The Easter Idea Place

by Angela Billings

Here are 11 easy ways to help your kids celebrate Easter.

1.Make paper plate bunnies. Simply take one white paper plate and cut 2 ear shapes from it and staple or glue them to the top of another white paper plate and draw a face on it. Glue cotton balls around the edge of the plate.

2.Cut out construction paper Easter eggs and color and paint them to hang around the house.

3.Use rabbit, chick, cross and egg shaped cookie cutters for toast, sandwiches, brownies, rice krispie treats and more.

4.Color your own eggs by making your own egg dye. Try beet juice, kool aid and anything that has color.

5.Make Easter egg holders, cut empty paper towel tubes about 2 inches each and wrap in colorful paper. You can then sit your eggs on them.

6.Cut out construction paper egg shapes and write a Bible verse on each one about what Easter is really about.

7.Make small Easter baskets and deliver to nursing homes to those residents that never get visitors and to your elderly neighbors.

8. Read the Easter story in the Bible and some Easter books.

9. Have an Easter egg hunt and invite children of the community.

10. Decorate an outside tree with plastic Easter eggs.

11. Have a special breakfast, lunch or dinner on Easter Sunday!

Angela Billings is a stay at home wife and mother who publishes an online newsletter Home and Family Ezine. http://www.homeandfamilyezine.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Angela_Billings

by S.L. Simmons

Instead of giving your children a big basket of candy for Easter, to save money in the long term consider giving them only a few treats and more books, crafts and educational toys. Candy is a big contributor to tooth decay, which can result in expensive dental bills. Sweets are also consumed right away, so with Easter baskets filled with only candy in a few days everything is gone and there is nothing to show for your money.

Even if you spend a little more in the short term on the gift items listed below, your children will be getting hours of fun from these types of small craft items and toys, which means that over time you will be getting more value for your money. Plus, items like books and sand toys are especially frugal purchases because when your children have outgrown them, they may still be in good enough condition to pass along to your friends or relatives, or sell at a garage sale

Some frugal Easter basket ideas include:

1. Books – stack up on used children books from garage sales, thrift shops and library book sales during the year. Keep a big stack of books stored away in a closet and then you will have some inexpensive books add to Easter baskets and Christmas stockings.

2. Crayons and a coloring book.

3. Modeling clay and some interesting mold and sculpture tools

4. For older children, balloons and a small pump to make balloon animals and sculptures.

5. A bottle of bubbles and some special wands for blowing bubbles.

6. A package of seeds, and child sized gardening gloves and garden tools.

7. Punch balls.

8. If you live in an area where it is getting warm enough to go to the park or beach by Easter, then assorted sand toys and beach balls are always a fun gift.

9. Check party stores for party favors and novelty items you can buy on sale or in bulk. One of the stores in our area has big grab bags of marked down and discontinued toys and favors for a few dollars each. When our kids were small I would buy several of these bags and use the toys for rewards extra good behavior, as special gifts on plane trips, for Easter baskets and for Christmas stockings.

10. Disposable cameras. Then spend the afternoon at the zoo or some other interesting place where your kids can take pictures.

For a few healthy treats besides colored eggs, try to add in items with some nutritional value, such as chocolate covered almonds or yogurt covered raisins.

By S. L. Simmons, editor at Always Frugal. Visit our site for more articles on topics such as living on one income, ways to make money when you don’t have a regular job, tips for cutting expenses, budgeting tips and more frugal living artices.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=S._L._Simmons

by Sharon Serot

Regardless of whether you are an Episcopalian, Catholic, Lutheran, Methodist or “Christian” of some stripe, the festival of Easter is the highlight of our year. With its themes of His triumph over death and His resurrection, we prepare ourselves for the Ascension of our Lord.

It is important to remember that Salvation is not just a historical event that took place in the distant past to other people in other places. The same spiritual energies that were available during the Resurrection are available to us in the here and now. Easter is truly an opportunity for re-birth for those who grasp on to it.

The Easter season is looked upon with great anticipation by people who are interested in their own spiritual growth and well being. The rituals we observe allow us time for reflection, prayer and penitence, which can lead to our own rebirth.

The early Christians no longer focused on the exodus from Egyptian Bondage, but on a new kind of exodus from the bondage of sin to the new life of our Risen Lord.

Sometimes during the weeks preceding Easter we have a feeling of discomfort, of sadness. We walk around moping, not quite understanding why. This is because in a way, we are in mourning. We are mourning the loss of a part of our essential selves, even though our sinfulness is something we need to eradicate, we still mourn its loss. Why? Because the behavior patterns of sin are known to us, we feel oddly comforted by the familiarity of them.

Sinfulness lies deep within a person; it is an attitude, a willingness to turn ones face away from the Creator. Often times we are not even conscious of this shift away from God. It is only after one comes to the realization that he has turned his face away and separated himself, can he hope for perfect reunification. But how do we move from our deeply flawed state of sin to one of reconciliation? The followers of Christ have been furnished with the cure. Once and for all, Jesus has paid the price for us to redeem ourselves. Through the saving action of Christ, each of us has been reconciled to God.

