Egg Drop

As soon as I read this peeps experiment at Almost Unschoolers I knew we would have to give it a try!  After all, we had a bunch of peeps left over from our Easter vase that we had to get rid of.

First, I let the kids drop a raw egg off the side of our deck to see what would happen.......

Then, I set out some supplies and let them create a protective holder for the next egg drop.

With some guidance, this is what they came up with - the egg surrounded with peeps, closed, and taped into a sour cream container.

Sadly, our little peep-protected egg didn't make it......to see one that did check out the experiment over at Almost Unschoolers.

Determined to have one successful egg drop, we raided the recycling bin and found a plastic strawberry container.  Then we found some air fill packaging {from our last Amazon delivery}, tucked the egg inside, taped the container shut, and tried again.

SUCCESS!!!

Our little egg made it!

Conclusion - Amazon is correct in packaging product with air-fill packaging rather then peeps!

Egg Experiments

!!!STOP!!!

Don't throw your Easter eggs out yet!

Here are bunch of cool little experiments that you can do with them.

Experiment No 1 - Sink or Float

Fill one glass with regular water and a second glass with water and about 4-5 tbsp of salt {kosher salt will not turn the water cloudy, but you could use table salt too}.

Grab two of your hard boiled egss {you can can also use raw} and ask the kids what they think will happen to the eggs in each glass.

The egg will sink in the plain water and float in the salt water {since the salt in the water makes it more dense, it will be able to hold up the egg}.

You can also fill a glass half full with the salt water and slowly add plain water.  Add the plain water by pouring it gently onto a spoon and letting it fall down the side of the glass so you don't mix the salt and regular water.  Then gently drop your egg into the glass - it will sink down through the regular water and then stop when in hits the more dense salt water.

{I think I mixed the two solutions in our experiment because the egg stopped very close to the bottom of the glass}

Experiment No 2 - Folding Egg

Place one of your blown out Easter eggs into a glass of vinegar.  Either hold it under the vinegar until it fills and will stay submerged or use something to weigh it down.  The vinegar will start to dissolve the shell and leave only the membrane.  The experiment {found here} says this will take up to 10 days.  We must have super vinegar because our egg shell started to crack a bit from the spoons I placed on it to hold it down.  I was easily able to peel off the shell from the membrane within a few hours!  With a little bit of air {we used a syringe to fill it with air} you have an egg shape that you can fold, squeeze and fool others with.  It didn't work nearly as well as I thought, but it was still neat for the kids to feel the texture of the egg membrane.

Have fun with those eggs!

Easter Eggs

We decorated some Easter Eggs today!

We did a combo of some blown out eggs and hard boiled.

The picture below is a sample of the kids work!

The first row of eggs are dotted with glitter, the second row is your regular dye job, and the third row is colored with melted wax.

Glitter Eggs

When I saw the glittered and spotted eggs {I think in my Family Fun mag} I knew we would have to try them!  We did these with our blown out eggs so that we will be able to keep these.

You need adhesive dots {which you can purchase at craft stores}, a bowl of glitter {the finer the glitter the better the result}, and a paint brush.

Place the adhesive dots, 1 or 2 at a time on your egg and dip into the glitter, making sure to cover the dot completely.  Use your dry paint brush to sweep away the extra glitter.  Continue until you are happy with the look of your egg!

Dyed Eggs

I always mess up the dyed eggs somehow!  I just guess how much vinegar to add and I think I tend to add too much - resulting in blotchy looking eggs.  I also tried dying them in a muffin tin this year.  This was super easy and convienent but since the eggs are not submerged you need to turn them around in the tin and if you get distracted {like I do} you can end up with half the egg being darker then the other half.

Melted Wax

We had never tried this before and it was pretty fun!  I hard boiled some eggs and then had the kids draw on the hot eggs with crayon.  The crayon melts nicely and creates a nice marbled effect when you color all over the egg.  You just need to set up a holder for the hot eggs so the kids don't burn themselves - I used the back of an egg carton.

 

For some more really neat egg decorating ideas check out  hands on: as we grow.

Have fun decorating!

Eggs - Full of Sound

Sarah came home with this neat activity that she did at school.  I thought that it would be a fun activity for Jillian and Matthew too!

You need 12 plastic eggs and 12 small items to fill both the eggs and the egg carton.

We used {clockwise from top left}: pasta, toothpicks, dice, cherrios, marbles, string, marshmallows, pennies, cotton balls, paper clips, rice and beans.

