Coloring Easter Eggs Together Can Create Cherished Memories And Stronger Family Bonds

The day before Easter my kids and I dye our Easter eggs. We dye several dozen eggs to be used in our egg hunt on Easter Sunday. I put the eggs in a big bowl in the center of our picnic table outside. Dying the eggs outside makes cleaning up any spills much easier. Each of the kids has six cups with the all the colors of the rainbow to choose from. I also give each one of them a rubber band, a small sponge and white crayon to decorate their eggs.

They all take their places at the table and choose an egg. Trenton drops an egg into each of his cups. He runs off to play while he waits on his eggs to change color. Jackie and Doyle wrap rubber bands around their eggs to make swirl patterns. A warm breeze is blowing making this a perfect day to be outside. The sky is a brilliant shade of blue with white marshmallow clouds in the sky. While the kids work on their eggs they talk about writing letters to The Easter Bunny.

Sally and Melanie draw designs on their eggs with the crayons Trenton stops by the table every few minutes to check on his eggs. He likes his eggs to be bright and vibrant. When each of the kids finish with an egg they place it in one of the drying trays. Sally says we should include a picture of all our Easter eggs in with our Easter Bunny letters. The truth is, the brightly colored eggs would make a pretty Easter picture.

The girls sometimes take some of their eggs and draw stems with leaves on them with the white crayon. Next they put the eggs into the dye. When the eggs were the color they wanted they set them aside to dry. When the eggs had dried completely they took the sponge and made little flowers atop of the stem. Jackie said that she wanted to email a letter to The Easter Bunny and add a picture of the eggs.

I dyed a special egg for each of kids to put in their baskets. The kids were allowed to keep half a dozen eggs in their basket. The rest of the eggs were to hide for the big Easter egg hunt the next day. Sally chose all blue eggs to put in her basket around a letter to The Easter Bunny she had written. The girls pick some of the hyacinths that grow along our fence to put in the house. We all like to add a touch of the outdoors with beautiful flowers. I guess spring is my favorite season – I just love all the flowers and newness and I think that is rubbing off on my kids!

When the eggs are all done we look at the master pieces the kids have made. I take a lot of pictures that day. It turned out to be a perfect day. I’ve learned that any day can be made into a special and meaningful day if I let it be. All it takes is a little creativity and effort. I love spending time with my kids. It’s fun to watch them grow and learn and I think these family times help them see that life’s most precious gifts really don’t have a lot to do with money at all. Instead, it’s about sharing good times with the people you love. I hope that we will be blessed with many more Easters as happy as this one.

Does The Easter Bunny Have Favorites And Special Friends

My daughter Sally loves to write letters to The Easter Bunny. She is always the one who volunteers to go shopping with me for the letter supplies. She takes her time when she picks out the stickers we buy. She always tries to pick out stuff she thinks that The Easter Bunny will like. I used to use plain white envelopes but she insists on using pastel colored ones. She says that The Easter Bunny likes those pretty shades of pinks, blues, yellows, greens and lavenders. According to Sally, The Easter Bunny pays more attention to the letters and envelopes that are written on his favorite colors of paper.

When it is time to sit down and write the Easter Bunny letters she lays everything out neatly. All the glitter and paint is organized by color. There isn’t a craft supply we might need Sally hasn’t thought of. She likes to write her letter where she can look up and see the flowering Japanese cherry tree in bloom in the garden.

She likes to help me make the snack we are going eat while we are writing our letters. Without fail she wants warm chocolate chip cookies with tall glasses of cold milk. She counts the plates and fills the glasses with milk. None of her brothers or sisters argues with her choice in snacks. Sally really likes to bake and cook with me. I’m glad I have her to pass my love of cooking on to.

She takes longer that any of my other kids on her letters to The Easter Bunny. Her letters turn out very pretty thanks to her attention to detail. She likes to use glitter and shiny foil stickers. One year she made pretty tissue paper flowers that she glued in the corners. It was tricky to get that letter to stay sealed inside its envelope.

In Sally‘s letters to The Easter Bunny she doesn’t ask for a lot of things. Her letters are more of a run down of the past year. She loves to write to The Easter Bunny. She has been known to tattle tell about her brothers and sisters in her letters. They get so mad when she does that.

This year she has a new set of Easter stencils she is anxious to use. She plans on decorating the back of her envelope with them. She showed me the stencil of an Easter basket and told me it was her favorite one.

