EGGed! An Easter Tradition

Are you ready for some Easter-inspired fun?

My kids are LOVING this!  Introducing...

For the last few years my kids have really enjoyed the Halloween Phantom that has made his way through our neighborhood.  You might have had posters on doors last October that said "We've Been Boo'd" or something similar.  If you are unfamiliar with this tradition you can surely find more about it with a simple search online.

  I won't go into explaining that here... but that was my inspiration.

I wanted to come up with a fun way to promote the same kind of excitement leading up to Easter.  And what a better way to do that than with Easter eggs, right?

This Easter, I'm encouraging you and your kids to go EGG your friends!  Let's start a new tradition and enjoy some spring time fun!  

Look at that! You’ve just been EGGed!

But do not be alarmed.

We came, we dropped, we ran away…

Your house, it was not harmed.

So what is this before you now?

Just an early spring surprise.

Be quick and look around your yard…

Twelve EGGs lay in disguise.

A secret friend has just dropped by

To share some spring time cheer.

So now you’re it! It’s now your turn

To EGG a house that’s near.

Select a friend, or two or three…

Gather a dozen EGGs for each.

Be sly and hide them, knock and flee!

Leave this message at arm’s reach.

Hang a poster at your door

And now your task’s complete.

Days ‘til Easter aren’t much more…

Aren’t surprises sweet!

Here's how it works...

 Collect a dozen plastic eggs for each friend you plan to EGG.

  

Fill the eggs with treats or other small prizes.

  Make copies of the EGGed Poem and Poster HERE.

You will need one copy for each friend.  These are in color, unlike what you see below... so if you have a color printer they will look even nicer.  We rolled the two pages together and tied them with a ribbon.

Plan your "drop".  You want to find a time to hide the eggs in your friend's yard when they aren't out and about, and not likely to catch you!  Be sneaky, quiet and quick!  We thought that dinner-time was the best time to pay our visits.

Hide the eggs around your friend's yard.

Leave then empty egg carton (if you choose) with the Poem and Poster at the door step.

Ring the bell, and run!!

Here we are waiting from afar as Wesley's best friend is discovering the surprise.

The kids were so tickled!

I hope you will start this fun tradition with your kids too!

Love in a Lunch Box

No matter what some of you might think, I am not a Super Mom!  Of course, I aspire to be, but like most other moms out there, I try to find easy ways to pull off being that Super Mom when I can find the time.  So this is one of my favorite Super Mom goodies I'd love to share... the Lunchbox Love Notes!

...of course, these in the photos are a little tattered.  My daughter loves them so much, that she saves them.  If I write a personal note on one, she will respond.  My kids get a kick out of finding these in their lunches every day!  I am sure yours will as well.

You can buy premade cards HERE

You can print premade cards from the following:
-  Dora cards from NickJr.com HERE
-  Parents.com HERE.
-  FamilyEducation.com HERE
-  GingerbreadNook.com HERE
-  GetButtonedUp.com HERE
-  AlphaMom.com HERE
-  NannyDeprived.com HERE

But you are an aspiring Super Mom too, right?  Why not make your own?!  Set aside one evening to create a stack of Love Notes to keep in a safe spot... easy to grab and toss in your child's lunch box each day.

Making Your Own Lunch Box Love Notes

So are you just writing love notes to your kids?  Well, that is a great place to start, but why stop there?  Here are my ideas:
1)  Love Notes or Silly Poems
2)  Fun Facts
3)  Jokes
4)  Brain Teasers/Mind Benders
5)  Picture or note cut into pieces - a puzzle for your child to piece back together
6)  Comic strips
7)  Special Coupons (ie. Good for a cookie when you get home from school,  One Extra Story Tonight)
8)  Photos (ie. pictures of when your child was a baby, or a reminder of fun times shared together)
9)  Stories of things about your child when they were younger

My kids LOVE telling jokes.  My daughter loves interesting facts as well as comic strips.  So I created a variety of cards.  Your kids will enjoy finding a new surprise each day.

Supplies Needed:
-  Cards (you buy index cards, or cut your own), about 3 1/2" x 5"
-  Pen
-  Dot Stickers
-  Ideas!  Surf the web for fun facts and brain teasers, grab a joke book, borrow ideas from the links I've shared on this post.

Optional - Comic section of the newspaper

Directions:
OK, so this is pretty simple.  Do you really need instructions?  Just find your ideas, jokes, poems, and start writing!  Though, I came up with a fun way to share the jokes and brain teasers.  See the photos below...

I wrote the question on the front of the card, and put the answer on the back.  However, I used the dot sticker to cover the answer.



So here are some places you might find some fun facts, brain teasers, jokes, etc.

Jokes
http://kids.yahoo.com/jokes
http://www.jokesbykids.com/
http://www.humormatters.com/kidsjoke.htm
http://kidsgoals.com/kids-jokes.shtml

Brain Teasers
http://www.squiglysplayhouse.com/BrainTeasers/index.html
http://www.trickyriddles.com/
http://www.coolmath4kids.com/math_puzzles/index.html

Fun Facts
http://www.fun-interesting-facts.com/
http://www.berro.com/entertainment/general_interesting_facts.htm
http://www.hightechscience.org/funfacts.htm
http://www.faqkids.com/

And don't miss this one!  Use the calculator on the link below to find out how old your child is in months, weeks, days, hours, minutes, and seconds!  How cool is that!
http://www.mathcats.com/explore/age/calculator.html

Or, see this link for what went into the history books on a given day of the year.
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history

And, if you want some other fun and simple ways you can make lunch time more special for your kids, check out these ideas...

