Easter is April 17, 2022

 This year Easter is April 12. As always,  I am trying to come up with some new non-candy ideas for the boys' baskets. It's a little harder to find cool non-food items right now with our Shelter-In-Place order from the Governor. We have several people in our family with health conditions that place them at higher risk for Corona/Covid-19. I have been trying to do mostly online shopping and avoiding the stores to limit exposure in our family. (If you are going to order online, I would suggest that you place your order early as there have been a lot of delays with supplies/shipping!)

There are a few things that they always get: a small pack of jelly beans, a couple of Reese's eggs, and a book or two. Luckily, I have been able to buy most of these online. In the past, they have received soccer gear (although not this year as the season has been postponed indefinitely), books, art supplies, etc., which can all be found online! I have some of the food/craft/Easter basket and egg hunt ideas from the past couple of years below.

I wish you and your families a safe, healthy, and enjoyable Easter (and Spring!) season. Hopefully some of these ideas will help you celebrate your Easter! 

 FOOD:

•  Bunnies, Chicks, and Sprinkles...Oh My! Easter themed cake pops.
• Last Minute Easter Ideas: cheese puff filled carrot shaped bags, jelly bean bracelets, lollipop Egg Basket.
• Veggie Trays. I have an example of an Easter veggie tray towards the bottom of the linked post.
• Rice Cereal Easter Treats: Egg and flower shaped rice cereal treats make the perfect snack or dessert for Easter!
• Bunny Bread/Veggie Tray
• Rice Cereal Treat Eggs
• Peeps S'mores
• Hidden Surprise Pound Cake: The link is for St. Patrick's Day, but if you change the shamrock to an egg or flower, it's perfect for Easter!
• BREAKFAST IDEAS:
• Egg Casserole 
• Coffee Cakes
• Cinnamon Roll Pancakes
• Muffins:
• Apple Cinnamon
• Banana Chocolate Chip

 EGGS, EGG HUNTS, AND EASTER BASKETS:

• Egg dying and decorating: There are a lot of ways to decorate eggs, however we love to eat our eggs! So, I am only going to be doing ideas that leave the eggs edible.
• Eggstravaganza (dying with food coloring, natural dyes, impression eggs, tissue paper, crayons, rubber bands, stickers, Diva Eggs, and Lady Bug Eggs)
• Painted Eggs (fingerprint animals, bubble wrap, painted designs):
• Crackle Eggs 
• Space Invaders, Glitter, and Snorkle Eggs
• Drip Art Eggs: These look fun, but we haven't tried them yet. Stand a hard-boiled egg upright over something that will not get ruined (like a plastic plate or bowl). Place a drop of food coloring on the top of the egg. Mist egg using a spray bottle. Add a drop of another color, mist again. Gently blow on the egg to make the colors move around.
• Monster Eggs (using glue dots, pipe cleaners, and stickers)
• Tattoo Eggs: Use temporary tattoos. Make sure egg is completely dry before following tattoo directions. 
• Ombre Eggs: Place a bottle cap (flat side down) on the bottom of a wide glass (8-10 oz.). Set egg on bottle cap. Mix the dye (1 teaspoon vinegar, 40 drops food coloring, 1/2 cup boiling water). Pour dye into glass until 1/4 of the egg is covered. Let sit 5 minutes. Add plain warm water to the cup until 1/2 the egg is covered. Let set 3 minutes. Add more water to the desired level. Wait 2 minutes. Repeat if want additional stripes. Carefully remove with tongs and let dry.

• Egg Hunts:
• Hunting for Easter Baskets. We do a scavenger hunt to find their baskets.
• Glow In The Dark Egg Hunt. 