Once her letter has been mailed she goes crazy waiting to receive a letter from The Easter Bunny. She checks the mailbox everyday when she gets in from school. When it does arrive she reads it probably a hundred times. She makes sure that everyone in the family sees her letter. She calls her grandparents and brags to them about the year’s letter from The Easter Bunny. Sally believes that her letter is of course, more special than anyone else’s – she thinks that she has a special bond with The Easter Bunny that other kids just don’t have. I think it’s funny to listen to her brothers get upset about this – because they too believe that The Easter Bunny and Sally are special friends!

Little Girls And A Love For Bubbles

My daughter Sally loves to blow bubbles. As soon as it starts to warm up outside she is ready to sit on the front porch and blow bubbles. Her best friend Mandy who loves down the road also loves bubbles. They have every imaginable shape of bubble blowing stick. Both of them wear necklaces with little bottles of bubbles.

Sally and Mandy told me that this year they plan to mail a letter to The Easter Bunny. They told me very seriously that they just knew The Easter Bunny would bring them bubbles in their baskets if they asked.

They looked through all their coloring books. Any pictures they found with bubbles they pulled out and colored. There were pictures of fish bubbles, soap bubbles and of course the kind you blow. They wanted to add the pictures they colored in their Easter letters to The Easter Bunny. I showed them there wasn’t room in the envelopes for all the pictures they colored. I let them each pick two pictures to send.

They were disappointed about the pictures they colored until I told them that they could leave the pictures in their Easter baskets for The Easter Bunny to take with him when he comes.

The letters the girls wrote were long. They included every reason they loved bubbles. They sat at the kitchen table talking to each other while they were writing letters to The Easter Bunny. I baked them bunny shaped sugar cookies to snack on while they worked. I had never seen those two girls sit still for so long.

Finally they announced they had finished their letters and were ready to mail them off. I gave them each a stamp. They very carefully placed the stamp on the corner of the envelopes. I walked with them to the end of the driveway to put the letters in the mailbox.
They lifted the red flag and doubled checked that the door was closed real well.

For the next week we had to check the mail everyday. I was so happy when Sally pulled two pastel purple envelopes out of the mailbox. They opened the letters from The Easter Bunny. Inside the special letters The Easter Bunny told them he was real impressed by the way they blew bubbles. The girls bragged to their other friends about the things The Easter Bunny said, including that they took excellent care of toys.

Sure enough the girls were right. The Easter Bunny left bubbles in both their Easter baskets. They skipped off to the front porch to blow bubbles. Through the open window I could hear them planning the next year’s letters.

Family Traditions That Bond – So Simple But So Important

I was so pleased when I looked out the window that Easter morning. A bright blue sky like a Robin’s egg hung over head. The path down to the creek shined, lit up by the cheerful daffodils that swayed in the breeze. The branches of the trees were brushed with the bright green of new leaves promising the return of warmer weather. I couldn’t help but think of the Easter’s when I was a little girl.

About a week before Easter my brothers and I would decorate our Easter baskets and write our Easter Bunny letters. We started out with a plain wicker basket. My mom would bring out all the things she had gathered for us to decorate our baskets. I loved running the bright satin ribbons through my hands. We were allowed to decorate our baskets however we wanted. I always used lots of glitter on my baskets. My brothers liked to glue small chicks and bunnies on theirs. One year my Mom helped them to make cowboys and Indians baskets.

While we worked on our baskets my mom would bake us a carrot cake. We would all talk about what we were going to write in our letters. My youngest brother was always so excited about getting a letter from The Easter Bunny. It always amazed me how my mom always had the best ideas. She knew which colors would blend nicely together and how much glue it took to make paper butterflies stay in place. As the room filled with the sweet scent of the carrot cake we would be finishing up our baskets.

My mom would place all the finished baskets on a shelf in her laundry room to dry. She would then bring out the paper for our letters. When my brothers were real small I would help them write their letters. We spent a lot of time on our letters. Along the sides of the paper we would draw colorful Easter eggs or put stickers with bunnies and eggs. We wanted to make personalized Easter Bunny Letters. My mom was the best - she had Easter envelopes and she even found Easter stamps for us to use on the letters.

Now that I am a mother I try to build special memories like my mother did when I was young. Every year when my children sit down to write letters to the Easter Bunny I am so grateful my mom started these holiday traditions. I hope that when my children grow up they carry them on with their families. It is funny how something as simple as writing a letter can bring a family closer together.

