*Whoops! I had this one written and ready to go, but forgot to hit publish! So its a little late :)
The past 2 years we've had a Spring Party on the first day (or weekend) of Spring. (You can see the old posts here and here). I got the idea from one of my favorite Mommy bloggers, OhAmanda.
Just like with Christmas, I didn't want the real meaning of Easter to be over shadowed by traditional holiday stuff. But at the same time I didn't want to throw the baby out with the bath water. So we celebrate Spring by dyeing eggs, hiding baskets, and doing a fun craft. Normally I invite my parents over and a few friends to join in on the fun. But this year, Justin's work schedule is crazy, so we did it mid-week. It was smaller, but it was still special and fun!
After I wrote this post for The Healthy Hen about our Easter candy, I decided to change their Easter treats. I filled the plastic eggs with other treats. I put pennies in some of them (because ANY coin is exciting to Inara at this age). I bought some of Annie's Bunny Grahms, and some of these yummy caramelized walnuts. I put tattoos, stickers, and a cheap craft.
Inara and her bestie taking turns dyeing the eggs
I let the boys hang out too, but they were too busy stealing each others food
Sorting through their loot, after finding their baskets and eggs
Guys, I can't even handle how cute they are together!
Love this man!
It was fun because Inara woke up and was so excited for her Spring party! And it's been really great because she's been asking about when we get to do stuff for Easter. I'm going to start my Sense of the Resurrection activities next week, and I can't wait. I'm hoping having this party separate from our Easter celebration, keeps the fun secular things we do, but allows Christ's death, burial, and resurrection to shine even brighter on Easter Sunday!
Last year I saw this idea for a Spring Party from OhAmanda and I loved it. We had our own little Spring Party last year and I managed to throw one together this year too. It was really fun to do all the secular Easter things. We don't want to take the fun out of those celebrations, but we just wanted to make sure that on Easter the right things were celebrated.
We prepared by dyeing eggs. I really had to allow my self to have fun :) I am such a freak and didn't want colored dye everywhere. I soooo wanted to just dye them my self, but alas I was a fun mom and let Inara do it all. He really had a lot of fun.
We sang songs while we let the eggs sit.
Inara grabbed Justin's hand and held it the whole time.
She loves her daddy!
And while we were waiting for the eggs to dye, we also stumbled upon this awesome gem of song/video. Inara was obsessed with it and watched it over and over.
We invited some friends over and had some brunch together. I also made this yummy Blushing Mimosa Mocktail for us all to have. It was delicious. I just substituted the champagne for sparkling apple juice...YUM!
Source: Allrecipes
Next week hid the baskets for the kiddos. After they found the baskets, then the looked for the eggs.
Girls making a craft
Fun loot from her basket
Marley is pretty much in love
They made bunny noses...although they kind of look like spiders.
