got Easter eggs??

Pin It Who has a dozen or more colored Easter eggs? I do, I do. Not sure what to do with them besides make an overwhelming amount of egg salad sandwiches? Well, we made some egg salad sandwiches too, but we also made a few fun eggs for the kiddos. Just peel the colored shell off your egg and decorate with a few items you probably already have in your fridge. No word of a lie, my kiddos ate them right up. And that's saying a lot because Kirsten normally won't eat a hard-boiled egg. Check out these cuties:



Chickie egg mama - slice off a little bit from the bottom of the egg so it stands up. Using a knife, slice some feet, a beak, and some head feathers out of your carrot. The eyes are 2 sprinkles.



Chickie egg baby - I made this little cutie 2 years ago, but I'm showing him again because he's pretty adorable. Slice a hard-boiled egg in half. Slice a little off the bottom so the egg will sit flat on the plate. He has 2 sprinkle eyes and a sliced carrot nose.



Easter bunny egg - slice off a little bit from the bottom of the egg so it stands up. Using a knife, slice 2 feet, 2 ears, and a nose out of carrot. The whiskers are made out of thin celery slices and he has 2 sprinkle eyes.

Happy Easter everyone!

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kool-aid Easter eggs

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I saw this awesome idea on Hey! Jen Renee last year and I couldn't wait to try it. She calls them Kool-eggs which is genius, lol. It's a pretty brilliant idea using just kool-aid and water. No need for any vinegar because kool-aid contains citric acid itself. Dying Easter eggs has become an annual Easter tradition in our house and this just gave it a new fruity twist. The kiddos had a blast dying their eggs yesterday. We only did 1 dozen and they were kind of disappointed when we were done! I just didn't want to make any more than we would be able to eat. They smell really fruity when they first come out of the kool-aid/water mixture, but when they dry, they are just like regular Easter eggs. I think this will definitely be a method we do again. Stop by the blog tomorrow to see what we did with our Easter eggs! Here's how you make them:

What you'll need

single-serving pouches of kool-aid
cups
spoons
water
hard-boiled eggs
plastic tablecloth - this will prevent stains on your table if it spills

Directions

1. lay a plastic tablecloth down on your table to prevent stains if the kool-aid mixture spills

2. in a cup, mix entire contents of kool-aid packet with 2/3 cups water. Stir until kool-aid is dissolved.

* with the packet of purple kool-aid, I added less kool-aid powder and more water. The purple kool-aid will turn the egg dark gray really quickly, by adding less powder and more water, we got a nice purple colour

3. put some hard-boiled eggs in the kool-aid mixture and take them out when you reach your desired colour

4. let the eggs dry in the egg carton





















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fun food friday: the no tools required bunny lunch

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Lots of people want to make fun foods for their kids, but think they can't because they don't have any fancy cookie cutters, cute little picks, or colorful silicone cups. Although having that stuff certainly doesn't hurt in the cute food department, it's certainly not essential either. You can definitely make your kiddos an easy and adorable lunch using nothing but a regular kitchen knife. This sweet little bunny sandwich is a perfect example of that. I didn't use any fancy tools and I was able to throw this lunch together in just a couple quick minutes. Anyone can make this easy lunch for their kiddos. Here is how I made it:

Half a toasted English muffin with peanut butter. 2 blueberry eyes, a sliced strawberry nose, matchstick carrot whiskers and sliced apple ears. Couldn't be easier and the kids loved it!

Happy Friday everyone!

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a smoothie for my peeps

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Or should that be a peep for my smoothie, lol? I was making smoothies for the kids last weekend and decided to turn them a little Easter-ish. Nothing says Easter like peeps. I'm really not too much of a fun myself, but the kids think they're adorable and tasty. I mean they're not only cute, but it's a big sugar-coated marshmallow! I also added a huge dollop of whipped cream with some colourful rainbow sprinkles. Yum! Here's the smoothie recipe I made:

Ingredients:

1 cup strawberry yogurt
2 cups frozen strawberries
milk to desired consistency - about 1 cup
whipped cream
sprinkles
peeps

1. blend up the yogurt, frozen strawberries and milk until desired consistency is reached

2. pour into a cup/glass and garnish with some whipped cream, sprinkles and a peep

3. serve to your kiddos with a straw





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Playdoh chicks

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This was a really fun activity we did a couple weekends ago to spend some time in the afternoon. We just grabbed some playdoh, feathers, craft foam and googly eyes and made ourselves some little chicks for Easter. This was really fun and kept the kiddos occupied for hours. I swear these kids would play with playdoh every hour of the day if they could. Here are some pics of their fun:















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fun food friday: the 1 minute bunny lunch

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I know a lot of people wonder how on earth I possibly have the time to make all these cute foods all the time. I see the comments sometimes "this lady has way too much time on her hands!" The truth is, I have no time on my hands. Most of the time I am extremely exhausted. I work full-time, Monday to Friday outside the home. I only have time with my kids on the evenings and weekends. When I'm with my kids though, I make sure we do special things together because I miss that precious time with them during the day. Making your kids lunches cute doesn't have to be time consuming though. No word of a lie, this lunch probably took me 1 minute to make. I saw this incredibly awesome idea on Tiffany's blog Cute Food for Kids last year. If you haven't already, definitely check out her blog. She has amazing ideas and is so creative with food. That girl can turn a babybel cheese into anything!! Anyway, she had the idea of using the bunny lip pops from Easter for making cute bunny lunches. Absolutely brilliant. I can turn a plain sandwich into a bunny in 5 seconds flat. I already had a few of these lip pops hanging around from last Easter and it never occurred to me to use them for fun food. That's why I love the internet - so many amazing ideas out there. Pick yourself up some bunny lip pops this Easter and once the lollipop part is gone, save them for lunches! Here's how I made this 1 minute bunny lunch.