• Basket Filler Ideas:
• Fun bookmarks. I just discovered these fun 3D bookmarks on Amazon. There is a crocodile, shark, Nessie, astronaut, dinosaur, gecko, etc.
• New gear: soccer ball/cleats/shin guards/practice net, baseball cleats/balls/bats/bag/helmet/throw back, shoes: track/running, mouth guards, golf bag/balls/gloves/clubs, etc.
• Vouchers: Vouchers can be for anything! Examples: extra hour of TV/Game time, stay up late, get out of 1 chore, money to spend at a store/amusement park/zoo/aquarium, etc. 
• Star Wars Light Saber Popsicle Mold
• Slinky's
• Chocolate Maze
• Reese's Giant Peanut Butter Egg. Amazon sells these sometimes, but I have found them cheaper at the grocery store and Target. It was $5.49 at my local store.
• Large sized gummy treats. I found several at Target (gummy bunny 1.75 oz/$1.99), and Party City (Pizza, burger, sushi...$3.99). 

• Lego's: Any fun looking set, mystery minifigure packs, Mixel's (Amazon, Lego). Lego usually has holiday-themed sets as well. (2020 has an Easter Sheep.)
• New weapons/Lego figures/crates. We found BrickArms a couple of years ago and the boys love discovering new weapons and figures for their Lego collection. This year, we bought a few different packs and are mixing up the contents and putting them in several Easter Eggs.
• Jelly Beans
• Play-Doh Eggs (Amazon, grocery store)
• Art/Office Supplies: pencils, pencil sharpeners, markers, tape, etc.
• Fill eggs with coins.
• Movie tickets.
• DVDs. Half Price Books, Michael's Crafts, and Target often have cheaper movies.
• Book store gift cards.
• Hot Wheels. There are even some Hot Wheels that fit Lego figures!
• Mad Libs
• Mini nail polish, nail files, etc. 
• Books. Sometimes I use Easter-themed books, sometimes just books in a series they love. My oldest is really into Uncle John's Bathroom Readers For Kids. It always surprises me when he says "Oh, I know this!", adds to our conversation, and says he learned it from his Bathroom Reader. They even have sets of paper placemats, if you are having an Easter party and need to keep the kids busy!
• Craft kits: build a robot (Higgins got the crab robot for Christmas and loved it), origami, jewelry (necklace/bracelet, grown own crystals and make jewelry...)
• Amazon gift cards. 
• Art supplies (pencils/markers/crayons, how-to books [there are a lot of instruction/how-to books for kids and adults from easier instruction books to how-to books for older kids]). 

CRAFTS: 

• Clay Pot Baskets. Super easy, cute, and works great as centerpieces.
• String Craft Easter Eggs  
• Snowflake Style Eggs
• Stained Glass Egg (directions are for a pumpkin shape, just change to an egg shape)
• Marble Egg. Lots of fun and looks neat when it's done. After the paint dries, cut out an egg shape to have a cool Easter egg! You could even cut out multiple smaller eggs to form garlands, napkin rings, place settings, etc.
• Bunny basket. Easy to make bunny basket out of a paper bag.
• Egg Carton Flowers. Use the leftover egg cartons and make some pretty decorations for Easter! 
• An Easter gingerbread house

ACTIVITIES:

• Word Find  
• Scavenger Hunt
• Coloring Page
• As I am writing this, many states are under a shelter in place/social distancing/physical distancing order. I do not know if communities will change how they do Easter egg hunts/events or if they will simply be canceled. Please check with your local communities! In the past, Ikea has had a free Easter Egg hunt. Many local parks and libraries had free Easter Egg Hunts and events as well last year. (Some were even for adult egg hunts!)

Christmas Gift Ideas

It seems the older everyone gets, the harder it is to come up with ideas! In case you need some gift ideas too, here are my gift lists:

• St. Nick's Day was 12/6, but there are a lot of stocking stuffer ideas that will work great for Christmas!
• You've Been Elf'd. Spread a little holiday cheer to your friends and neighbors. We also made and delivered cookies to our neighbors a few days before Christmas last year. They seemed to be a big hit! :)
• Life Experience Gifts. Tired of giving gifts that sit on the shelf? Try giving experience gifts!
• Gifts For Them That Help You! 
• Don't Forget Safety!
• Amazing Baking Gifts
• Don't Forget the Batteries: Tech Gifts
• My Favorite Christmas and Holiday Books
• Gifts for the Entertainer and Hostess
• Gifts of Fitness
• Remembering Others This Holiday Season
• Biking, Hiking, and Camping Gifts...Oh My!
• Woof, Meow, Bubble Bubble...Don't Forget Your Pets!
• End Of The Year Teacher Gifts. This is a list of end of the year teacher gift ideas, but many of them would work for Christmas as well.
• My Father's Day and Mother's Day posts also have some great ideas for gifts.
• Last year, we traveled the US in a RV and have made a new gift list for RVers! The links are to our other blog.
• Fun Christmas Gifts for RVers
  
