's such a fun Easter tradition... plus then there are leftovers for yumminess like egg salad sandwiches and deviled eggs!  Delish!

We survived our first family home evening/egg decorating! *grin*