All right its almost that time again. My child goes to a Catholic School so Easter and all that surrounds it is huge. We get the week off that follows Easter plus Good Friday. In his old school we actually got Holy Thursday too. When we lived in New York it was even longer if it overlapped with Passover. So does anyone else get this time? What are you doing? If its warm sunny beaches let me experience it vicariously.

What will or do you do?

By Enchens on Thursday, March 26, 2009 - 06:35 pm:

We also send ds to Catholic school and the days off are the same. Holy Thursday is a half day.

We're not really going away. We actually have an exchange student coming to stay with us for two weeks. I do know we have a day trip to Santa Barbara planned while the student is here.

As for Easter, if depends on dh's schedule. Last year we did the egg hunt for the boys at 9am and then went to church because dh had to work from noon til 10pm. So we'll see.

I am trying to get ideas for what to put in my boys' baskets. I have some candy but I'm looking for little toys.

What do you do?

By Northcountrymom on Sunday, March 29, 2009 - 01:04 am:

Santa Barbara sounds great - its so pretty. Love to hear more about the exchange student - do you go through a special program?

You just reminded me about the town easter egg hunt.

As for the baskets, for all my boys anything ball-like is a hit (no pun intended). Anything small with wheels (little cars, little tractors etc.). Veggie Tales and similar DVD's. Fun books and art materials, mini playdoughs - little ones like the coloring books.

All sorts of fun things fit in those fillable plastic eggs. Slinkies. Little puppets. Anything rubbery, sticky. Marbles. I've also gotten things from Christian bookstores and places like Oriental Trading.

I do fun but I do try to put things related to Christian Easter in there not just bunnies and jelly beans.

I personalize them if possible.

By Enchens on Sunday, March 29, 2009 - 12:04 pm:

Thanks for the ideas, Linda. I like OTC as well, but the majority of the items are in bulk. I'll check them out anyway. It's kinda tough because their birthdays are the week after Easter. I'm trying to gather stuff for the birthday parties without alerting them. They are not making it easy!

By Northcountrymom on Wednesday, April 1, 2009 - 10:50 am:

Hi Enchens,

We have the same thing with the birthdays both at Christmas (5) and the next 3 weeks. Always wonder what happens 9 months before.

On the cute basket stuff front and other cool easter things, I like these sites for food goodies to make (I put baked things in baskets and fruit because they like to eat things out of the basket right away):

Love the rice krispie based butterflies and easter eggs:
http://www.nickjr.com/recipes/all-shows/kelloggs-rice-krispies/all-ages/index.jhtml

This has lots of activites, recipes savory as well as candy (like the easter chocolate molds -very easy), crafts for little people and outdoor stuff:
http://holidays.kaboose.com/easter/

If you don't mind spending a bit, this site has cute easter stuff thats unique and some is keepable but only makes sense in small quantities (don't have much time to order):

http://www.etsy.com/storque/spotlight/etsy-finds-hopping-down-the-bunny-trail-3671/

By Enchens on Wednesday, April 1, 2009 - 01:28 pm:

Oh, rice krispy Easter eggs are a cool idea. They'll love it. I'll take a look at the other things, too.

Thank you.

By Northcountrymom on Sunday, April 19, 2009 - 11:50 pm:

I took my own advise and did the cookies and rice krispie eggs for the class easter party. They loved them and even asked if they could take extras to brothers and sisters, mom and dad. Funny thing was the thing they liked best were chocolate doughnut holes with easter sprinkles and of all things baby carrots with ranch dressing.