To dye, or not to dye?

Bowls, tablets, vinegar, dippers and stickers...everybody loves the annual dying of Easter eggs, right?!

Guess again! A week ago today, Emma, Hope and their cousins were absolutely in stitches with excitement and ready to do some damage on a few hard boiled eggs.  And damage they did, but we'll get to that shortly.

Their Aunt Audra had everything set up nicely for them.  But just as the first egg went in, Uncle Marcus thought it would be a good idea to cover the counter to avoid stains.  Brilliant idea.  Dishtowels were laid in front of each child to catch the drips.  But then came Hope with her quick-be-nimble hands.  (here's where the damage begins....)

Green.  Everywhere.

Oh wait, not everywhere.  The tipped bowl of grass green dye covered the entire counter except where the dishtowels were just laid.  Way to go Hope.

So my daily "what-did-Hope-do-now-panic-mode" got right to work, wiping up the stained counter tops.  (And for those of you that know me and our recent remodeled kitchen, green counter tops brings on nightmares.)  I couldn't scrub fast enough.  I felt horrible that not only have I turned my sister-in-laws dishtowels green, her cream counter tops now looked like a leprechaun spewed everywhere!  Thank goodness for a full bottle of Fantastic spray to scour the stain away.  And if we weren't high from the vinegar, we were high from the cleaner now.  Remember dying eggs is fun, right?!

Just look at the excitement in these faces.  Thrilled, they are.  (is there some sarcasm there?) 

Emma's pouting starts about now.  Apparently she didn't get the memo that was clearly and loudly made at the beginning of the dying process that the white crayon must be used first, then the egg dropped in the color.  As she argued with her mom about the missed announcement, she sat fuming because her eggs didn't get to use the crayon.  Oh ya, Hope is screaming her head off because she is now sentenced to the floor and not allowed back up at the counter for fear of more tipping.

Still having fun, right?!  Well, it's Amaya's turn now.  The story goes something like this....
Micah has 6 eggs, Emma had 5, and Amaya has 7.  Explaining to her that if we take one of her eggs and put it in Emma's stash, then all the kids will have 6!  She was so on board.....until....we moved the egg....

So Miss Amaya was given the ultimatum from her mother that she could either go to bed if she was going to cry, or she could stay and stop crying.  She picked bed.  We didn't take it personally.

Still having fun, right?!
Micah would you like to say anything?

Just as the joyful event was coming to a close, Micah decided the freshly scrubbed counter would look better BLUE!  Since this time it wasn't my kid that did the damage, I decided to snap a few pictures of the madness before grabbing the green stained rags.

Still having fun?!  NO.  And why the heck do the people that package up these dying kits put stickers in there?  Do you think it was anything prettier trying to convenience our children that they had to wait for the eggs to dry before sticking them on?

Dear Egg Dying Package people, 
Our egg dying celebration was anything but a celebration this year.  Your cardboard ring holders do not stand the eggs up, your dye has stained our memory of anything fun, and the stickers only caused havoc on four grumpy children.  While the adults are high on Fantastic spray, the madness did turn into a bit of an joking matter.  However we are sure a bottle of Scotch would have done the same for us and less to clean up. Please be known we will not be purchasing your kits in the future, nor dying any more eggs...ever.
Thank you, 
Two extraordinary moms just out here for survival.

Easter continued.  And so did we.

...and Hope bought her Aunt some new dishtowels.
The End.