Tie Dye Easter Eggs

 Easy and fun to do, these Easter eggs look like your favorite tie dye shirt!

Ingredients:

Hard boiled eggs

Cool Whip

Gel Food Coloring

White Vinegar

Instructions

Soak the eggs in vinegar for 5 - 10 minutes.

Dry the eggs with paper towels.

Spread one tub of Cool Whip  over the bottom of a pie pan or 8x8 square baking dish.

Using gel food coloring, drop dots of colors on top of the Cool Whip.

Use a knife to swirl the color, but do not blend completely.

Roll the eggs around in the whipped cream. Allow to stand for 10 minutes.

Rinse the eggs in cold water and dry. Plastic gloves prevent staining your fingers.

Enjoy!

Monkey Cupcakes

You don't have to be a cake decorating pro to make these cute monkey cupcakes.  I recently made these for the cake walk at my grandson's school carnival. They would be perfect for a birthday party or anytime you want to put a smile on someone's face!

Ingredients

1 box cake mix of your choice
1 container chocolate frosting
24 - 30 vanilla wafer cookies
50 - 60 mini vanilla wafer cookies
50 - 60 candy eyes (sold in the cake decorating section)

Instructions

Prepare cake mix for cupcakes according to package instructions.
Allow to cool.
Frost each cupcake with chocolate frosting.
Place a large vanilla wafer on top for the nose and mouth.
Add two eyes and place two mini vanilla wafers on the sides as ears.
Place additional chocolate icing into piping bag (or sandwich bag with the tip snipped off).
Pipe mouth and nose on top of large vanilla wafer.

Lemon Easter Chick Cookies

Semi-homemade Easter chick cookies start with a box of lemon cake mix and end up cute as can be.

Ingredients

9 orange candy slices
1 box lemon cake mix
2 eggs
1/2 cup shortening
Yellow food coloring (optional)
1 -2 Tablespoons mini chocolate chips
Small amount of orange-colored frosting

Instructions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Cut the orange candy slices into triangles to create the beaks for the chicks. Set aside.

In large mixing bowl, beat together cake mix, eggs, and shortening until well blended.
If desired, add several drops of yellow food coloring if you want the chicks to be a brighter yellow color.

For each chick, roll two balls of dough. One ball should be 1 1//2 inches and the other should be 3/4 inches. Place on prepared cookie sheet with the smaller ball touching the bigger ball.  Repeat with all the dough.

Bake for 10 - 12 minutes or until edges of cookies are golden brown.
Remove from oven. While cookies are warm. press two chocolate chips into the smaller ball as eyes.
Remove cookies to wire rack and allow to cool completely.

Place orange frosting into a sandwich bag. Cut off a very small piece at the corner of the bag.  Use this to pipe the feet onto each chick. Place an orange dot of frosting where the beak should be and press the candy beak on top.s

Recipe Source:  The Gold Lining Girl - But First, Dessert!

These cookies are easy and fun for kids to make!

Mega-Bubbles

This isn't an edible recipe, it's a recipe for fun! I decided to make big bubbles with my grandkids. First, we made mega-bubble wands using dowels and string with instructions found on Pinterest.
Then, I found many different recipes for the bubble solution. I tweaked one until it worked the best and the result was hours of fun.

Several hints... We found the bubbles were more stable in cooler weather. It just so happened we decided to do this on a 95 degrees day and the bubbles burst before they left the wand. We were much more successful on a 80 degree day. Direct sun also made the bubbles burst, so we tried blowing them under a shady tree and in the garage with great success. Another factor is humidity. We live in a dry climate which is also not a friend to big bubbles. In the morning when the humidity was higher, we had more success.
All in all, a tricky process with lots of variables, but the kids had a ton of fun (and so did the adults!)

Ingredients:

6 cups distilled water
1/2 cup blue Dawn liquid dish soap
1/2 cup corn starch
1 Tablespoon baking powder
2 Tablespoons vegetable glycerin (ordered from Amazon)

Instructions

Dissolve cornstarch and baking powder in water. Add other ingredients. Stir gently to combine.
This solution works best if allowed to sit overnight.

Pour into a shallow container. Dip and step back to watch the magic happen!

Slime

Who doesn't love slime?  This kid-friendly recipe is easy for little hands to make and even more fun to play with it.

Ingredients

1 (5 ounce) bottle Elmer's glue (clear or regular)
A few drops of acrylic paint of the color of your choice
Optional: A few drops of glitter glue if you want sparkly slime
1 1/2 Tablespoons baking soda
1 Tablespoon contact lens solution

Instructions

Pour entire contents of glue bottle into a disposable cup. Add a few drops of paint and glitter and stir with plastic spoon.
Add baking soda and stir thoroughly.
Add contact lens solution and stir. Immediately the solution will turn to slime.
Remove from cup and knead with your hands. Initially, it will be very sticky but will quickly turn into a smooth ball. If it sticks to your hands too much, wet them with contact lens solution and continue to knead it until it is so longer sticky.

Then, just have fun with your slime!!

When you are not playing with it, store it in a airtight container or jar.