Archive for the ‘kids do’ Category

Now what am I going to do with all those eggs?

It’s Spring Break this week and my kids wish we were going to Disneyland.  But, with the scary Economy, we just couldn’t splurge on a vacation.

My goal: Make it Do and create a memorable vacation at home.  It’s just going to take a little planning, and a big attitude adjustment.  After brainstorming,   here’s my list of ideas for the week:

1.    Visit the Zoo
2.    Make Kites. Make a Picnic. Go to the Park.
3.    Create a Tee pee in the Garden
4.    Pizza and movie night at home.  Make homemade pizza and rent a Redbox movie.  Pop popcorn of course.  (I love popcorn.)
5.    Take the kids on a nature walk and look for birds and animals.  Take our notebooks and write about and sketch what we see.
6.    Plant seeds indoors.
7.    Have a family game night with yummy snacks and prizes.
8.    Make bird feeders.
9.    Visit the tourist spots in our own town.
10.    Visit the children’s museum.
11.    Help the kids with a Craft/Sewing project. (Ben wants to sew a bag for his marbles.)
12.    Go to the farm and see the new baby lambs and chicks.
13.    Make homemade playdough
14.    Camp out at home.  Let the kids make a big fort and play all day. (maybe Wednesday… it’s supposed to snow)
15.    Go to the library and get new books
16.    I want to get in one good Spring Cleaning Day with the kids… (Am I mean?  I’ll try to make it fun!)

I can’t wait to spend this week with my kids.  We are going to have a great time together, even if we aren’t at Disneyland.  Today we are headed off to the Zoo with Nan, cousins and friends.  I’m looking forward to saying hello to our favorite Red Panda…

Just for fun, I wanted to show a picture from yesterday’s egg hunt at Mamaw and Granddad’s.  The kids had a great time with their cousins.  Check out Lily and Emma’s new skirts made by their Nan (my mom, Leslie.)  She said she whipped these skirts up in no time…  The pattern is the Girly skirt from Pink Fig Patterns. I loved them so much, I want to make some myself and also try a few other Pink Fig patterns like the Pink Fig Patchwork Skirt Embellished Top Sewing Pattern.

When I was a kid, my Easter basket was filled with Reese’s Peanut Butter Eggs, Peeps, and plastic eggs filled with jelly beans that we found on our Easter Egg Hunt.  There might have been a small toy or two, but I really don’t remember those.  I mostly remember getting a new dress and often fancy white gloves and an Easter hat.  I loved going to church dressed in my new clothes.  I remember Easter being such a bright happy holiday.  Was every Easter sunny and warm with lots of flowers in bloom?   Because that is how I remember it.  But somewhere along the way, Easter baskets started getting bigger, filled with iPods and video games and other expensive toys, and kids  started looking at the Easter Bunny as another Santa Claus.  How did that happen?

Well, maybe the downturn in the economy will bring at least a few silver linings… like getting back to the days when Easter was about simpler things.  As a kid, Easter was special because of the things we did, not the things we got.  This weekend I am looking forward to dyeing eggs as a family, the Easter egg hunt at Mamaw and Granddad’s home, spending time with my family, and a delicious Easter dinner.  I love the symbolism of Easter- the end of winter, renewal, and the promise of brighter days.  The Easter Basket is the quintessential symbol of abundance.  Fill it up with good things this year.

If you’re like me and hate to give the kiddie’s too much candy, think about some good old-fashioned small toys, like a jump rope, marbles or jacks?  What about sidewalk chalk and a hoppy taw?

This year I am trying something new. I am filling a basket full of my blessings.  On scraps of paper I have written things that I am grateful for and then rolled them up and put them in plastic eggs alongside the jelly beans:

My husband
My wonderful children
Good Health
Good friends
My Home
Food in my Pantry and on my Table
My garden
My sewing machine

This is just the beginning, my list is so long, but it feels really good to write them down and remember how blessed I am.