Sandwich Art

found at FamilyFun.com

I LOVE these sandwich cutters.  An easy way to make sandwiches more fun, and get rid of the crust.  I've found these at Wal-Mart on a number of occasions.

So there you have it!  I'd love to see your Lunch box Love Notes!

Sunflower Cupcakes

One of our family traditions is to celebrate our children's half birthdays.  We don't go all out as we would for the actual, big day, though we do make a special cake and sing "Happy Half Birthday".  This weekend we are celebrating my daughter's 7 1/2 birthday.  She had requested these Sunflower Cupcakes I had made for her birthday a couple of years ago.  I was so happy with these, and thought it would be fun to make them again.

Aren't they cute?  Let me again stress... I love to cook and bake, though I am not an expert in this department.  I had made these with the instructions found in the amazing cupcake book, Hello Cupcake, by Karen Tack and Alan Richardson.  They were so easy to make, even for a wanna-be pastry queen like myself!

This time, however, I had to do from memory.  I wasn't as happy with the end result as I was in the image above, but they did turn out cute.  The main problem, I believe, was that I chose the wrong frosting for the flowers this time.  I made buttercream frosting from scratch.  Perhaps not the best choice?  Or... perhaps I was too eager and made it from butter not fully at room temperature, so it didn't turn out nice and smooth like it should?  Ack... you tell me!  Oh well... the kids won't care.

My ingredients this time:

-  Chocolate Cake Mix (prepared 18 cupcakes)

-  Oreo Cookies

-  Mini Oreo Cookies

-  Store-Bought Buttercream Frosting

-  Chocolate Chips

-  Red M&M's

-  Food Coloring (Red, Yellow and Green... not shown)

-  Piping Bag and Leaf Tip (though the first time I made these I used a Ziploc bag that I had cut the end off of... worked perfectly fine.

-  Frosting for the Flowers (I prepared butter cream from scratch... not sure if that was the best choice)

** This time I believe I made smaller cupcakes (so less room for flowers on top), and omitted the green leaves from fruit roll-ups.  They were a pain to mess with, I thought.

Another note - Do not do these too far ahead of time.  I found that the frosting caused the Oreo cookies to get soggy when left to sit for too long.

Directions:

1)  Prepare your cupcakes, and let them completely cool.

2)  Make your lady bugs!  I melted some chocolate chips in a glass dish, 30 seconds at a time on medium heat, stirring well in between.  Then, using a toothpick, I carefully drew the chocolate onto the M&M's.

 

 3)  Color some frosting green to be used as the base of your cupcakes.  This is where I used the store-bought frosting.

4)  Generously frost your cupcake tops.

5)  Place an Oreo on each cupcake.

6)  Prepare your sunflower petal frosting.  Color it yellow, divide a portion of that into a smaller bowl to add some red... so you end up with an orange frosting as well. 

7)  Place your frostings into your piping bag (or a Ziploc bag).  If using a piping bag, select the tip for making leaves (it has a 'v' cut end).  Otherwise, you can cut a small 'v' out of the corner of your Ziploc bag.  I tried to place the orange on one side, and the yellow on the other so that it blended as I piped.

Another note... I found that the frosting would warm up after being held for a while, and the results weren't as nice.  I'd recommend using smaller portions of frosting at a time to avoid this.  You'll get nicer petals in the end.

 8)  Begin piping petals around the lower perimeter of each Oreo Cookie.  You might want to practice forming your leaves before getting started.

9)  Add a second row of petals above the first.  It looks best if you can add these between the petals on the first row.  I found that this time, I was inserting the tip into the "stuffed" part of the Oreo for my second row of petals.  If you notice the finished picture above, I may have done my first row here and the second row on top of the cookie.  Do whatever you think looks best.

10)  Add your Mini Oreos.  You'll likely have room for two of these on a regular cupcake.  I opted for one this time.

11)  Repeat Steps 8 and 9 for the Mini Oreos.

12)  Use a little frosting to secure your little lady bugs.

And.... Your cupcakes are complete!  Enjoy!!!

Where We've Been Bags - One of our family traditions...

I can't take credit for this idea.  My husband had wanted to get the kids each a big backpack that we could begin adding patches to.  We love camping and exploring new parks, and it seems that patches are easy to come by.  So we surfed the internet until we found the perfect backpacks.  These are big for the kids, but the perfect size for filling with their clothes for our little get-aways... and the straps can be cinched up enough to do the trick.  We found these at an army surplus store in London, Ontario, Canada.  You can find the actual link HERE.

So, every time we stay someplace new, we look for a patch to add to the kids' backpacks.  By the time our children are all grown, we are sure these things will be more than covered with patches.  They will make a for a useful keepsake, and a great way to remember different places we have been together.

I should add, we purchased some patches from e-bay; Camping 2010, Fire Safety, Fun with Nature, to name a few.  Over our summer camping trips we planned activities for the children to earn each patch.  At some point, I'm planning to add a special tag to each bag with their names.

Charlotte (holding Ginger), Tatum (holding Snickers) and Wesley

What unique family traditions does your family share?  I'll be sure to share more of ours over time!