Easter egg painting

 As funny as it might seem, I have never colored Easter eggs with my children. I am not crafty, (unless it is knitting!) and we usually spend Easter with my the farmer's side of the family at his brother's house. They always throw a fantastic party, with lots of eggs and goodies, good food, and catching up with relatives, all of whom are entirely likeable. I have just never needed to color boiled eggs before. However, this year, we threw a party for a a dear friend who needed a crowd of happy people to celebrate with her. I promised the children we would do an egg hunt, so on Friday we sat down and colored eggs. I bought a kit which had you paint the eggs instead of dipping them in dye, and that sounded like something my children would enjoy more than merely dipping eggs. So, we went to work, and they did indeed color the eggs. I have never seen brighter, shinier Easter eggs.

Love those chubby little hands!

Estelle, trying to paint her whole egg without getting any paint on herself.

This? Reminds me of my father. He always stuck his tongue out while concentrating, and he was a lefty.That little dimple? Also my father!

So, the eggs turned out to be bright and maybe a little garish, but the children were pleased with their work. I put the eggs down in the cooler at our store, because I was always under the impression that eggs should be refrigerated, even after being hard boiled. Turns out, this was a bad idea as the condensation which formed on the eggs caused the paint to run, and so anyone who took an egg also got vividly colored fingers. My friends all quickly pointed out that I should not have refrigerated the eggs. But, honestly, aren't you supposed to? Isn't it bad to eat eggs which have been out of the fridge for 48 hours? I thought my guests would rather not get food poisoning! I have my food handler's license, and have taken plenty of food safety classes, but honestly can't remember the protocol on this one! So, now I have a bunch of drippy, faded, vaguely nasty  looking hard boiled eggs  (which also got dropped as I carried them in to the house at 11:30 last night...) in my fridge, and no one wants to stain their fingers to eat the eggs! At least the party was a blast, the weather was great, and the Captain Morgan's punch my husband made was delicious! Happy Easter!