Ideas for the Easter Bunny!

Happy Friday to all our readers!

We've been talking about what to put in our children's Easter baskets. Our kids are really too young (besides Ariana!) to have a basket full of chocolate bunnies, jelly beans, and the like. And honestly, we really don't want our kids to be eating all that candy!

Here are some ideas of things you could put in your little ones' Easter basket.


Snacks:
goldfish
ritz bitz cheese crackers
animal crackers
yogurt covered rasin
fruit smashups
puffs/little cookies


Spring things:
gardening tools
flower seeds
umbrella
rain coat

Practical Things:
socks
toothbrush
hair brush
lotion
outfits
flip flops or sandals
Baby Legs/leg warmers
teethers
sippy cups
plates/utensils


Toys:
bubbles
play dough
card games
cars
side walk chalk
DVD
books
musical instruments
slinky
bath crayons
video game
VTech refrigerator magnet (you know, the alphabet ones, etc.)
Little People

Arts & Crafts:
stickers
crayons
markers
notebooks
coloring books
bingo markers


Girly Things:
Headbands
clippies
Pony Tail holders
Nail polish
Chapstick
earrings
bathing suite


Boy Things:
match box cars
Lego's
Nerf Gun
Whoopy Cushion :)
board shorts

Sarah is trying her hand at a Spring wreath. Let's see how it turns out.

Hi Everyone!

For our egg hunt we bought small little mini individually wrapped candies to put in the plastic eggs and we also put loose change or dollar bills. Kids love to put money in their piggy banks, or savings accounts!

Gorgeous Ariana last Easter

This year, because of my husband's work schedule, we are celebrating Easter on a different day. Maybe the following weekend or Saturday. It is typical for our family because he doesn't always have holidays off. Does anyone else have to deal with this? What do you do if you or your spouse have to work on a holiday?

Sweet Maddy last Easter

What are your Easter traditions?

Jake's first Easter!

Hugs,  Katey


Hi Friends!!

Last year at my house, Easter was pretty sucky. My grandfather was in hospice and we were just waiting. Afraid to celebrate and not really knowing what to do. It was Liza's first Easter, so I wanted to do something for her. Not that she would remember! I filled her Easter basket with a watering can, bunny ears. Peter Rabbit books, a bathing suite, and some Little People.

What's this?

I bought her Easter basket with the intention of re-using it every year. Do you do that? Or do you buy a new basket every year? 

I'm a cute bunny!

One of the only pictures we took last year...

We didn't mean to match. I swear!

Here's what's in her basket this year. I still have to make it pretty and stuff some of the things into eggs :)

XO Sarah

So, tell us, what does the Easter Bunny do at your house?!

Egg Addition Matching Game

Hello friends! 

I hope your having a wonderful day, and your weather is nicer than mine. It is a bit cold and cloudy out today. Oh, and the forecast calls for a chance of snow tomorrow. Snow?! It's almost April! The warm spring weather we had last week has seemed to vanish. We certainly enjoyed the nice weather while it lasted...hope it comes back to soon! 

My husband has lost 25 pounds go here to find out how

Here is a quick update on Jacob's weight. I decided to change pediatricians, basically to get a second opinion. We went to the new doctor last week and my little boy has gained a just under 2 pounds in a month!! WOOT! 

He has to go back in another month or so to get another weight check, but we are on the right track!! Thank you for your kind words! :)






Yesterday, I did the egg number matching game with Mady. 

My big girl Ariana is having trouble with math and needs to practice her fact tables. Today, I made the  addition matching game with the same materials! 




The egg holders are the answers to the addition facts. 

We have been practicing adding by 3's. I used this website to make my own printable math facts. Then I printed, cut, and taped them to the egg. 

I only did up to 9 + 3 because my egg carton answers only go through 12. Once she masters this I will have her add to 18. 

Don't you just love the versatility with this project?? 

Until next time...

Toodles,

Katey

Easter Fun!

Happy Hump Day :)

We thought you might like to see a couple of super easy and cheap DIY Easter activities. Normally, easy and cheap isn't a good thing, but we think you'll like these fun games to play with your kiddos!!

Easter Egg Shape Recognition

I originally planned to use this free printable to create a game for Liza, but my printer ran out of ink and I had to improvise.

Materials:

Egg shaped paper (make sure you have enough for each shape to have a match)

Marker

Cute toddler

 I happened to pick up some super cheap Easter wall decals from The Christmas Tree Shop the other day and I just cut them out individually and drew shapes on them. 

It is also a good time to dust your table off. Whoops!

I laid one set down on the table and let Liza match up the shapes.

My girl knows her shapes, but even though this was really easy for her, she had a blast. 

Ignore the play fish that wandered over from my girl's kitchen. 

You can do this with anything. Letters, numbers, colors, etc. 

While we were playing this game, Liza was mimicking me. She was saying, "Is this one the oval? Nooo. Here is the oval!" It was super cute and a great reminder that our kids copy our behaviors!

There are tons of free printables online. Just google and I promise you'll find some!

XOXO Sarah

Easter Egg Number Matching Game

Materials:  empty egg carton, plastic Easter eggs, and blank paper ( you can use any color). 

I traced the bottom of the plastic egg and cut out 12 circles to put on the bottom of the egg holders.

I wrote numbers 1 - 12 

Then I placed them at the bottom of each egg holder. I was going to glue them but it isn't neccessary. They stay in place. 

I wrote numbers 1-12 on each plastic egg and placed them in their perspective holders.

The egg carton I used had 18 eggs but  it was the only empty on I had available. 

