Monday, May 2, 2011

Happy Easter!


Daisey is a girl who just has to know WHY! Even as a toddler "just because" didn't cut it and if I didn't know WHY, then I'd better find out! She's still the same way today. So, when she wanted to know WHY we celebrated the Easter Bunny on Easter I turned to Whyzz (this site has saved me from looking like an idiot many a time.) It turns out that rabbits and eggs are both symbols of rebirth and fertility, representing Spring. Ok, I could have come up with that one on my own, but the Easter Bunny also derives from the Pennsylvania Dutch legend the "Oschter Haws", or the Easter hare. Their tradition was to have the children put out baskets or bonnets the night before Easter. If they'd been good the Oschter Haws would leave gifts in the baskets. So, there you have it, just in case you ever wondered or in case you have a Daisey at your house! You can read more about it here .
Easter is always a favorite time of year at our house. The kids get so excited about it coming! It's the first "Spring holiday". The calender says that the first day of Spring was March 20th, but let's face it, in Utah Spring doesn't really show up until mid April, even May. We're so sick of winter here that we've been doing fun Spring crafts and activities at our house for months!

Tp roll bunnies! Found here. The kids played with these little guys for 3 hours after we made them. No lie! We buy them nice toys to play with and they'd rather play with tp rolls!

Pom pom chickies! Again, they played with them for hours!


Isaac found these wooden eggs at the dollar store and really wanted to paint them. I think they turned out great! (from right to left: M,D,I)

We made this little banner out of paint chips. They did not play with it for hours. But, I think it turned out pretty cute.

Since Christmas I've been a little obsessed with these rag garlands or "ragamuffin garlands" as Maggie likes to call them. Of course, I had to make one for Spring. Mags likes to help me tie the rags on.

And, here she is in her Vanna White pose, showcasing our Spring fireplace mantle!

We made crepe paper carrots, compliments of Martha.

These eggs were fun to crochet. And I have to brag on the apothecary jars a little. I wanted to buy these ones from Pottery Barn but the prices are a little steep (starting at $39.95!) So, you know what I did? I bought 2 glass vases and 2 glass candlesticks from the local dollar store and glued them together with E-6000. Ta Da! Not bad for $4?

Daisey crocheted these little "egg hats". No pattern, she just thought that the eggs needed hats. She's left handed and taught herself how to crochet after watching me do it. She's amazing!
The bunny was made with felt and love. It can be found here.

The egg "specimen art" is made with dollar store glitter eggs and a D.I. frame painted black.

When I saw this crochet flower garland, I knew I had to make one! I made my mom one too.

This spring wreath is my favorite! I might just keep it up all year! My friend, Clarissa and I had seen a lot of burlap wreath tutorials floating around online, so we decided to try making one ourselves. It's really just burlap, jute, fabric rosettes and felt leaves and a lot of hot glue. You should check out Clarissa's too. I kind of wish I had kept mine sweet and simple but once I got started with those fabric flowers I just couldn't help myself! I hung it up right after I finished it in hopes that Mother Nature would see that Spring had Sprung! It didn't help. But, it makes me smile every time I see it so that counts for something!


I also made a "ragamuffin" wreath for my mother in law.

My cousin, Shirley at the Ribbon Retreat Blog made the cutest bunny bows and I just had to make some for my girls! I originally made a brown one because I was out of white ribbon. Maggie refused to wear it, insisting that the Easter Bunny was white. So, I had to buy some white ribbon and make a white one too. In the end Maggie decided she preferred the brown one because she wears a lot of brown. And Daisey, who didn't even want one to begin with fell in love with the white one. Go figure!


We made cookies and chocolates! Yum!



We dyed eggs on Saturday night. It's fun to see how they still get so excited over dyeing Easter eggs and how creative they get with it!








They woke up bright eyed and bushy tailed Easter morning, ready for their egg hunt!


This one thinks he's hilarious after throwing eggs at Daddy!

They each got Hex bugs in their baskets. They've been wanting these little creepy, crawly battery powered bugs for months.

Yum! Peeps!

Guess what else we did with Peeps?

That's right, we lit them on fire!

Roasted peeps are surprisingly delicious! They are sugary and caramelized on the outside and gooey and warm on the inside.

Also, we forgot to leave out our dyed eggs for the bunny to hide. Oops! So, we got to have an outdoor egg hunt after all. It was too cold in the morning but by afternoon it was pretty nice outside.

Yes, that's an extra child you see there but we'll claim her. Ari joined us for the egg hunt. Then Grandpa Kent teamed up with her to help her get ahead! So cute!


Eggs in the tree? That's just mean Daddy!


Gotcha!

We used the dyed eggs to make deviled eggs. Here's Maggie helping! They don't look so good, I won't lie, but they tasted delicious anyway.

We had Britt's mom, Britt's dad, Robert's mom and Britt's brother and his kids over for an Easter dinner. I really should have taken pictures but I kind of forgot. So, you'll have to take my word for it that dinner was amazing. We had a glazed ham, funeral potatoes, a green salad, corn, rolls. Yum! Diane brought a lemon cake and ice cream for dessert. Double yum!

6 comments:

Shirley said...

I LOVE your end of the month craft posts. You are AMAZING! Where do you find all the time to do these cute things? If I lived closer, I would want to be your craft partner. Your Easter celebration looked so fun and as always your kids are too cute! You're the best mom!

D.I.M. Incorporated said...

Thanks Shirley! You're so sweet! I would love to craft with you! Where do I get the time? When they sleep! I would totally trade my crafting time for some cuddle time with your sweet chunky baby! Also, I think you may be the only one who reads my blog, so it's good you enjoy it! Love you!

Melanie said...

I read yours too!! I love and admire your crafts too:) Love all the Easter activities. I have to agree that kids make the holidays FUN! We have a tradition of rolling eggs down the hill, but it decided to snow. Too bad, I guess we'll have to wait til next year:)

D.I.M. Incorporated said...

Thanks Mel! I know you do! Also, I forget that not everyone comments on my blog, I mean you can't comment unless you have a blogger account and unless your logged in. We've never rolled eggs but I guess Robert used to as a child so maybe we'll try that next year too!

D.I.M. Incorporated said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
sara said...

Oh my goodness! You all did so many fun crafty things!!!! I love the tp bunnies and the paint swatch egg garland- all of it was sooo cute!