An Eggcellent Easter Eggstravaganza!

     Easter is almost here and in the vein of getting back to basics we decided to go the natural route this year and use onion skins to dye our eggs. It's surprisingly simple and a lot of fun! My three-year-old was quite thrilled with the entire experience and very pleased with the results.

     So, what do you need for this activity?

• Onion skins (red work best)
  
• Eggs
• Bits of nature (such as leaves, flowers and so on to create patterns on the eggs)
• Nylons (to wrap the eggs in)
• A pot
• Red wine vinegar
• Water

     Before getting started we headed outside to collect some bits of nature to use for making patterns on our eggs. My daughter loved searching for different types of leaves and flowers around the yard. We brought our finds inside, placed them onto our just washed still damp eggs and wrapped them in the nylons. Then the eggs went into the pot with the onion skins, two tablespoons of red wine vinegar and water and boiled for 20 minutes! Voila! Beautiful, naturally dyed eggs!

     While the eggs were simmering in the onion skins, we got out some Easter books and snuggled up for a brief storytime that led to an impromptu egg hunt throughout the house after my daughter decided to hide some plastic eggs we had handy. It was a delightful morning of bonding and memory making!

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     In our humble opinion, no Easter basket is complete without the addition of at least one or two books and, as mentioned above, reading Easter books is a great way to pass the time while you're waiting for your eggs to be done. Below is a list of a dozen of our favorite Easter books to read aloud!

The Bunny Hop by Sarah Albee

Llama Llama Easter Egg by Anna Dewdney

Celebrate Easter by Deborah Heiligman

Happy Easter, Mouse! by Laura Numeroff

The Easter Egg by Jan Brett

Happy Easter, Pout-Pout Fish by Deborah Diesen

The Littlest Bunny: An Easter Adventure by Lily Jacobs

Turkey's Eggcellent Easter by Wendi Silvano

Easter Bugs: A Springtime Pop-up by David A. Carter

How to Track an Easter Bunny by Sue Fliess

Happy Easter, Little Critter by Mercer Mayer

Here Comes the Easter Cat by Deborah Underwood

For even more egg-cellent Easter reads take a look at our previous blog Hop Into Reading This Easter! and our Holiday Books list.

Happy Easter!

-Kate @ BTBL

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Author

We are three generations that seek a way to get back to basics. It’s not that we eschew technology, but sometimes simpler is better, especially in raising our children. Mom was a reading teacher, Amanda is an early childhood educator and Kate a children’s literature specialist and former school librarian along with the latest editions, a daughter for Kate (now 3) and a son for Amanda (now 1.) We advocate reading aloud, the simple toys that use imagination and encourage creativity and learning in the kitchen, which can be a fun mess but also teaches life skills. Join us in raising healthy, happy, inquisitive and intelligent children.