The spiritual energy of the Easter Season affords us a unique opportunity to grasp hold of our own redemption. We need to remember that life is a series of stops and starts, of spiritual advancement and spiritual retreat. We have “spiritual growth spurts” throughout our lives until the day we die. I hope that this Easter you will take the opportunity to explore the reason for the season in your own life.

by Susie Cortright

Celebrate this season of renewal, abundance and love with some new family traditions. Here are seven ideas:

1. Create a kindness wreath for your front door. Begin with a small, plain wreath. A week or two before Easter, distribute 10 or more ribbons in bright spring colors to each family member. Whenever someone reaches out to another in kindness during the week, another ribbon is tied onto the wreath.

2. Fill a wicker basket with handmade cards featuring cheerful messages and perhaps a small gift or two. Leave the basket anonymously on a friend’s doorstep, along with a request that they empty the basket and do the same for someone else.

3. Sit down with your children and each create a special collage or drawing that depicts what Easter means to each of you. The artwork can become a permanent part of your family’s Easter decorations. Before they go into storage at the end of the season, scan them or take a photograph so you can record the artwork in your family journal or scrapbook album.

4. Videotape (or audiotape) young children singing a fun seasonal song. These renditions of “Little Bunny Foo Foo” and “Here Comes Peter Cottontail” will be treasured for years to come. Make copies and send the tapes to family and friends whom you can’t be with on Easter.

5. When it’s time for your annual Easter get together, present each guest with a 6×6 or 8×8 sheet of cardstock and ask them to handwrite a message especially for the Easter holiday – perhaps ways that they are feeling joy, gratitude, or hopefulness. Snap a photo of each guest and create a simple (and quick) mini scrapbook album as a keepsake, featuring one page for each guest – with their photo and Easter message.

6. Make a Garden Journal. Cover an ordinary dime-store composition book or journal with spring patterned papers or magazine clippings of your favorite flowers. Now record the process of creating your family garden this year. Make sure to include pictures of each of you working in the soil. Don’t forget the journaling – and lots of flower pressings.

7. Buy or make handmade Easter greeting cards and send them to friends and family. Make a point to send out at least seven cards this season to people with whom you’d like to create a deeper friendship.

May these ideas for Easter family traditions spark more ideas that you can use throughout the year to celebrate the beauty that comes to us through friends and family.

Susie Cortright is the founder of Momscape.com as well as Momscape’s Online Scrapbooking Magazine and Momscape’s Organic Living Channel – all of which celebrate the simple splendor in our everyday lives. Visit her site today to subscribe to her free weekly newsletters featuring fresh new ideas and inspiration.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Susie_Cortright

by Rachel Webb

Easter marks the start of spring and is a sacred holiday for Christians throughout the world as it signifies when Jesus Christ was resurrected from the grave to live again. But where did the Easter bunny and eggs fit into the Easter tradition?

The rabbit and eggs were actually symbols of fertility, immortality and new life to commemorate Christ’s resurrection. In Germany, colored eggs were left in children’s baskets and the custom was brought to America with German immigrants in the later 19th century.

Easter can be a fun time of year to celebrate the renewed growth of spring no-matter what religious beliefs you may have. Here are some idea’s to use for an Easter celebration party.

TABLE DECORATIONS

Turn a recycled white sheet into a spectacular Easter tablecloth by sponge painting bunnies, baskets and eggs in bright spring colors. Be sure to use textile paints so the tablecloth can be washed and used another year. Fabric paints are also available in squeeze applicators with glitter colors for decorating the sponged Easter eggs. Paint will need to dry at least 24 hours prior to use.

Make a festive napkin ring by threading a sewing needle with narrow elastic thread and stringing jelly beans onto it. You may need to put a little vegetable oil on the needle to help it slide threw the candy. Tie off the ends to form a circle and slide it over the rolled napkins for a cute way to dress up the table. Add a solid colored doily under the plates for a festive way to dress up the table.

You can serve creamy lemon pie or light strawberry custard, strawberry almond pastry or let the kids decorate personalized tulip cookies. The menu options are endless but I suggest you keep the choices light and festive. Tableware does not need to match but keep to a color theme of bright spring colors or soft pastels.

EASTER CRAFTS

Little girls love making their own Easter bonnets. Cut a large 12 1/2″ circle out of heavy artist poster board using a compass as your guide. Attach a wide satin ribbon to the middle of the circle with hot glue, leaving long trailing tails to tie the bonnet on. Have lots of decorative options available for embellishing the hats. Kids can make flowers colored miniature cupcake baking cups or doilies. You can also use adhesive dots, paint, glitter, pleated paper ribbon, lace reminates or tulle to make decorate the bonnets.

Each child can make their own gingham Easter bunny or duck out of fabric, yarn and cotton batting or fiberfill. Have the shape of the animals pre-cut for the children and place the right sides of the fabric out. Let the kids stitch yarn around the edge of the shape leaving a 1″ opening to stuff the cotton filling. An adult can blind stitch the hole closed and help glue on buttons for the eyes and pom-poms for the nose. Use pinking sheers to finish the edges.

Adults can also enjoy a Easter garden party. Invite friends to bring perennials for their gardens to exchange with other plants. Provide each guest with labels, paper bags or plastic nursery containers. Let them take home the same amount of plants that they brought getting an affordable start on beautiful blooms.