Spread two pieces of bread with peanut butter and cut into a circle. Stick your bunny lip pop pick through the sandwich. Add 2 icing eyes. I used matchstick carrots for the whiskers and 2 slices of apple for the ears.

Go ahead and make one for your kiddo! You would spend at least that amount of time making any lunch for them and they will absolutely love it!

In case you are not familiar, this is what the bunny lip pops look like:







They come in a package as a lollipop. Once the lollipop is finished, wash the plastic bunny face and save it!



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magical jellybeans and lollipops - part 2

Pin It Does anyone remember this post from last year? It's going to become a yearly tradition in my house for Easter and I absolutely love it. If you are not familiar with last year's post, this is what you do. Every year on Easter Eve you gather your kiddos and give them each a "magical jellybean." Have them plant this magical jellybean in a plant pot with Easter grass and tell them that by the morning when they wake up, their jellybean will have turned into a lollipop. Seeing their amazed little faces in the morning was absolutely priceless. I'm so excited to do it again this year. I took the tradition one step further this year though. Kirsten had asked me where I found the magical jellybeans, and I really didn't have a great answer. I decided that we would make some adorable chickie eggs, and that these little chickies would be laying our magical jellybeans. The week before Easter we will periodically check on our chickies to see if they have laid any magical jellybeans yet. By Easter Eve, they will have laid 2 magic eggs - 1 for each of the kiddos. Then we will plant them and watch them grow into lollipops! So exciting for the kiddos. Here are the steps:

1. Make some adorable little chickie eggs out of plastic easter eggs. We glued on googly eyes and craft foam beaks. I then placed yellow cupcake liners (turned inside out) into a silicone muffin tray and placed the eggs in the liners.



2. The week before Easter, check your chickie eggs to see if they have "laid" a magical jellybean. You'll want to sneak a couple in there at some point so your kiddos can find them.





3. Save these magical jellybeans for the night before Easter. Fill a plant pot with some Easter grass and have your kiddos plant their magical jellybean in their pot.









4. While your kiddos are sleeping, make sure their magic jellybean grows into a lollipop. If you stick some playdoh in the bottom of the plant pot, the lollipop will stick straight up when you put the stick in. Dispose of the jellybean so there isn't any evidence - that shouldn't be too difficult, lol.



Original idea from See Jane Blog



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chickie masks

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On to the Easter crafts, and trust me, I have quite a few to post. I had some leftover yellow paper plates from one of the kids birthday parties and thought they would make adorable little chickies. They were beyond simple to make, needing only a few things. Once they dried, the kiddos had fun playing with them. They used the chicks as both masks and puppets. We made them a couple weeks ago and they're still playing with them, although a few parts have had to be re-glued in all the fun. Here is how we made them:

What you'll need:

yellow paper plates - or paint regular ones yellow
googly eyes
feathers
orange craft foam
scissors
glue
popsicle sticks

1. using your scissors, cut a small triangle nose our of your orange craft foam

2. glue 2 googly eyes and the orange nose on the front of the paper plate. Allow to dry.

3. Once the face is dry, flip your plate over and glue a popsicle stick and feathers on the back. Allow to dry.

Have fun!









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this week in bento boxes: Easter edition

Pin It Wow, this weekend is going by WAY too fast. Where did yesterday even go?? Poor little Cam is sooo sick again. He's on 2 antibiotics right now, which isn't a lot of fun for him, or us. He's not exactly willing to take his medication all the time and it can be quite the fight. It breaks my heart. He was a bilateral ear infection, bilateral pink eye, upper respiratory tract infection, fever and possible strep. I'm praying he feels better soon. This Winter has been so rough for both the kids. Cam brings home germs from daycare and Kirsten from school and it's really hit them both hard. Anyway, on to Kirsten's bento boxes. She had a little Easter theme going on this week. These were really fun to make. I love when I can actually follow a theme and not just have to come up with random ideas. It's tough being creative sometimes, lol.



This Easter bento was for Kirsten's afternoon nutrition break. I cut a ham sandwich into a circle and made a cute little chickie out of my small cutters with cheese, food safe markers and carrot. The bottom tier also held some green grapes. The top tier held 2 small easter eggs, one holding raisins, and the other holding crackers. Only small easter eggs will fit.



This bento was for Kirsten's morning nutrition break. The bottom tier held a silicone cup of chocolate cheerios, pretzels, and bunny-shaped marble cheese. The top tier held some grapes with a cute bunny pick.



This bento was also for Kirsten's morning nutrition break. The top tier held a cereal bar with the word CHICK cut out of fruit leather. The bottom tier had a bed of baby spinach leaves (which she didn't eat, but I didn't think she would anyway) and held 3 small decorated easter eggs. 1 egg held craisins, 1 egg held cheerios, and 1 egg held blueberries. She just loved opening these eggs to find out what was inside. It was a surprise every time!



This is another chickie bento, but this was for her afternoon nutrition break. She had a chicken sandwich cut into a circle with a circle of cheese on top. Icing eyes, carrot nose, and some carrot head feathers. She also had some nilla wafers, and some chickie-shaped cucumbers.



And lastly, another Easter bento for her morning nutrition break. The bottom tier held a silicone shaped bunny filled with chocolate cheerios, marshmallow eyes and a skittle nose. The top tier held yogurt with sprinkles.

Here are some of the supplies I used (or similar) I used to make these lunches:





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