Happy Easter!

Happy Easter from our family to yours. We hope you have a wonderful holiday with your friends and families!



 

Don't eat to much chocolate!

Easter Pictures!

Last week we had Belle’s Easter/Spring pictures done. They came out so cute. I loved them all as you can tell I had a hard time picking which ones to post. It was hard not to post them all.

 

Enjoy this cutie! (I may be a little biased).



 

Happy Easter!

Decorating Easter Eggs!

For the first time this year Belle and I colored eggs. I thought 3 would be a good age to introduce this tradition. She did really well with this. We didn’t make a mess and was very patient waiting for the eggs to dye. Weeks ago I picked up dye at Target, they had a bunch of different Disney kits and Belle wanted Tinkerbell. I was shocked she didn’t pick Minnie. I also picked up the add on decorations for the kit.

 

Last week while at the Dollar Store looking for items for our Easter tub I spotted a kit that came with cups. I picked that up mainly for the cups. We didn’t use the dye tablets and they were put away for future use. I also had some left over stickers and bands from dying Easter eggs the first year The Hubs and I were together. We had plenty to make these eggs pretty.

 

I cooked the eggs Tuesday morning while Belle played, or well I tried to do it while she played. She wanted so badly to help cook the eggs but with boiling hot water I had nothing for to help with. She eventually understood and kept coming in the kitchen to ask how the eggs were doing. While Belle napped I set up our kitchen table to dye the eggs when she woke up.

I let Belle put each tablet in the cups of water and she picked which color each egg went into. Growing up we used the wax crayon to write everyone’s name on one egg. Of course I had to continue the tradition and write each of our names on an egg. Belle put our eggs in our favorite colors, hers purple, daddy’s blue, and mine in pink. She used the crayon herself to make an egg for JD (our cat) and one for grandma.

After our eggs were dyed and dry we got to decorate them. Our Tinkerbell kit came with bands, and stickers and glitter. The stickers were clear stickers that held the glitter onto the egg. The add on kit came with Tinkerbell stickers and 4 wings. And the left over spring stickers from the PASS kit we had a few years ago.

Belle decorated all the eggs to her liking, except mine. I was allowed to decorate my own. She picked what went on each egg and where. They came out pretty cute and the glitter was a nice touch. I’ll let you know how great of an idea the glitter is when we go to eat one.

 

And we have left over stickers, glitter, and bands to add to next year’s kit.

I forgot to post some pictures of how we decorated the playroom this year. I hung some of Easter eggs we had from the ceiling to give our playroom that Easter feeling. Belle is super excited for Easter this year and every day asks if it’s Easter yet and how many day’s until Easter. She is as excited as if it were Christmas. Although she did tell my mom the Easter bunny puts the Easter basket under the Christmas tree. So there’s that confusion. Oh and apparently the Easter bunny is made out of snow, but not real snow. He’s made out of snow because he is white. Oh the things that 3 year olds come up with.

Easter Lacing Cards

The only bunny craft that we are doing this year for Easter is a little different than the typical Easter bunny craft and not really a craft as more an activity. I cut an egg shape from white and yellow construction paper. One being our bunny the other our chick. I punched holes in each and then cut out ears for our bunny and a beak and feet for our chick.



 

I wanted to use white yarn but apparently I am all out of white. So I used some mint green that I had. I knotted one end of the yarn piece and placed tape on the other to make it easy for Belle to lace through the holes. I could not get the knot big enough to keep the yarn from completely going through the hole so I taped the end to the back. Belle laced her bunny card all the way around. Once all the way around I taped the other end down to the back of the card. Belle glued on the ears and eyes and then we added a nose, mouth, and whiskers with markers.

 

Our chick was done the same way, only we didn’t glue on ears but eyes, a beak and our chick’s little feet. I think they came out super cute! And it was a good fine motor activity for Belle to do then the arts and crafts we do.

Easter Eggs Galore!

I picked some different Easter crafts to do with Belle this year. We only have one bunny that we are going to do and honestly it’s not really an Easter bunny. We are doing A LOT of eggs this year. But they are so cute I couldn’t help but to keep adding them to our list of art activities.

 

The first craft that we did together was a hatching chick. I can’t believe after the disaster our hatching dino came out that I decided to do this one again. I did learn from my mistakes. Don’t make the cut in the middle of the egg, make it closer to the top. Also don’t make the zig zag as sharp, keep the points a little softer and rounder.