Then shake, shake, shake and listen carefully!  Try to match the sounds with the corresponding item in the egg carton.  After you have matched all 12 eggs open them up and see how well you have listened and identified the sounds!

This was a great activity that really held the kids attention, and it was so fun to see how excited they were for each other when they matched correctly!

Have Fun!

Linking to RedTedArt, SunScholars, BeDifferentActNormal

Easter Vase

Here is a super cute and inexpensive Easter centerpiece.

You need some peeps, jellybeans and 2 vases -where one can fit into the other. 

Here is Matthew with the candies from our first attempt.

I was thrilled when a cylinder vase we had around the house fit perfectly into the apothecary jar I've been using for our centerpieces lately.

We set the cylinder vase into the larger jar and filled the space between the 2 jars with the jelly beans and peeps.  It looked good but I wasn't loving it, so we tried again.....

I bought pastel jelly beans and some pink peeps and now am much happier with the result!

It looks great with just the lid of the apothecary jar on it but it will look even better once I get a few bunches of pink tulips {to fill the center cylinder vase} for our sweet Easter weekend centerpiece.

Idea seen at TipJunkie

Linking up to Skip to my Lou, Be Different Act Normal

Paint Chip Garland

This was the easiest Easter Garland!

I went to Wal-Mart {they carry the Better Homes and Gardens paint chip} and picked up a bunch of Easter color chips.  It has a 'punch-out' circle which I simply removed, strung with a pretty ribbon.....

......and hung from our mirror!

Once Easter is over I will just put all the paint chips into our craft box to be used for future projects.

So Easy!

Linking up to Skip to My Lou

Easter Egg Ribbon Hairband

My girls love wearing hairbands!

When their favorite rosette hairband fell apart, I recycled it into a felt flower {found here}.  Now they are always coming up with new hairband ideas!  This time we decided that I should try an Easter Egg.  My first idea {which involved hot gluing little beads onto a felt egg} was a complete flop, so I tried using ribbons - they worked great!

It was super easy.

I traced an egg shape onto some felt with an egg shaped cookie cutter.

Then I hot glued a variety of Easter colored ribbons onto the felt egg.

This is what it looked like from the front.

And here it is from the back.

Then I folded and hot glued the ribbons onto the back of the egg - folding the ribbons around at different angles according to the shape of the egg.

Finally, I hot glued the ribbon egg onto a plain hairband and then hot glued a smaller egg shape onto the bottom to help provide support.

Here is the finished product!

I made one for both of my little Easter Bunnies.

Hippity Hop!

Linking up to BubblyNatureCreations, Tip Junkie, SugarBeeCrafts, FunkyPolkaDotGiraffe, Momnivore'sDilemma, SunScholars, BeDifferentActNormal

Salt Painting

Here is another craft using salt!  Draw a design or write some words with glue.  Pour a bunch of salt on top of the glue and shake off the excess. 

Add food coloring to a few bowls of water to make a variety of colored water. 

Get your paintbrush pretty full of the colored water and then gently touch the brush to the salt. 

The colored water will run along the salt/glue path!

You can also try experimenting with how the colors will mix......for example Jillian used yellow and blue which combined to make a hint of green.

At first our food coloring/water mixture was too concentrated and the color didn't run along the salt path very well.  I just watered down the colored water and it worked great.

This works best with black cardstock so that you can't see the colored water that bleeds off the salt and onto the paper.  This craft is pretty fun but I don't think it will keep well.  I tossed it once finished and didn't wait to see how it would dry.

This was a fun activity that I'm sure we will visit again!

Idea found at  A Bit Of This and A Bit Of That

Free Easter Printables

I love all the free printables that you can find on the web!  I adored the St. Patrick's Day Flags from Sandy Toes and Popsicles.......

and was thrilled she created a Springtime Banner!

You can download the banner here.

I love, love, love the vintage look of these Easter printables from FunkyTime.

You can download them here.

Subway art is so popular right now and I found lots of Easter Subway Art out there.  However, I couldn't find exactly what I was looking for, so I decided to make my own!  Here is my first attempt at subway art!

The only trouble is I have no idea how to make this downloadable from my blog!  If anyone is interested in this I could always email it to you as an attachment {that much I do know how to do} although it may be a pretty big file.  Hopefully, before the next holiday, I'll have figured out how to do the download thing.

