If you’re lucky, you just finished paying off the last of your charge card bills from Christmas. But wait! Is that Peter Cottontail hopping down the bunny trail followed by his good friend the Repot Rabbit? Here’s some ideas for cooking, crafts, and activities that will make sure it’s the bunny bouncing not your check book this Easter.
Kid’s Yoga and Workout Videos: Limber up for the big Easter Egg hunt with these fun and free workouts and Yoga routines specifically designed for kids.
https://youtu.be/BN7M-uQSOYE (Cosmic Kids Mr. Hoppit the Hare yoga)
https://youtu.be/MEp9euhuu2E (Cosmic Kids Peter Cottontail yoga)
https://youtu.be/DHO99Kbl7g4 (PE with Mr. G Rabbits on the Run workout)
https://youtu.be/nDKHLF-rcqs (PE with Mr. G Find the Gnome Spring edition workout)
https://youtu.be/65bFFmmo4Rs (Find the Spring Bunny workout)
Get Your Bunny Boogie on With Jack Hartmann: If you have littles that are too little to really follow along with the Mr. G workouts then you can still have fun singing and wiggling along to the bright graphics and silly songs of Jack Hartmann- a children’s educator and musician.
https://youtu.be/nZFRg1GucZ8 (Jack Hartmann Easter Bunny freeze dance)
https://youtu.be/rBC61wm-Y6w (Jack Hartmann Easter Bunny boogie)
Craft Corner: I was impressed with Crayola’s offering of free coloring pages for Easter this year. Not only were there plenty of cute bunnies and eggs, but there was also a word scramble, make your own Easter Basket craft, and Easter Bingo cards. Plus- no pop ups or formatting issues. Just click, print, color.
https://www.crayola.com/free-coloring-pages/holidays/easter-coloring-pages/?page=1&count=24 (Crayola coloring pages and crafts)
I stole this cute flowerpot idea from Facebook. You can get the pots for $1.25/two count at the Dollar-Twenty-Five-Tree (Just kidding, it’s still called The Dollar Tree even though prices have gone up). You can purchase the Easter grass and seed packets (4/$1.00) there as well. The rest of the items I already had stashed in my craft bin- acrylic paint, brushes, jiggle eyes, pompons, popsicle sticks, hot glue sticks, hot glue gun, and pipe cleaners. These are very affordable and available at most craft stores and Walmart. Check out the links below for instructions.
https://youtu.be/Leca3DQvrmc (bunny flowerpot tutorial video)
https://www.redtedart.com/spring-chick-planter-diy/ (chick flowerpot instructions)
It’s relatively easy and virtually free to dye Easter eggs with food coloring, water, and vinegar. However, I found quite the selection of inexpensive and adorable egg coloring/decorating kits this year. The dragons, gnomes, and hatching egg kits were available at Five below. The ninjas and dinosaurs were available at Walmart along with so many other cute ones I had to stop myself before I bought the whole store!
https://www.walmart.com/search?q=easter%20egg%20coloring%20kit&typeahead=egg%20coloring (Walmart egg coloring kits-better selection available in store)
https://www.fivebelow.com/products?utf8=%E2%9C%93&keywords=easter%20egg%20kits (Five below egg coloring kits)
https://www.mccormick.com/recipes/other/easter-eggs#:~:text=3%20Mix%201%2F2%20cup,and%20remove%20eggs%20from%20dye. (Recipe for homemade egg dye)
Have some sensory fun with Play Doh and Kinetic sand-Easter style! From top to bottom below: Play Doh Easter themed stampers (Target), Peeps dough packs- comes with colored dough and a cutter (Target dollar bin), chocolate Easter Bunny/Jellybean scented Kinetic sand- sand is brown/pink respectively (Target).
Got old egg cartons laying around? Why not plant a ‘carrot patch’? We flipped the egg carton over and used brown finger paint to make the ‘mud’ then painted the very bottom in orange to make the ‘carrots’ sticking out of the ground. Then we used hot glue to glue on green pompons for the stems to make a carrot patch that farmer McGregor would be proud of!