I had the egg already cut and the chick ready to go as well. The chick was just half an oval cut out of yellow construction paper. To start I gave Belle some foam Easter stickers I had bought last year that we never used. She decorated the egg with the stickers, and if she could she would have put a ton more stickers on. 

When Belle was happy with her egg we glued eyes and a beak onto our chick. Then we glued our chick to the bottom half of our egg. I finished our hatching egg by connecting the top half and bottom half with a brad. The only issue with our hatching eggs, they are impossible to hang anywhere. But this one did come out better and a lot cuter then our dinosaur. 

While wasting time on Pinterest one day I found a cute craft of painting paper Easter eggs with Q-tips. I thought this would be fun to do and different then painting with our fat paint brushes or water colors. I free hand cut a couple Easter egg shapes from white construction paper, so don’t mind if they are misshaped or funny looking. I poured pink, blue, purple, and yellow paint into a muffin tin Belle has for her kitchen. I put a little of each color into 2 spots. I added white to one of each color and let Belle mix them to make a pastel version of each color. 

When our paint was ready Belle went to town painting her eggs with Q-tips. I think they came out really well. On her second egg she handed me one of the Q-tips and asked me to paint with her. I made the different zig zag designs which were really easy with the Q-tips. This would be a great craft for older kids as well. 

After our eggs were dry I hung them on our playroom door with some of our window clings from last year.

What We Put in Belle's Easter Basket

There has been a lot of talk on Facebook and Twitter about what non candy items you put in your kids Easter baskets. We never put much candy in Belle’s basket besides maybe one piece of chocolate and some jelly beans. Not because we don’t want her to have candy but because we get so much candy from family that we end up throwing a lot of it away.

As a side note can I talk about how many Easter baskets we have as well? This will be Belle’s 4^th Easter. The Hubs and I have only bought her one Easter basket since she was born. We have 7 Easter baskets, plus 3 different Easter buckets. Insane. They are literally falling out of the closet! At least when we upgraded to a bigger basket last year we didn’t have to buy a new one!

I wanted to post pictures of all of Belle’s baskets but I no longer have pictures from Belle’s first Easter on the computer and am too lazy to get them off my external hard drive. Belle was 6 months for her first Easter. We used the cute little bunny basket that are in the pictures from 2011. I am not completely positive as to what was all in the basket but I do know we got her Violet which she still loves and plays with to this day. I think we got some baby toys and board books as well.

Belle’s basket from 2011:

We used the cute little bunny basket again. She was 1 ½ for Easter this year so a little easier to pick items for her basket. We bought her the Snow White DVD that was just recently released at the time. Some coloring books, crayons, sidewalk chalk shaped like eggs, Gerber dried apple pieces, sunglasses, Easter Little People, and an egg light up spiny toy. 

We did not hide her basket as she would not get it at all. She was only one! This was also the year that basically started the tradition of new sunglasses and chalk in her basket each year.

Belle’s basket from 2012: 

This year was even easier to fill her basket. It seems the older they get the easier to find items for her basket. I ordered an Easter bunny Minnie Mouse from the Disney Store for Belle. Once it came in I knew we would not be able to use her cute little bunny basket anymore. The opening was way to fit anything large into. Luckily we had 7 Easter baskets in the closet from the last 2 Easters so I pulled one of the large ones from there.

We filled her basket with the stuffed Minnie Mouse, sunglasses, sidewalk chalk shaped like eggs, a Goofy Vinylmation from the Disney store, baby bottles for her dolls, Play dough stampers, a box of eggs filled with play dough, Easter stickers, chocolate goldfish, and plastic eggs filled with jelly beans and colored goldfish.

 

We did hide Belle’s basket, but made it very easy. We hid it in her playroom in a corner. Still right out in the open. We kind of guided her to where it was since it was the first year we hid it. Once she found it she stood in front of it and stared at it for a minute. I don’t think she really knew what to make of the whole thing. We will see how she does this year.

 

So far this year I have more sidewalk chalk shaped like eggs, new sunglasses, a Mickey in a yellow Easter Bunny suit, a bracelet, play dough cutter kit, and a bunny light up ring. I think this year I will fill her plastic eggs with some Teddy Grahams. And I will be out today getting some last minute items for her basket. I will most likely pick up some new books and maybe some arts and crafts stuff.

 

What do you put in your kids Easter baskets?