New Puppy Equals New Family Member!

A friend of mine had to move and had no idea what she was going to do with the Border Collie puppy she had got a few months before. She told me if I would to take the puppy she would give me everything I would need for him. I talked to my husband Drew about bringing the puppy home to live with us. Drew said he didn’t care as long as the dog was house broken.

I told my friend Betty that we could take the puppy. I wanted to surprise the kids with the puppy. They were going to be so happy. I had Drew stay with the kids while I went to pick up the puppy. I left out all the stuff so that the kids could work on their Easter Bunny letters.

Betty told me she had named the puppy Comet because of how fast he could run. He was a beautiful puppy. His coat was shiny and soft. I knew that the kids were going to be so surprised when I brought the puppy in.

I called Drew and told him I was on my way back home. He told me things were fine at home. The kids were still writing their letters to The Easter Bunny. He told them that I had to go to the grocery store so they didn’t get curious about my where abouts.

I pulled up to the house and got Comet out of the car. He looked excited as if he had on a big smile and was wagging his tail like crazy. I led him into the house and called for the kids. They came running in and immediately went to the puppy. I told them that his name was Comet and that he was going to live with us.

The kids played with the puppy who I must say fit right in with our family. I think Comet was glad to have the kids playing with him after he had been living with Betty who is a single lady. After a while Comet laid down to take a nap. I think all of the excitement wore him out.

While Comet slept the kids went back to their Easter letters. My daughter Jackie started a new letter so she could tell The Easter Bunny about Comet. While they worked on the letters they talked about all the things they wanted to do with Comet. Comet was going to be a very busy little puppy.

The kids finished their Easter letters to The Easter Bunny. Right about that time Comet was awake from his nap. I let the kids take the puppy outside in the backyard to play. I think Comet is going to fit in our family perfectly because he loves running and playing with the kids as much as they like running and playing with him. And a big relief for me was that Comet was already housebroken and had all his puppy shots when I brought him home.

Fun and Creative Easter Crafts

Easter is a popular Christian festival of Resurrection of Christ. It is celebrated since the ancient times on the Sunday which follows the very first full moon that occurs after the March equinox. It is also celebrated to welcome the spring after a cold winter. It is therefore considered as a spring holiday and the bouquets of flowers, Easter baskets which are filled with jelly beans and chocolate eggs and embellished Easter eggs along with the Easter package from Easter Bunny are some of the essential parts of the fun. Writing letters to The Easter Bunny is a household tradition for many families and the personalized Letters from The Easter Bunny add a magical touch to the holiday. The number of Easter crafts, are also source of added enjoyment to the festival. You will find a number of websites and books which offer different ideas about the Easter crafts.

The Easter egg can be considered as one of the greatest examples of the tradition which began thousands of years ago. The egg was a symbol of a novel life for the ancient community. A fresh life comes into this world when the shell of the egg is broken. There are some myths which state that the world actually originated in the form of a huge egg. The upper half of the same turned into heaven, while the lower half into earth. For centuries together, the tradition of gifting eggs on the location of spring festival has been followed. Nowadays, people have fun decorating the eggs with colors and embellishing the same with simple patterns.

There are a number of craft ideas available for Easter. The Easter eggs, Easter decorations, Easter activities and Easter baskets and Letters to the Easter Bunny are among the popular fun and creative crafts for Easter. The paper baskets are one of the simplest things to make for kids and fill up with pretty things. These paper baskets are actually suitable for any occasion throughout the year. You can just change the shape of the basket according to the occasion. You can also decorate your basket and going to the people which best suits the idea of the baskets.

Making some unique Easter baskets for Easter and it ensures that your children will definitely cherish this memory forever. Another advantage of this same is that you can decompose the baskets very easily after the festival. The patterns in which you can make those baskets are plenty like a colored Easter basket, a plastic basket but even a wickerwork basket. You can therefore choose any pattern, as any pattern will work and do not fret if your basket is not absolutely water tight as a liner can always be put by you in the basket. Children can also enjoy making colorful Easter eggs with no warranty and confusion. However, this activity can be quite messy as different water colors and paints are going to be used for converting the eggs. Thus, the children will completely love to color their own eggs on Easter. Apart from this you can also make the Easter Bunny, paper butterflies and flowers for Easter. These are some of the fun and creative Easter craft ideas you can employ to have fun with your children.