Easter 2014

I know what you're thinking.  It's May 5th and you're just now telling us what happened Easter weekend?  Yes, that is what I'm telling you.  Easter weekend was fun but busy for us.  Saturday we did an Easter egg hunt at the local high school.  They had 3 different age categories, luckily we were in the first.  The egg hunt was more of an egg scramble (haha) but it was on the hs football field.  7000 eggs were spread across the football field and then a helicopter flew over and dropped another 200 or so eggs to start us off.

The hunt was over in about 20 seconds.  Just before the countdown began I told Addie she would need to run as fast as she could when they said go. She did!  She got a lot of eggs.  Three is definitely the age for egg hunting!  

That afternoon, we went to Rick's parents house for Easter lunch.  His mom set up an Easter egg hunt for Addie.  Since she's the only grandchild old enough to hunt she didn't have to rush through the hunt and found a lot of good stuff.  

Sunday morning we woke up and ran out to see what the Easter bunny brought the kids.

Luckily, Addie does a great job sharing with Graham and gave him his bucket to go through.

Basically everything in the basket was found at Target, most of it in the dollar spot section except for Frozen and the Carter's hair clips.

Graham's basket was full of baby snacks, a couple squeaky chewable books and the dream lite I found on clearance for $7.50.  The kid loves staring at the lights coming out of these, not so much what they display on the ceilings.

Sunday morning we went to church then went up to my parents house for lunch and another Easter egg hunt.  This one had some of my cousins children and, surprisingly, did very well wit them there as well.  Sometimes she shocks me with her sharing skills.

If only I could get her to behave at dinner and not put her feet on the table in the restaurant.  Ugh!

-stephanie

Easter Ideas for Baby

Easter is just around the corner and with that comes dyeing eggs, egg hunts, cute outfits and of course, Easter morning baskets.  I've put together a list of must haves for Graham's first Easter basket keeping in mind he's very young to enjoy it all.

Plum Organic Food Pouches - $varies // Munchkin Bath Time Turtles - $6.29 // Sassy Wonder Wheel - $8.99 

Skip Hop Bath Toys - $10 // Plum Organic Super Puffs - $varies // Dream Lights - $29.95*

*found on clearance at Meijer for $7.99

Easter Project & A Delicious Video

Easter is just around the corner, literally a couple days away and this may be one of the most exciting holidays for us.  Not really because it's Easter, though I love Easter, but because Addie is finally getting it.  She loved the Easter bunny and keeps talking about him and the "Eastah eggs".  It's going to be so much fun watching her see her Easter basket and do the Easter egg hunts.  I've been thinking about fun Easter projects Addie could do and I found one I, and Addie loved!

So here's the spread.  The paper was from IKEA.  I highly suggest anytime you go to IKEA you grab a roll, or two of this for your kids.  They can paint or draw on it and you can use it if you're worried about a mess.  The paint is acrylic from your local hobby stores, qtips as a mini paint brush, and the egg carton was from, yes the fridge.  The paper eggs were from the IKEA paper mentioned above that I cut into the shape of eggs.

She immediately got into it.  Very serious about her painting.

Checking out the paint brush.

She was so happy with the painting.

Now that delicious video I told you of.  Out of nowhere, Addie said this the other day.  

We've been trying to get her to repeat it so this morning I said, "Addie, is your smoothie good?" and she said, "No, delicious!".  Hysterical.  Where she learned the word delicious, we have no idea, but we love it!  Happy Friday!  Enjoy your Easter weekend!

-stephanie

Anthony Thomas Factory

A couple Saturday's ago we took a local trip to the Anthony Thomas factory located in Columbus, Ohio for their Easter Open House.  For the better part of that Saturday, they opened up their factory to the public to see how they make their chocolates, popcorn, etc.  It's something I've always wanted to do and Rick did it as a school kid and loved it.  We boarded a trolley which took us to the back of the building to begin the tour.

Addie has been talking about the Easter bunny for weeks.  "Go see Eastah bunny", over and over again.  So we told her we would see the "Eastah bunny" when we got there and she of course turned a little scared.

She must have warmed up to him because it looks like she's petting the bunny.  

After the photos the bunny gave her an Easter egg filled with the Anthony Thomas jelly beans.