Down the road I will add six more eggs once my little preschooler masters the recognition through number 12. 

The fun began as she started matching the eggs to their holders.

Hmm...Where does this one go?

I love that the eggs can be placed in the top portion of the carton! 

We also used the eggs for color recognition. We lined them up in the holders and named their colors.
Mady had fun and I know your preschooler will too!! :)

Cheers!
Katey

Celebrating the Reason for Easter

In our families, Easter is not all about Easter bunnies and candy and it can sometimes be difficult to find a balance between celebrating Easter for the reasons that we believe in and the way it is commercially advertised. 

We found a few things that might help add Jesus back into Easter and we hope you enjoy them.

Here is a printable we found here with the words to "I know my Redeemer Lives"written by Samuel Medley. We thought maybe you may like to print this as well. So visit the link above! 

A cute mini garden that depicts a scene representing how Jesus rose from the dead. 

source

This would be a pretty easy DIY idea! Take a dozen plastic eggs and fill them with something that represents part of Jesus' Resurrection story.  This blog had a list of ideas and Bible verses to correspond. This would also be a super cute Sunday school or MOPS project! 

source

Another great blog with great ideas! Here are some homemade reed diffusers that can be a reminder of how Jesus was anointed with perfume.

source

A cute banner that could also be inspiration for a DIY project!

source

OOooo check out this super cute FREE Easter bunny printable! 

Do you have any decorations or activities that help your family to celebrate Jesus' Resurrection on Easter? We'd love to hear about them!

We'll be back later today or tomorrow morning with a few Easter activities we've done with our kiddos!

XO Sarah & Katey

We're Kicking off Easter!

Hi there.

So sorry for the lack of a post on Friday. The beautiful weather and general busyness of the day
got in the way!

My neighbors are pretty awesome and let Liza use their swing set :) 

We're getting ready to celebrate Easter in just a few short weeks, so we thought we'd share some fun ideas with you this week!

To start things off, I'll share the quick and easy craft that I always seem to kick off a new season or holiday with. I did it in my classroom too. I guess I just think they are pretty :)


Supplies:
Tissue paper or any kind of anything (ribbon, glitter, wrapping paper, painted paper, etc.)
Contact paper
Construction paper (optional)
Scissors

Step 1: Rip up some tissue paper. My little girl loves doing this.

Step 2: Cut out an Easter egg shape (If you're less lazy than me you'll actually trace something that's an oval or try a little harder to make a better oval than I did!) out of construction paper and place it on a sheet of contact paper.

Step 3: Let the little one stick the tissue paper all over the egg. I'm not really sure you could call my shape an egg, but we'll just go with it.

Step 4: Cover the other side of the "egg" with contact paper. Punch a hole (I jabbed a pen through) and string some ribbon or something through it. Hang in your window for pretty colors!

Do you see how close my neighbors swing set is to our house? It's fantastic, but my little toddler doesn't really understand that it's not ours. She has started to sneak around their fence to try an play on it! Luckily, I have amazing neighbors!

If you don't want your egg to hang you can simply skip the second piece of contact paper and stick it right onto your window!

Easy and festive!

We will be back this week with a whole bunch of Easter related ideas. More crafts, some games, and maybe even a recipe. You never know!

We love you all and appreciate you reading out little blogity blog! We have such fun coming up with ideas for you all. Hugs :)

XO Sarah

And the Winner is...

Did I tell you that my camera is broken? Ugh. It's making a sad noise and I am too scared to bring it to get it fixed.


This weather we have been having is just perfect. What a fabulous week! The other day we tried our hand at making some homemade sidewalk paint. We used this tutorial.


All you need is some water, cornstarch, and food coloring. 

It was very simple to make. Of course, involving my tot, things got a little messy :)

Once the colors were all mixed up, we took them outside to our patio!

Our five year old neighbor came over to join in on the fun!

 It dried super cool. It was shiny and raised, but I could scrape it off with my finger. 

 We also tried it with some stamps. Here is a little ladybug!

And in true toddler style, it soon became a sensory experience!

It was so much fun and we will be doing it again soon. I think that next time we will use it on the driveway and not the patio. Here is what it looked like after dumping some water over it and letting it dry.

Yes, I need a pedicure...

I'm pretty sure that if I hose it down it will all come off, but I'll just wait until the next rain shower :)

Here are some other fun things that I have pinned on Pinterest. I hope to accomplish them soon!

I think I'll make Liza a little garden this year. How cute?!

source

Since the weather is turning warmer, I'll be needing Liza's water table outside.

So, I'll be using something like this for sensory play. It's perfect because it will slide right under my couch when I want to put it away! I already grabbed a bin from Target, but will wait for the cool spell we're having this weekend to put it together.

source

Check out this cute FREE printable! I think I'll make up something similar for Liza's bedtime routine. Actually, I might just use this one! 

Take a look...source

I've been meaning to make these bubbles too. They are supposed to be awesome! I have all the ingredients so I will try to make them this week. I might make it and pour it into the water table or some other larger container to make it toddler friendly.

source

Alright, that's all for now. Sorry if I bored you today ;)

Have you tried anything new lately?

Toodles,

Sarah


Tricked you! I wouldn't post without announcing our giveaway winner!


So, the lucky winner of these fabulous clippys 

is  Rebecca Peluso!

Congrats to Becky! I am sure that Emily will look adorable wearing these clippys! Let me know what color you would like and I'll hand deliver them to you on a playdate!!

That was fun!

XO Sarah & Katey