I thought you might enjoy these old Easter posts. I don’t know about you, but Easter is coming fast and I’m not at all prepared! I hope these ideas will get you motivated and give you some ideas. 🙂 Mama Nice
Tag Archives: Easter
It’s Easter Time Part 3: Five Crafts For All Ages
I’m sure you can tell by now that I like crafts. I enjoy the thrill of creating something and putting it on display. What you might not know is, I’m also a “practical” craft person and I want my creations to have a purpose. I also want my kids crafts to have a purpose. Not that I don’t loath enjoy all the paper crap creations my kids bring home from school, but I would rather they put their creations on something useful. That said, here are 5 crafts that you can do at home, WITH your kids and have a useful product in the end. Oh yeah, and they make great gifts for grandparents. Enjoy! 🙂
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Easter Wreath
Supplies:
- Wooden Wreath
- Wide base ribbon
- Skinny accent ribbon
- Wooden Letter
- Wooden Eggs
- Craft Paint
Step-By-Step Directions:
1. Let the kids paint the wooden eggs using craft paint.
2. Wrap base color ribbon around the wreath, leaving extra at the top to tie a bow later.
3. Wrap accent ribbon around the wreath in the middle of the base color. Tie a knot at the top slightly in the back of the wreath.
4. Glue wooden letter onto wreath using craft glue or hot glue. (If using craft glue, put a book on top and let sit for several hours).
5. Glue wooden eggs to wreath using craft glue or hot glue. Try to tuck the eggs into a branch to help secure the eggs.
6. Tie a bow at the top and hang up to decorate.
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Easter Hand Towels
Supplies:
- Pastel Colored Tea Towels
- Fabric Paint – white & pink
- Fabric Markers
Step-By-Step Directions:
1. Prewash towels and iron flat.
2. Paint child’s hand with white paint as shown below.
3. Stamp hand onto towel (you might have to do this twice to get enough paint onto the towel).
4. Using pink paint, use child’s finger to make a print for the bunny nose and finger stamp the bunny ears. Allow paint to dry completely.
5. Using a black fabric marker, draw whiskers, mouth and eyes onto the bunny.
6. Hang up for display or wrap it up to give as a gift (another idea shown below is to use footprints to make a cross).
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Easter Centerpiece
Supplies:
- Plastic Easter Eggs
- Permanent Markers
- Two glass vases – they must fit into each other with space in between for the eggs
- Flowers
Step-By-Step Directions:
1. Allow kids to decorate the plastic eggs with permanent markers.
2. Nestle the smaller vase into the larger vase.
3. Add the plastic eggs to the space between the two vases.
4. Once vase is filled with eggs, add water and flowers to the smaller vase. Voilla!
Other ideas: paint wooden eggs or use real dyed eggs on Easter day.
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Sun Catchers
Supplies:
- Tissue Paper
- Contact Paper
- Construction Paper
Step-By-Step Directions:
1. Cut tissue paper into little squares.
2. Cut out design on construction paper.
3. Lay cut-out on Contact Paper with the sticky side facing up.
4. Allow kids to add tissue paper to the sticky area however they like.
5. Cover with Contact Paper.
6. Trim shape leaving a border of construction paper. Hang on window to decorate.
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DIY Resurrection Eggs
Ok, so I didn’t make these yet, but you should try them!
What are resurection eggs? A dozen colorful Easter eggs containg simple objects that assist in teaching the story of Easter.
You can buy them for about $12 on amazon or christianbooks. Or you can make your own. Click Here to find out how.
It’s Easter Time Part 2: Non-Candy Egg Fillers and Egg Hunt Ideas
If you’re like me, your kids get about 2 treats a day max. One after lunch and one after dinner (if they eat all their dinner of course 🙂 ). Each of my kids has a “treat bucket” to draw sugar filled goodies from. The buckets are filled from Easter and Halloween. These
“treat buckets” are typically overflowing and to be honest, 3/4 of them get thrown away each year. So, I’m constantly on the search to find “non-candy” easter egg fillers. For older kids and toddlers, there are many things to choose from. Enjoy! (P.S. you can find most of these things SUPER cheap at a Thrift Store)
Top 20 Non-Candy Egg Filler Ages 3+
- Goldfish
- littlest pet shop
- money coins
- squinkies
- lego people
- puzzle erasers
- bracelets
- stickers
- hair accessories
- mini cars
- polly pockets
- small transformers
- fruit snacks
- small my little ponies
- Mario Characters
- animal crackers
- socks (think $1 bin at Target)
- coupons (stay up late coupon, go out for ice cream coupon, wii time coupon, etc.)
- Toobs (you can also get these at AC Moore with a 50% off coupon)
- Magic capsules
Top 10 Egg Fillers For Toddlers:
ABC Magnet Letters- Goldfish
- Cheerios
- Puffs
- Duplo Blocks
- IKEA Finger Puppets
- Small Blocks
- Little People
- Socks
- Mini Beanie Babies
3 Ways To Organize An Egghunt
1. Standard & Named
- Fill eggs, hide them around the yard and let the kids loose.
- Pros: Easy to prepare
- Cons: Kids don’t get an even amount of eggs which leads to breakdowns for little ones.
OR
- Fill eggs specific for each child and label egg with names. Children then have a certain number of eggs to find with THEIR name on it. If they find an egg that does NOT have their name on it, they need to put it back.