Do play with your food! At least in the case of these Peeps. We used them, along with some sugar wafers, coconut flakes, jellybeans, and leftover cookie frosting to assemble our very own Peeps chicken coop. Of course, for $15 you can purchase a pre-made kit from Walmart or Target….but where’s the fun in that?
Baking fun: We scored Funfetti spring themed cupcake mix and frosting as well as these cute cupcake decorating kits to bake our own ‘carrot patch’ cupcakes.
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Pillsbury-Funfetti-Spring-Cake-and-Cupcake-Mix-15-25-OZ-Box/205102738 (Funfetti mix at Walmart)
Nothing is more iconic of Easter than Peeps so why not have ’em for breakfast? This adorable pancake pan is available at Target, Walmart, and Walgreens. I will warn you there is a steep learning curve with this thing. After many a burned batch, I have come up with my ‘Peeps pan pro tips‘: 1) You can NEVER use too much oil! 2) Cook over the lowest heat possible so they cook thoroughly and don’t burn. 3) Have a pre-heated, pre-oiled pan ready to flip them out into so they can finish cooking on the other side. They will not cook all the way through in the Peeps pan without burning horribly.
Serving suggestions: use food coloring to achieve those vintage Peeps colors, use cottage cheese for a yummy bunny tail, or embellish with fruit or jellybeans to make tasty facial features.
Sugar cookies make a fun, tasty dessert or Easter gift. Just whip up your favorite sugar cookie recipe, use your Spring/Easter cookie cutters to shape them, frost, decorate, and enjoy. You can cheat and modify the Funfetti Spring mix into cookie batter, just make sure you briefly place the cut cookies in the freezer before baking so they hold their shape while they cook. You can use the matching Funfetti frosting and sprinkles to decorate them as well.
Bunny Fruit Salad makes a cute treat to add to Easter dinner for your picky eaters who may not go for the ham and sweet potatoes. Take whole, canned pears and cut them in half. Lay the halves out on a plate or place on a lettuce leaf. Add raisin eyes, slivered almonds or graham cracker pieces for the ears, use a jellybean or cinnamon candy for the nose, and finish it off with either cottage cheese or a marshmallow (cut in half) for the tail and you will have some tasty little bunnies that look cute enough to hop off the plate and into your mouth!
Pin the Carrot on the Bunny:
I used Crayola’s website to print out a picture of a bunny and a large carrot (see link above). I had the kids color both and then practice their scissor skills to cut out the carrot. Add a blind fold and a couple of spins and you’ve got yourself a fun Easter themed variation on the classic Pin the Tail on the Donkey game! (P.S. use doubled over scotch tape or double stick tape to stick the carrots to the bunny.)
Hop to Your Local Park District: For a couple of years Covid put the squash on Easter activities everywhere, but 2022 has seen a return of some of our favorite Easter activities. Saint Charles has brought back their Free Easter Egg Hunt in Pottawatomie Park (free/drop in), Breakfast with the Easter Bunny at Pottawatomie recreation center (small fee/registration required), and the flashlight Egg Hunt at Hickory Knolls Nature Center (small fee/registration required). Check out the link below for dates, times, and registration.
https://www.stcparks.org/events/ (Easter Egg Hunt/Breakfast with the Easter Bunny)
https://www.stcnature.org/events/ (Flashlight Easter Egg hunt)
Easter Bath: If you read my blog regularly then you are familiar with the insane lengths I will go to to get my kids in the tub without a fight. So without further adieu I give you the Easter themed bath goodies that I have found. From top to bottom: pastel colored Crayola bath paint (Target dollar bin), pastel bath foam (Walmart), pastel Crayola foaming soap (Walmart), Easter themed rubber duckies (Oriental Trading Company), chickee/Easter/bunny bath bombs (Target), and Peeps bath fizzers (Target dollar bin).
With all these great ideas in mind you better ‘hop to it’ and have some Easter fun!
Cheers!
Love,
Marie
The thrifty-momcom 