Then we climbed to the third floor to watch the process.  See all of those silver piles coming down from the ceiling?  They're full of chocolate!

One side focuses on chocolates the other side focuses on caramel corn.

Rows and rows of buckeyes being formed.

This was the chocolate covered strawberry line.  The lady below dips the tops into chocolate and sets it on the line where it dries.

As it moves down the line, it eventually gets covered in chocolate.

This is the packaging area where they had displays of chocolate bunnies set up.

Addie loved watching the lines move.

I imagine she was thinking, "how do I get to that candy"

This lady was making each Easter basket by hand, filling with various candies.

At the end of the tour, we each got a buckeye to eat.  Addie quickly devoured hers.

We checked out the store at the end of the tour where I was tempted to buy this guy.

It was a really cool experience and even better chocolates!  Anthony Thomas offers tours to the public so if you ever get a chance, stop in!

-stephanie

Easter Basket Ideas

I started thinking about ideas for Addie's Easter basket weeks ago because I knew last year I was running around last minute.  I've been purchasing random pieces over the past month and last Friday finally finished off the basket.  A few pieces are splurges and I wouldn't typically spend money on bigger ticket items, but I did this time around and made up for it with the remaining Target dollar spot purchases.  I managed to purchase all of these items including those bigger ticket items for under $30!

Everything in the basket is from Target.

My splurge items were the sheep ($5) and the hooded robe ($14.99).

Here's a rundown (again, everything was purchased at Target):

Sheep - $5

Hooded Towel - $14.99

Sesame Street Board books - $1 each ($2 total)

Mini duster & dust pan - $1

Plastic Sandwich bags - $1

Fork/Spoon - $1

Sidewalk chalk - $1.92

Shovel & trowel - $1 each ($2 total)

Bug net - $1

Total - $29.91

What items did you find to fill your children's baskets?

-stephanie

PS.  Don't forget about the Shutterfly giveaway going on now.

Favorite Easter Styles for Babies

So far, I've shown you my favorite Easter styles for toddler girls and toddler boys and now I'm going to show you my favorite Easter styles for babies!  Hello!  Babies dressed up in cute dresses and ties is about the cutest thing ever.  Here are my favorites.

1. Plaid Poplin with Sueded Jersey Pants

2. Floral Print Sash Dress

3. Mint Condition

4. Easter Lilac Dress

I love each of these, but the little boy outfit "Mint Condition" is super cute as is the little girl outfit "Easter Lilac Dress".  Can you imagine twins in those outfits?  How cute would that be.

PS.  Don't forget to enter the Mightee Kids t-shirt giveaway.

-stephanie

Favorite Easter Styles for Toddler Boys

A couple weeks ago I showed my favorite Easter styles for toddler girls and today I'm here to share the same for toddler boys.  I have to be honest, girls are much more exciting to dress but going through this selection process, I'm becoming obsessed with these little guy outfits!  Here are some of my favorites.

1. Ship Shape
2. Spring Celebration
3. Vest Dressed
4. Classic Handsome
5. Dapper Stripes

I am a pretty traditional girl so number one is a leader but OMG the vest in outfit 3 is making me wish I had a little boy to put into!

-stephanie

Favorite Easter Styles for Toddler Girls

We're one week one of Lent this year and I'm already thinking about Easter.  What to get for Addie's basket, what to wear to church, what to buy her to wear to church.  This means spring is just around the corner and I can't be any happier.  So I've been doing some online shopping and have picked out a few of my favorite Easter styles for Addie.

1.  A Perfect Pick
2.  Bright for Spring
3.  Tutu Pink
4.  Pretty Blossoms

I'll be honest, I'm having a really hard time choosing just one.  I really love A Perfect Pick but Bright for Spring is great choice for future spring outfits.  Love!

-stephanie

An Inexpensive Easter Basket

This year was Addie's first year to actually receive an Easter basket.  It didn't make much sense to get her anything last year since she was eating, walking, talking, etc. This year I knew I wanted to put something together but I didn't want it to be a ridiculous basket, I mean she's only 1 so to her the little things can sometimes be the most exciting.  I posted last week about some ideas I had that I was really digging and started from there.