- Pros: everyone gets the same number of eggs and you can make it more difficult for older kids and easier for younger kids.
- Cons: Preparation
2. Clues
- Instead of filling eggs with treats and prizes, create an egghunt where the kids have to find a basket of goodies base on clues found in the eggs. To do this you need to label the eggs with names and tell the kids how many they need to find. Some clue ideas:
- Each clue has a number with one word on it. Once all eggs are found, the child would need to order the words which would spell out the location of the prize.
- Treasure hunt with eggs. Each egg has a clue that leads to the next egg with a prize at the end.
- Pros: Great for older kids and will keep them busy for a long time.
- Cons: Lots of prep involved.
3. Prize Cash In
- Fill eggs with tickets that can be “cashed in” at a prize table.
- Pros: Easy to organize and you don’t have to find little trinkets to put in the eggs.
- Cons: The thrill of “opening the prize” won’t be there.
Hope you are inspired for your upcoming Easter! 🙂
It’s Easter Time! Part 1: Bible Based Easter Baskets
March is here and Easter is not too far away. I really enjoy thinking of just the right theme for my kids’ Easter Baskets. Since the kids get so much candy from the various egg hunts, I try to fill the baskets with other items. This year I went with a religious theme to reinforce the real menaing of Easter and the importance of Easter in our house. I tailored each basket to fit the personality of each child. BUT, here’s the catch – each basket still had to contain the same types of things or there would be a whiny fued as soon as the kids discovered the baskets. So this year the baskets will contain:
- A doll/action figure
- DVD
- Book
- Activity Book
- Bracelet
- Jelly Beans
- Snack Packs (Goldfish, Popcorn, Granola Bars, etc.)
Now for the details….
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J-Man’s Basket
“J-Man” is 6 years old and in first grade. He’s a sensitive thinker type with a dash of crazy boy at times. He enjoys comic books and action figures – although his action figures are usually used for display on his shelf. His favorite color is “Camo” . J-Man’s basket:
- Joshua Action Figure – can be found a Christianbook.com for $6.99 or on Amazon for as low as $2.99.
- DVD about Joshua. I chose the Greatest Heroes version. Christianbook.com or Amazon for $4.99
- Book: “Welcome To Holsom”. This is the first time we’ve ordered this series, so we will see how we like it. It’s a graphic novel (score!) and deals with character development traits (awesome!) with plots involving underground labs and robots (how could J-Man not love it??). There is a kindle version for $.99 or paperbacks for $9.99.
- Bracelet: First off, it’s “CAMO!”. Second, it has a great reminder to “Fear Not” as in Psalm 118:6 “The Lord is with me; I will not be afraid.” A great reminder for kids that struggle with fear and anxiety. $7.99 at Christianbook.com
- Jelly Bean Prayer Activity Book: an age appropriate activity book to learn the true meaning of Easter.
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Dude’s Basket
“Dude” is our youngest child. He’s a stocky, red headed, testosterone filled brute. His desire to compete is never ending, including winning every verbal battle possible and turning the simplest things into a competition (who can get to the car first? Who can finish dinner first? Who can fall asleep first? etc.) Now you know why I picked the items I did for our youngest.
- David Action Figure – can be found on christianbook.com or Amazon for about $7.
- DVD about David & Goliath. Same series as above, just a different story.
- Book: Goodnight Warrior – a bedtime devotional book. “Dude” doesn’t sit still very often, so reading books all day is hard to do. Once he’s in bed at night, it’s usually easier to have some reading time and I thought this book would get him excited to learn about God and prayer. What little warrior can resist a book with a sword yielding knight on the cover?
- Bracelet: “Be Strong” based on Phillipians 4:13 “ I can do all this through him who gives me strength.” A positive reminder for my little warrior. Oh, and it’s blue which is his favorite color 🙂
- Jelly Bean Prayer Activity Book – using colors of Jelly Beans to learn the true meaning of Easter.
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Girly Girl’s Basket
Our 5 year old middle child who is girly to the max. The one who stated at 3 years old that sports “are not for me.” Her world is pink, pink, sparkles, and you guessed it – pink. Dresses are a must and she doesn’t care if princesses aren’t real – she wants to be one anyway. Her basket was a little trickier as it is hard to find stories and dolls based on women in the Bible. At least stories that would appeal to “Girly Girl”. But I think she’ll like it.
- Doll: A horse toy of some kind – not pictured (This ties into the book).
- DVD: God’s Little Princess. A 3 part DVD series about learning to be a princess for the greatest heavenly King of all! $14.99 on Amazon or chrisitanbook.com
- Book: Princess Charity’s Courageous Heart. One of the books in the princess series. This book is based on the Good Samaritan parable. (See the horse on the cover? Hence the toy horse.) christianbook.com $9.99
- Bracelet: Multi colored sparkley (and of course pink) bracelets that say “He Loves Me”. An important reminder for little girls to know that God loves them, always. christianbook.com $5.99
- Jelly Bean Prayer Activity Book – an age appropriate activity book to learn the true meaning of Easter.
There you have it. As much as I would love to post a picture of the finished baskets, they aren’t done yet! I wanted to make sure I shared my ideas in time for you to order your items before Easter. Enjoy!
