Holy Saturday….prepping for the big day!!!

This is the current mess thrown across my formal dining room table. I like to consider myself a thrifty person. I would never purchase all this stuff at one time. However, it’s easier to find an extra $10 or $20 in your budget a month to grab a few things in advance. I stockpile items as I go….and I ALWAYS hit up Homegoods, Ross and Marshall’s after a holiday to grab “goodies” for the next year’s decorations.  So….here is a  little bit of everything for my decorations for Easter:

• cute disposable easter cups and plates for a fast breakfast (Target $1.99 each)
• 2- 4 pastel placemats (for a total of 8) for my Easter table (Kohl’s 10.49 a set)
• 2 white platters/bowls for centerpieces (Marshall’s $9.99 each)
• 2 packs of Easter cookie cutters (Amazon $7.99 each)- to be used in the project below
• white wire bunny and green EASTER block letters (Marshall’s 9.99 each) for my mantle
• bunny cupcake toppers (Walmart…???? not sure since I grabbed it a while back)
• hanging decorative Easter eggs to be hung from my mantle (Homegoods $9.99)
• hot pink cupcake tier (originally purchased at Walmart for Valentine’s Day for $9.99)
• stickers for the kids’ placecards (walmart 1.99)

Check back on Monday to see how our Easter decorations looked!

If you want some great ideas but don’t want to have to search Pinterest….here you go:

EGG DYEING!!!!!!

So…I cheated. I snuck these in the oven on Holy Thursday while making my beef stew for dinner. I figured if I was going to be chopping vegetables, I might as well prep some eggs for dying for Holy Saturday. I love this technique. Pinterest introduced it to me last year…and it’s fabulous! It can leave some little brown spots on your eggs but, we don’t care..we are dyeing them anyway. =)

When it came to actually dyeing the eggs, I decided to try using another idea that I saw on Pinterest….these worked out great for us last year so we will do it again this year.

If you are like me, and your kids dyeing eggs + your floors/chairs/carpets = nervousness, I would suggest what we did two years ago. Dye your eggs in the garage….put down one of those great $1.00 tablecloths from the local dollar tree and then just gather it all up and put in a trash bag. The kids will have a blast and then run and play while you clean up.

CRAFT ACTIVITIES:

I recently found this Holy Week Wreath “pinned” to my holiday board on Pinterest from last year. This will be a great way to tie together our work all week. The kids like to hang stuff like this on their bedroom doors, but we can use it for the mean time to decorate our school room walls for Easter.

The above banner hung in our playroom two years ago on Easter Sunday. The kids and I will spend some of the afternoon creating these tissue paper flowers to adorn our school room on Easter morning. They are made using several sheets of tissue paper in various colors and a pipe cleaner. You should be able to you tube it and get specific directions.

EGG HUNT:

The hubs likes to hold an easter egg hunt for our kids Sunday morning. He hides one “money egg” with each child’s name on it as well as a certain number of eggs. When each child has found the specific number of eggs and their “named” egg, they can then help their siblings find their eggs. It’s just so awesome to watch their excitement over finding all the “great places” that daddy tried to trick them and hide their eggs.

Easter Sunday:

These are a great tradition that we started last year with the kiddos. They love making them themselves. They love the way the melted marshmallow and cinnamon taste, and I love the lesson that they learn when their marshmallow has “disappeared”just like Jesus was risen from the tomb. Plus, I like something fast and simple on Easter morning when we have to get dressed and out of the door for church. The children will enjoy these but mom and dad prefer Whole Wheat Banana Muffins. We omit the strawberries but they are fantastic. Pair either of these with some frozen fruit and some Chobani yogurt and you’ve got a great breakfast.

I love when a project is adorable and easy. To me, this one seemed perfect for a little “gift” on each person’s plate for our Easter dinner. I would definitely reuse these cookie cutters anyway so I bought them off Amazon right away.

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this idea for an Easter basket instead of the typical Easter wicker basket that breaks or the plastic ones that the handles crack. I’m making a special trip to the local dollar tree tomorrow to see if I can score 8 of these. (I always buy more than I need in case we lose one, or one breaks) If not, it’s the usual baskets. I’m really hoping to find these.

In addition, I already printed out these awesome tags for the outsides of the baskets.

In order to really make the “impact” of closing down our school room, and celebrating Easter. I put up all the Easter decorations on Saturday night so the kids only see them Easter morning. So….I guess that’s it for this post. Hopefully, you can get some ideas for your own Easter celebration.

Join me on Monday morning when I show pictures of our Easter Sunday events, decorations, and family pictures.

In the meantime, Have a blessed Easter!!!!!