I started casually shopping for her basket about 2 weeks ago.  Being a frugal shopper, I tend to buy things when I seem them on the cheap or clearance.  My two pricier items were two that I bought just two days before Easter and I really wanted her to have these items.

I was able to spend under $25 for her first basket!  And if you remove my two pricey items, which were last minute additions, you're looking at under $15.  Her favorite thing so far has been that banana & pumpkin puree.

Basket (Hobby Lobby) - 2.99

Baby Flash Cards (Hobby Lobby) - 1.99

Opposites Book (Joann's) - 1.00

Carry Along Coloring Book (Hobby Lobby) - 1.99

Sidewalk Chalk (Joann's) - 1.49

Bubbles (Joann's) - 1.00

Elmo Egg's (Joann's) - 1.99

Banana & Pumpkin Puree Pouch (Target) - .89

My First Crayon's (Target) - 4.99

Playdoh (Target) - 4.99

Total - $23.32

So what did you include in your child's Easter basket?  Is anyone planning to raid the local Target for clearance Easter items for next year?  You just may find me there!

-stephanie

Happy Easter

Family Tradition: Dyeing Easter Eggs

I've always loved to dye eggs at Easter.  You can make such pretty patterns, colors, or add-ons to make your egg look phenomenal.  This year was the first year Addie got to participate in Easter egg dyeing. While I was craft shopping at Joann's a week ago I just so happened to be in the same time they were running 50% off of all Easter related products.  So I picked this dye kit up for $2.  I purposely grabbed this kit because of the plastic containers for another project I'll be working on soon.

We started by laying down a plastic trashbag on the kitchen table in the event anyone made a mess.  Each cup had 1/2 warm water as well as 3 tablespoons vinegar to the mix.  The vinegar is added to make the brightest color possible.  Drop in your tablets and wait.

While we waited we had a good friend snap a few shots of the whole family about to embark on Easter egg dyeing.

She tried to eat the egg a couple times.

We let her draw on an egg with the wax crayon.  She enjoyed that as well.  She did try to eat the crayon.

She's such a great sharer.  I hope this continues as she approaches school age.

Here's our assembly line.

This guy appears to be floating on water (much like Jesus walked on water - see a reference to what this holiday is really about) however he's actually just resting on another egg.  I was going for a split colored egg.

Here's our finished products.  The girl on the bottom right that was cut out of the photo was Addie's egg.

We set up the eggs in the carton in the refrigerator to finish drying before we ate them.  Addie couldn't wait to get her tiny hands on one of those eggs!

Saturday Addie will experience her first Easter egg hunt and dinner and Sunday we'll have a big Easter dinner at my parents house.  She'll also be receiving her first Easter basket.  What are some of your Easter traditions?

PS.  Don't forget to enter our giveaway.

-stephanie

Easter Basket Ideas

With less than 2 weeks away, Easter is quickly approaching us.  I love everything about Easter, dressing up and going to church, eating lunch and yummy desserts as well as Easter egg hunts and fabulous Easter baskets.  Last year we did not give Addie an Easter basket because what does she know or really enjoy at 3 months old?  This year I want to make her a basket but I also know that I'm not going to go out and spend very much because again, how much will she really enjoy it.  To prepare for some Easter basket shopping I've been on the hunt for some great fillers and wanted to give you some ideas in case you're stumped.

1.  Triangle Crayons.  I love the idea of a triangle crayon as they won't roll off the table.  I also love that these are natural so if they eat them it's not that big of a deal.  I don't love the price but I have seen them out much cheaper than this.

Via Anthropologie

 2.  Bubbles.  Who doesn't love bubbles?  You can easily find these at any dollar store or make your own.

Via La-La's Home Daycare

 3.  Sidewalk Chalk.  Another cheap dollar store find or you can make your own.

Via Pink & Green Mama

 4.  Movies.  Addie is no where near ready for a movie theater experience so why not try to watch one from home.  We are especially excited to check this one out.

Via Target

 5.  Other Random Fillers.  Cheap books because Addie loves "reading" her books.  Puffs and yogurt melts because she can't get enough of these.  Cheap plastic Easter eggs with some puffs in them.

Do you have any other great Easter basket ideas?  We'd love to hear about them.

-stephanie