It was a quiet little Easter over here in the land of the morning calm.  Papa was traveling so it was just us for the first half of the day but oh what a blessed day it was!  We somehow managed to get up and out to the sunrise service at our church without me screaming at anyone and all the feet had shoes on them.  That…is an Easter miracle!

The message was awesome, we were able to spend time with friends, and I could listen to my kids quietly singing the sweet hymns of Jesus all day long.  There is a large stained glass on one side of the church and because we roll five deep (and let’s be honest…we weren’t exactly on time) we had to sit in a new-to-us section.  As the sun rose, it lined up perfectly with the sun on the stained glass and the whole church was blanketed in golden rays.  My 7 year old leaned over and whispered “I think God did that on purpose because today his son rose!  Get it?!  SONrise?!” and I could barely keep the tears from falling.

In the afternoon lull and quiet, we decided to keep our hands busy lest we all fall asleep on the couch watching movies.  I totally voted for the nap thing but the kids weren’t having it so…we crafted instead!

For once in my life, I was prepared for Easter and had ordered our super fun, Martha Stewart-esque marbling kit way back in February.  But I guess that is as far as I go on the prepared scale because it wasn’t until THE DAY OF EASTER that I pulled out the kit to try it.  I will take credit for staying up until 2 am blowing out the guts of the eggs so we could color them the next day (did I mention we we to the sunrise service?) so we were ready in that department.

But I love how even at midnight, as I am painstakingly exercising my cheeks and making a mess to get these darn chicken homes ready to be painted, I was reminded that everything points to the God’s love.  This sweet, little accidental heart stopped me in my tracks and brought forth whispers of thanksgiving, that this holiday isn’t just about the eggs.  That I can use these little blank food items to teach my kids about God’s renewing love for us and how he can take us and make us new again.

Thank you, YouTube, for video tutorials on how to marble paint eggs if you have marble paint that doesn’t work.  I found this video using nail polish and immediately cleared my bathroom cabinet of all the nail paint we had so we could get to work!

First let me say, you will ruin whatever bowl/dish you plan to use, so find something you can throw away.  The video suggests hand rolling the eggs through the paint but that was a mess!  So instead, I suggest you stay up way past your bedtime, meticulously poking tiny holes in the both ends of 24 eggs.  Because obviously, hours of work is better than a little paint on your finger tips?

Regardless…this was our set up.  Before you judge me for using REALLY expensive nail polish to do a kids craft, hear me out.

1.  I really don’t know why I have all these nail polishes because I never paint my nails.  I like to believe I will paint my nails all these pretty colors or that I will have these insane fun nail polish parties with my daughter and her friends.  But instead, the just all hang out in my bathroom, unloved. This way, at least they are being used?
2. Since the eggs are gutted and we aren’t cracking them open for any reason besides an accident, we can potentially keep these beauties to use again.
3. I am kinda an over-achiever when it comes to craft projects.  Sorry.

As for how we tweaked it, I didn’t pour as much in the bowl as the video did, but instead dropped it in and swirled it a bit before pushing the eggs through.  And since our eggs were empty, we had to use the skewers to push the eggs in to the water since they tend to want to float back up.

We are IN LOVE with how they came out!  Each one is different and beautiful, even when the paint got goopy in spots or didn’t stick in others.  Sometimes we dropped the eggs in and the double dip gave it a look we didn’t like but overall, it was our very favorite way to color eggs to date.

We dried the eggs two different ways using a 9×13 baking dish and a mason jar.  The paint takes a good while to dry so you have to be patient and wait.  That is hard when they are SO cute!

I feel like you need to know the mistakes we made so you don’t repeat them:

• We learned the really glittery paint sank to the bottoms and wasn’t usable.  But the sparkly paint with small glitter flecks did work and made REALLY cool results!
• We also learned that the paint dries quickly and gets goopy if you wait too long.  Have your eggs ready to dip on the skewer for as soon as you pour the paint on the surface of the water.
• Between each dip, you have to take a piece of scrap paper and clear off all the excess paint off the top of the water, otherwise your colors get all mixed up and it makes you sad.
• Lastly, for the love of all things holy, don’t let your kids pour the paint on the water.  Can you just trust me on this one?!

Of course, we had to make Seahawks eggs!

After Papa got home, we did an egg hunt!  But not for the candy filled eggs or even the ones we slaved over to paint.  This year we hid the eggs from the Resurrection Egg set for our kids to find.  It was so fun to have them open the eggs and go over the story of Christ’s resurrection.  Each egg is filled with a tiny object that represents a part of the story of Jesus’s death and his rising.  For example, one egg had a rock in it to represent the stone sealing the tomb while another egg had three nails in the shape of a cross to represent his piercings.

It is a really cool set to give the kids tangible, visual examples for them to hold on to as we re-read through the Jesus story.  Plus they had fun finding them and I didn’t have to hide in the closet to eat their candy when they weren’t looking.

Praying you all had a blessed Easter Sunday, surrounded by people you love and feeling the reminders of God’s love for us.  He is Risen!!

It is by His great mercy that we have been born again, because God raised Jesus Christ from the dead. 

1 Peter 1:2