Spring Activities for the Whole Family!

For the past few years, our Easter routine has been: have breakfast, open Easter baskets, go to church, then head over to my in-laws for Easter dinner. This year, however, my dad and stepmom will be in town, so we are hosting Easter dinner for 10 at our house. And, other than a sign we hang on the front door and some egg cups, it turns out we have no Easter décor.

Spring letters

I thought a fun project Pumpkin, my 4-year-old, and I could do together would be to create the word “Spring” with wooden block letters and personalize them using scrapbook pages featuring her favorite Disney princesses.

Pumpkin selected which pattern would be used for each letter. Following the instructions from a tutorial I found online, the first step was to trace the letters onto the paper, placing the letter face down on the back of the scrapbook page). After cutting out the shape with scissors, I then lined the paper up with the block letter and trimmed the excess with an Xacto knife. Once this was done, Pumpkin used a sponge brush to coat Modge Podge onto the front of the letters. The Modge Podge was dripped all over the Minnie Mouse splat mat, but easily peeled off once dry. After each letter was coated, I placed the paper on top and smoothed it out. After watching me do it a couple times, Pumpkin asked if she could place the paper, too.

After she went to bed, I smoothed out the edges of the paper with fine sandpaper, and then added an extra coat of the Modge Podge and left it to dry overnight. Once they were ready, I placed them on a cabinet in our dining area, and added Easter eggs, grass and some of the girls’ princess dolls. The girls love it, and it makes our dining room much more festive!

Pink eggs

Both Peanut, 2, and Pumpkin were able to participate in our next activity. For the past couple of years, we have dyed our Easter eggs using beets (pink), purple cabbage (blue), and turmeric (yellow). For our princess-theme, we did some just with beets.

First, I peeled and chopped the beets then boiled them until they were soft. I strained the beets and saved the liquid, adding a couple tablespoons of vinegar. (I saved the beets to make myself a salad with goat cheese and chopped nuts. Yum!)

Now it was time to dye our hard-boiled eggs! First, I handed the girls princess bibs to keep the mess at bay. I honestly don’t remember the last time Pumpkin wore a bib (she tends to resist the “baby” things her little sister does) but she couldn’t wait to put one on once I showed her it had Belle on it.

This is the first year Peanut was able to participate, and she had a lot of fun. At one point, when I wasn’t looking, she put as many as she could in one cup. We dyed most of the eggs for just a few minutes each, but put a couple in the liquid in the refrigerator for a few more hours so they could see how much deeper the color would get.

For the eggs that didn’t sit in the dye, we used temporary tattoos to add their favorite characters. I used a damp washcloth to apply them to the eggs, just like I would if the girls were wearing them. The transfer wasn’t quite as easy as doing it on skin, and I had to peel parts of them and stick them with my fingers (tweezers might have come in handy) but it worked and the girls were so excited about it – they pouted when it was time to crack them to eat!

Once we were all done, the splat mat went straight from the table to the washing machine, making clean up a breeze. The girls will be so excited to show off their creations for the rest of the family!