My Eggheaded Idea

On the eve of Henry's first Easter (about four years ago) I bought a Williams-Sonoma egg decorating kit. And I've been anxiously awaiting the perfect time to pull it out, dust it off, and dig into the dye, the glitter, and the plastic wrappers.

You remember the plastic wrappers, right?! You carefully slipped the plastic patterns over your egg, dipped your hard boiled egg into boiling water, and WALLA! Within seconds, the plastic melted perfectly around the egg making it your masterpiece.

So many fond memories decorating eggs....

Using the wire wand to carefully dip the eggs into the magic water. Water made magic from the tiny dye pellets you dropped into individual glasses and then watched as the pellets fizzed and turned the water into shades of blue, yellow, pink, etc. And then there was the year my mom was actually brave enough to let us blow the yolk out of the egg. Was that ever fun!

Needless to say, I had high expectations for egg decorating this Easter. And I just knew Henry and Sam would love every minute.

First, I prepped the kitchen.

Then, I prepped the eggs.

And before Henry was out of the shower, Sam was ready to dive in. I was so excited! Sam was going to have a ball!!

WRONG.

Sam didn't decorate one egg. Not one. All he wanted to do was drop the eggs into the different cups of water. And when he was done dyeing the eggs, he proceeded to drop them on the floor. Eggs shells and my high expectations were shattered.

And then came Henry from the shower. Henry squelched any last bit of hope I had. It turns out that both boys were much too interested in the dye and coloring the eggs to care anything about the actual decorating part. Henry only made two eggs before he called it quits.

 

Henry dyed his first egg yellow and spelled M.O.M. with pastel stickers. "Mommy. I made this one for you. It says 'MOM'!", he shared. Looking back, I'm sure he was hoping that if he made the first one for me, I'd be so touched that I'd let him leave the table and go back to his dinosaurs.

 

For his second egg, Henry told me he was going to make me a monster. Clearly, this was his way of telling me that my visions of Sugarplums and Easter eggs dancing in my head were being rejected. See the orange one-eyed bearded monster below.

And then boredom took over. Henry had lost all interest.

 

So, there I sat. Alone at the kitchen table, with half a dozen white hard boiled eggs. Wade eventually took pity on me and assisted with my 'henry', 'SAM', and 'MOLLY' eggs. His artistic abilities are better than mine, so he volunteered to free-hand a dinosaur, shark, and daisy for Molly.

After Wade tried coaxing Henry back to the kitchen, Henry swooped up the orange marker, drew a circle on top of an egg and called it a tornado. Yep. He was done.

 

 

 

Although my egg activity was an epic failure, these faces quickly erased any and all disappointment.