Easter Egg-citement { Kiddie DIY }

Easter is here, which in mom-terms means cavities, sugar highs, chocolate smears and overactive tots. However when you really think about it, Easter fun isn’t only about finding a truck load of Easter eggs, it’s about the excitement of the hunt and the lead up to it! So this year, let’s shake things up with kiddie joy of a different kind – here are a couple of ideas that’s bound to create as much excitement in the home as a mousse-filled chocolate dome, with none of the side-effects:

• Make Easter bunny ears out of pipe cleaners, cardboard, felt or tin foil which the little ones can sport for the day.
• Instead of a batch of chocolate eggs, opt for a couple of big ones and let the kiddies decorate them with icing, fondant, jelly tots and other goodies.
• Mix melted marshmallow or chocolate with freshly popped popcorn, and make egg-shaped popcorn balls. The aerated popcorn makes it a somewhat less sugary alternative.
• Start the day with healthy hardboiled eggs and food grade paint, and turn breakfast into arts and crafts time!
• Collect a bunch of plastic bags, newspapers, bottle caps and other materials and let the kids design their own recycled bunny costumes before the big hunt.
• Ask yourself: What would bunnies eat? Carrots, of course! So keep an eye out for delicious yet low GI carrot recipes like mini muffins, carrot loaf, carrot brownies and so forth.
• Instead of merely hiding a truck load of eggs, hide a number of other goodies like little felt bunnies, cheap toys and trinkets, and mini bags of popcorn, nuts and other healthy treats.
• With a stick of chalk, draw little bunny foot prints on the floor before the kids wake up – excitement levels are bound to hit the roof.
• Let them make their own hunt baskets before the actual hunt begins. This can either involve decorating a coffee tin, making a basket out of cardboard or decorating existing baskets with flowers, crinkle paper and glitter.
• Turn Easter into a day of giving – bake mini muffins with the kids and pack them in egg cartons. Let them decorate the cartons and then deliver the half dozen muffin boxes to friends and neighbours to make their day!