Here are few other free designs.....

from HopscotchStudioDesign

from PinkInkDoodle

Happy Easter Decorating!

Chocolate Salt Dough Easter Ornaments

With Easter coming up I thought we could try making CHOCOLATE salt dough ornaments with colored candy windows.  Of course, these are not edible!

I had used these crushed jolly ranchers before in Secret Message Decoder Cookies and Candy Heart Gingerbread Men, but I wasn't too fond of the jolly rancher stickiness {next time I will use lifesavers}.  So, I was thinking of ways to get rid of the extra candy and thought this would be perfect!

I changed my usual recipe {found here} by adding more salt and less flour in hopes that the ornaments would not rise and become puffy like they sometimes do - it worked out great!

Chocolate Salt Dough
2 cups salt
1 cup flour
1 cup cocoa
1 cup warm water
{you can always cut this recipe in half}

Mix dry ingredients together and add water to form dough.  Knead well.  Dust surface with cocoa and roll to a 1/4"-3/4" thickness.
 
Use your cookie cutters to cut out the large shape first.  Lift with a spatula and place ornament on a lightly sprayed, foil-lined cookie sheet.  Once large cut-out is on the foil then use a smaller cookie cutter or a bread knife to cut out a window pane.  Lift the window pane cut-out with a fork.  Remember to use a straw or chop stick to make a hole if you want to hang them with ribbon.

Bake at 250 F for about 45 minutes.

While the ornaments are baking, crush up your candies by putting them in a freezer bag and hitting with a rolling pin.

Once your ornaments are ready add your crushed candy and put back in the oven for another 5-8 minutes or until the candy is melted.

Let cool and gently lift and peel the ornament from the foil.

I love the way this chocolate Easter egg turned out!

We hung all our favorites from our mantle to decorate for the Easter season.

Have fun!



Linking up to Skip to my Lou, Funky Polka Dot Giraffe, Today's Creative Blog, Sugar Bee Crafts, Craftaholics Anonymous, KidsGetCrafty, SunScholars, BubblyNatureCreations, Delicate Construction, BeDifferentActNormal

Lamb Handprint

I love crafts that involve handprints and footprints!  They are such great keepsakes. 

Here is a cute Easter themed handprint craft - super easy too!

We used black paint for the handprint and then glued cotton balls onto the palm area to make the lamb's wool.  Then Matthew pressed the tips of his fingers onto a green stamp pad {you could use green paint too} and then onto the paper to create the grass.  Finish it off with a little googly eye and you have a sweet little lamb!

 

Idea from Be Different Act Normal

Footprint Robin

 Yesterday I asked the kids to keep an eye out for robins - explaining that robins are a sure sign of spring.  Luckily, we saw a bunch during our morning errands.  One of the errands was the library where I checked out a few books on spring and robins to tie in the theme.

At home, I had this cute footprint robin craft from Moments of Mommyhood.  Sarah opted out of the craft but Matthew was right into it and loved having his foot painted.

He was pretty impressed when I added the 'extras' and turned his footprint into a robin! 

His footprint makes a pretty cute little bird!

Chocolate Bird Nest Snack

{we actually made this snack last week and I haven't had the chance to post it, so I thought I would add it to this post and round out the robin theme with a little bird nest treat!}

Here is a pretty classic Easter/spring-time snack.  There are many different versions on how to make the nest but I just stuck with the easy one.  I simply melted some chocolate and stirred in the chow mein noodles, molded them slightly into little nests on a cookie tray lined with parchment paper, and put them in the fridge to set.

Matthew's favorite part of baking with Mommy - licking the spoon!

Once the nests were set I put a few mini eggs on the top and they are ready to go!

YUMMY!

Paint Chip Hyacinth

Oh, how I love spring bulb flowers!  Tulips and hyacinths are my favorites!

While shopping the other day I saw a these beautiful blue-purple paint chips and thought that we could make a paint chip hyacinth!

The kids took turns punching out 1 1/2 inch circles from the paint chips with a circle punch....



....and then cut the paint chips in half.

With some bright green paint chips they cut out a stem and some leaves.
Then they started gluing their cut outs onto a white piece of cardstock.

Here are their simple and beautiful creations!

Happy Spring!

Linking up to Skip to my Lou, Tip Junkie, Funky Polkdot Giraffe, Today's Creative Blog, Kids Get Crafty, Sun Scholars, DelicateConstruction