Our Easter Egg Decorating Party With Heinz and PAAS

Easter is only a few weeks away, and we're very excited here. This will be the first Easter that both babies are old enough to really play, hunt for eggs, and understand what's going on. The only sad part is that we won't be heading to Maryland to spend the morning with Dan's family. On the upside, Dan's Dad, step-mom, and little brother will be coming here to Ohio to visit us at the end of March. We're looking forward to seeing them and hitting the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame!

Anyway, we decided that since the kiddos are getting super excited about Easter, we would have an Easter egg decorating party right now! Not only was it tons of fun, but it also gave my toddlers the opportunity to practice dyeing and decorating Easter eggs.

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We received an awesome Easter kit from the folks at Heinz and PAAS, including a few brand new products. All we needed to do was grab some eggs and get started!

Our Egg Dyeing Party :

The first thing we did was hardboil a dozen eggs. I did this, since I don't allow my little ones to assist when there is a hot stove and boiling water involved. I start with cold water, and allow it to come to a boil. I add salt and a little bit of Heinz vinegar to the water to help ensure that the contents of the eggs remain in the egg in the event that one ends up cracking. I let my eggs boil for about 12 minutes, and then I carefully placed them in an ice bath.

Then we got our PAAS egg dyes ready to use. We use Heinz Vinegar for the brightest, most vibrant colors. We loved seeing the kids' amazement when we prepared the dyes. They come in the form of little tablets, and you drop them into cups with a few tablespoons of vinegar. Then they dissolve, fizzing like Alka Seltzer. (This is the part the kids loved!) Then after stirring well, we added some cold water, and stirred again. Our dye was ready to go!

We had a bunch of the neighborhood kids over to help dye eggs. (Yes, the parents of these kids consented to having photos of their children published.) All the kids gathered around the table, and the egg dyeing began.

The kids had a great time creating their very own special eggs. Since many of the kids are young, they didn't end up too elaborate, but the colors were vibrant and they sure were beautiful! They double-dipped their eggs to create multi-colored results, and then they had fun using stencils and special PAAS egg markers to personalize their eggs.

We tried to use the PAAS Touch of Velvet kit, but for some reason, we couldn't get the double-sided stickers to come off of the sheet. My husband tried, and I did as well, since I have fingernails, and they just wouldn't peel off.

We also didn't use the Volcano Eggsposion kit because this kit requires applying crayon shavings to hot eggs, and given the fact that we had several very young kids around, we decided to err on the side of caution and save this kit for later. It is something we will use with our teen closer to Easter.

Overall, we had a great time decorating our Easter eggs. It was a wonderful opportunity to show my toddlers how to dye eggs, and it was also great to spend time with so many of the neighborhood kids. I can't wait to dye more eggs in a couple weeks and having an Easter Egg Hunt! Of course we will have plenty of PAAS kits and Heinz Vinegar on hand, since they really do provide the best results!

Digital Egg Design-Create Eggs and Help A Child!

This year, PAAS has teamed up with the Make-A-Wish Foundation to provide some digital egg decorating fun that benefits sick children. Simply search “PAAS/Heinz” in the iTunes App Store and download the app, or access it from your desktop or laptop computer at www.heinzpaaseaster.com.  When you use this free app, you can decorate and share a virtual Easter egg with family and friends. For every shared creation, Heinz and PAAS will donate $1, up to $25,000, to Make-A-Wish. How cool is that?!

Sophie helped me create a digital Easter egg using this app, and it was lots of fun adding color and decorations. Here are some screenshots of the process as well as Sophie's special egg!

So definitely be sure to check out this app with your family and share those eggs! Not only is it a fun way to help get into to springtime spirit, it helps an amazing cause.

So do you have any fun plans for Easter? I'd love to hear all about them!


***Disclosure: I have been provided free product samples for review by Heinz and PAAS. As always, all opinions are 100% honest and have not been influenced in any way.***