Easter

Easter Basket Ideas for Little Girls

“Here comes Peter Cottontail, hopping down the bunny trail…” – Yep, that Easter bunny will be on his way before you know it. Did you realize that Easter was super early this year – March 31st? We do a huge Easter Egg Hunt party the Saturday before Easter, so I had hoped it would be later in April, to give the weather time to warm up a little more. But I just learned it was sneaking up on me! So, as I went looking for super cute goodies to add to Abby’s Easter Basket today, I wanted to share a few of my favorite finds with you ladies too….
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Posted by Meagan Paullin on March 5, 2013 Filed Under: Deals and Coupon Codes, Holidays, Shopping | 3 Comments

Easter Fun: Dipped Baby Chick Cookies

Easter Fun – Treat Recipe

Ok – We didn’t make these ones. This is a fun photo from the Free-n-Fun Easter ideas section on Oriental Trading Company. Super cute, right? They looked like they’d be pretty simple – and since I have pretty wild helpers in the kitchen, {my nephews are 8 and 5, and Abby is 20 months. The combination leads to a lot of kitchen craziness!} – I need things that are simple. And, they mostly were, but ours weren’t quite as successful as these ones. But that’s the usual result around here – I’m much more enthusiastic in the kitchen than I am skilled, lol.

Making Easter Baby Chick Cookies

While our version isn’t quite as adorable as the original, they were still a ton of fun – and came out pretty cute. The kids LOVED them!! We did this as a trial run, and will be making more for our big Easter Egg Hunt party on Saturday. For the body of the chick, you can use any type of sandwich cookie – But since the kids at my house LOVE the Newman-O’s, we used those.

The Newman-O’s are a way healthier version of the traditional sandwich cookie, which is great for me – I’m on the Nutrisystem diet, but am going to splurge on a couple of Easter treats this weekend. {I’m so super-duper busy, hopefully I’ll burn off the extra calories quick, lol} – They even have a Wheat-Free, Dairy-Free cookie, for kiddo’s with food allergies. That’s a huge bonus when we’re having a ton of kids over!

Dipped Chick Cookie Recipe

The ingredients are simple, and you can make easy substitutions if needed. The process is pretty easy too – and they’re still pretty fun even when they don’t come out perfect! {Hint: Get some great spring candy and baking coupons right now, printable from Coupons.com – they have a lot of great ones through the weekend!}

Easter Fun: Dipped Chick Cookies

Ingredients

Cream-Filled Sandwich Cookies
Pretzel Sticks, broken in half
Mini Chocolate Chips
Orange Conversation Heart Candies - or icing
White Chocolate Candy Melts or Almond Bark
Yellow Gel Food Coloring

Instructions

Melt your candy melts or almond bark according to the package directions. {Add a bit of Crisco, if you have some, to make the dipping easier!} Stir in a couple drops of the yellow food coloring, until it's the color you want it.
Dip each cookie into the melted chocolate, then place them on a big piece of wax paper.
Add the mini chocolate chip eyes, and the pretzel legs. Also add the candy hearts if you have them - if not, wait until they cool and add frosting instead, like we did.
Display, enjoy, then eat!

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For More Fun Easter Ideas

Check out more Easter Fun Ideas and Inspiration on my Pinterest board – and if you’ve got a favorite Easter craft, recipe, or activity post to share – drop by and post it up on my Facebook wall, so everyone can check it out too! Have a cool idea to share but it’s not in a post? No worries – Post a pic on my wall too! I love seeing your fun creations – Happy Easter!

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Posted by Meagan Paullin on April 4, 2012 Filed Under: Holidays | 2 Comments

Easter Basket Ideas + Win Busytown Playsets too!

“Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up.” – Pablo Picasso

Playtime is incredibly important for kids. Great toys can help kids in so many ways… They learn to use and stretch their imagination in new ways. They learn to share and cooperate. They learn problem-solving, as they figure out how things work. And they even get some exercise – I mean, heck, even just crawling around to drive a car around a track is much more active than playing another video game, right?

