Mr. Meat and Potatoes opened up our refrigerator yesterday and pulled out one, two, three, FOUR cartons of eggs.

I have a small problem, apparently.

I buy eggs every time I go to the grocery store, whether I need them or not. As with butter, I tend to panic if I don’t feel like I have enough on hand at any given moment. I mean, you need two for a cake, three for some homemade mayo, and we’re not even talking about breakfast yet. I can run through some eggs.

Saturday at Checker’s, when I was buying the ingredients to make my own laundry soap (All Hail! It worked like a dream!), I picked up a carton of eggs, as is my habit, and I noticed your basic PAAS egg dying kits sitting out on a display next to the egg cooler. It took everything I had not to snatch up two or three of them, and an extra carton of eggs just for coloring. But I knew the process, if I did it at home, would be bittersweet. Mr. Meat and Potatoes would just look at me like he does, and rub his head. Johnny would be happy to drink the vinegar-y dye, but would otherwise have no use for the process either. And who would I hide them for? Who would give a rat’s that I had painstakingly decorated and dyed the equivalent of a small village’s allotment of eggs?

So I moved on. I put them out of my head. And then a friend sent me this idea via Facebook this morning. It is as if she is taunting me. DO A TOTALLY INAPPROPRIATE CRAFT, she says, by way of sending me such a recipe. DO IT EVEN THOUGH NO ONE IN YOUR FAMILY WILL CARE.

I’m resisting putting these little buggers together until at least next year, but I thought I would go ahead and share it with you now, because you need to get started on it early in order to have everything cured and ready to go for Easter.

Dinosaur Easter Eggs, a la Mary Lee Norris

These are a great idea. Not only are they really fun for the kids (and grownups) but they are a refreshing departure from the chocolate-laden Easter toys and treats we’re used to.

Mary Lee made these a few years ago for her offspring, and he had fun opening them and finding the dinosaurs inside. If your kids aren’t into dinosaurs, you can put “whatever” inside of there – action figures, race cars, animals… They are really easy to make and they smell wonderful.

Coffee Dough (for dinosaur Easter eggs)

2 1/2 C Flour
2 1/2 C Used Coffee Grounds
1 1/2 C Salt
1 C Sand
1 C Water (or less…as needed)

Step 1) Mix flour, coffee grounds, salt, & sand. Gradually stir in water until mixture holds together. Use as little water as possible to speed drying.

Step 2) When dough is ready, mold by hand around your plastic dinosaur. Set the eggs on plastic wrap or waxed paper to dry. A sunny, windy windowsill works well.

They take about a week to dry, depending on size of eggs, so GET GOING. They will look like fossils. Kids can break them apart with hammer or chisel to find dinosaurs hidden inside.

Unfortunately, Johnny is not yet very skilled with his chisel, so he’ll have to wait a year or two. HURRY UP, KID. This is why I went through nine sober months of pregnancy! I WANT TO MAKE CRAFTS AND I WANT TO DO IT NOW.