“Easter, so longed for, is gone in a day.” – James Howell

Easter is one of my very favorite holidays, because our celebrations include so many of my favorite things – Play, Joy, Sunshine, Spring, Family, Treats, Flowers… It’s just such a pretty holiday. And I absolutely LOVE making Easter baskets for all of the kids! This year, instead of candy, I’m going to fill the baskets mostly with some of my favorite toys for creative play – The Busytown sets! {You might remember me talking about them before, when we got our first Busytown playsets.} So, to help your family celebrate this season, I thought I’d share these adorable little sets that are a perfect idea for Easter baskets – AND give a couple of you a chance to win some too! A few of these great sets, along with a book like Richard Scarry’s Busy, Busy Town or a Richard Scarry Matching Game would combine to make a perfect playtime gift basket for your favorite kiddo this Easter!

Richard Scarry’s Busytown Toys – Great Easter Basket stuffers!

“Welcome to Richard Scarry’s Busytown! It’s the liveliest, funniest, busiest town around! Based on Richard Scarry’s classic books enjoyed by generations of families, children would love to be surprised by an Easter basket filled with a Richard Scarry’s Busytown vehicle pack, figure pack or mini plush. These vehicle and figure packs are compatible with most wooden railway track play systems. A comprehensive Richard Scarry’s Busytown play system is available, too, so kids can collect them all or build a Busytown all their own! These toys are available at Toys”R”Us stores nationwide or online at ToysRUs.com.”

“It is a happy talent to know how to play” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

We have almost all of the Busytown sets now, and most of the smaller additional character sets too. I seriously love them. These were my favorite books when I was a little girl… I was always so intrigued with them. There were so many details on each page, and just like the title suggests, the characters were all so busy – driving and playing and walking and working… It’s so much fun to set these up with Abby and the boys, and relive those great memories. The sets are all really well made, and while they’re suggested for ages 3+, they’ve stood up wonderfully to the mayhem of a 19 month old just perfectly.

Enter to WIN a Busy Town Easter Basket of Goodies!

One lucky winner will take home an Easter Basket filled with a surprise selection of 3 products from Richard Scarry’s Busytown:

One Busytown Small Vehicle Pack, one Busytown 2-pack Figure Pack, and one super adorable Busytown Mini Plush!

Use the easy peasy Rafflecopter form to enter, and be sure to come back daily to get your bonus entry. And – If you’re feelin’ lucky, enter to win all of the other fun prizes I’ve got available right now, in my sidebar!

Have fun & Good Luck!

{Disclaimer: I was provided a complimentary set of Busytown toys to facilitate this review. All opinions are 100% my own!}

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Posted by Meagan Paullin on March 20, 2012 Filed Under: Giveaways, Holidays | 4 Comments

New Snapfish Deals

Go check out all of the amazing deals just in time for Easter over at Snapfish right now! Hurry, all promo codes expire tomorrow, April 5th!

Here are the deals:

*Use promo code 11PRINTS to get 111 4×6 prints for only $1.11! Hurry, this deal only lasts until April 5th!

*Use promo code 11CASH to take $11 off of a total purchase of $25 or more, until April 5th!

*Promo code 11BOOKSBD will get you 50% off on all photo books until April 5th!

And don’t forget, all NEW Snapfish customers get 50 FREE prints just for signing up!

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Posted by Meagan Paullin on April 4, 2011 Filed Under: Deals and Coupon Codes, Shopping | No Comments

Great Collection of FREE Easter Printables

Easter is one of my favorite holidays. I love that it is the first “Spring” holiday, I am excited to buy my little girl her first fluffy little Easter dress, I love decorating eggs… It’s just such a pretty, bright, and cheerful holiday! One of my favorite blogs, Living Locurto did a post with a ton of really fun, FREE Easter printables. There are printables for cards, crafts, and treat packaging. Plus, sign up for her email subscription and get a FREE printable gift! She has the funnest stuff, you’ll just love it.

Here are a few of my favorites:

These little Easter cupcake toppers are too cute! I love this idea, and have been looking for just the right toppers to use for my little girls first birthday this summer.

I love ideas like this… What a quick and easy way to personalize the goodies in the kid’s Easter baskets! Very fun.

The little tissue paper pom-pom tails here make me smile :) I plan on making some of these with the kids! Just adorable.

Visit her site for more fun ideas!

All of these ideas came from the wonderful list from Amy over at Living Locurto… I don’t even begin to try and claim these fun designs as my own! So go check out her list for the rest of the ideas, and leave her a comment thanking her for putting together such a great list!! I’ve used these for projects here in our home, and had so much fun with them – so I knew I had to share them with you guys too!

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Posted by Meagan Paullin on April 2, 2011 Filed Under: Printables | 3 Comments

Easter Basket Ideas for Little Girls