• Practical Christmas Gifts for RVers
  

 
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Christmas Gift Ideas

I can't believe Christmas is in two weeks! If you are like me and are feeling the time crunch, here are a few gift ideas. I've added some new ones (my favorite new ones are the whiskey balls and glasses Hubby got last year!).

• St. Nick's Day was 12/6, but there are a lot of stocking stuffer ideas that will work great for Christmas! http://www.dailymesses.com/2015/11/st-nicks-day-is-126.html
• You've Been Elf'd. Spread a little holiday cheer to your friends and neighbors. We also made and delivered cookies to our neighbors a few days before Christmas last year. They seemed to be a big hit! :)

• Life Experience Gifts. Tired of giving gifts that sit on the shelf? Try giving experience gifts!
• Gifts For Them That Help You! 
• Don't Forget Safety!
• Amazing Baking Gifts
• Don't Forget the Batteries: Tech Gifts
• My Favorite Christmas and Holiday Books
• Gifts for the Entertainer and Hostess
• Gifts of Fitness
• Remembering Others This Holiday Season
• Biking, Hiking, and Camping Gifts...Oh My!
• Woof, Meow, Bubble Bubble...Don't Forget Your Pets!
• End Of The Year Teacher Gifts. This is a list of end of the year teacher gift ideas, but many of them would work for Christmas as well.
• My Father's Day and Mother's Day posts also have some great ideas for gifts.

Teacher Gifts

The end of the school year is fast approaching and I realized I still needed to get teacher gifts for the boys' teachers. I have the Thank You cards set aside, but haven't written a note yet or even bought a gift. I think this year, due to lack of planning, I will be sticking with a heartfelt thank you note and gift card. I may attach a bag of their favorite candy as well.

If you are looking for teacher gift ideas too, I have some below! I try to come up with something that they can use and will like (such as gift cards) and try to tailor it to the teacher. I also try to keep it non-teacher themed. 

• Do NOT get them a "teacher" themed gift. I know several teachers and the one thing I hear is that they get a lot of  "teacher" gifts during the year (apple ornaments, apple decorations, apple mugs, etc.).  They're like us and only have so much space for these things. Plus, you don't necessarily want every gift you receive to be job themed! 
• A handwritten note with a meaningful, heartfelt message is always a plus.
• Gift card to their favorite store. I have run into a couple of teachers out shopping on the weekends and if they mention that they love a particular store, I try to remember it. Target or a Visa/Mastercard/AmericanExpress prepaid card always seems to be a big hit. If you are in a big hurry, Amazon even has email gift cards!
• Coffee shop gift cards, possibly with a reusable mug. Of course, this only works if you know that they like coffee.
• Similar to the coffee, a reusable insulated cup for summer. Stuff it with a gift card to an ice cream place, bagel or coffee shop, or drink mixes.
• Some teachers end up supplying a lot of the classroom supplies and books themselves, so gift cards to bookstores or places like Target/Staples/Walmart/book store might be helpful.
• Gift basket for them filled with goodies: chocolates, bags of tea or coffee, candies, etc.
• Gift basket for them and school: Last year, I gave them a gift card for them, but also included some supplies for the next school year. Higgins' teachers had bubbles in their baskets, since I know he spilled a ton of bubbles throughout the year.
• Beach towel rolled up and tied with a bow. Stuff a few other items out the top such as sunscreen, flip flops, a few popsicles (not frozen of course), or some lemonade mixes.
• A movie basket. Find a cute tin or popcorn tub and fill with snacks, popcorn bags, popcorn toppings, a gift card to a movie theater.
• You can also call the school office. Some schools keep a Teacher's Wish List for gift ideas.
• Flowers or a plant. Ones that can be planted are nice since they will last longer. To make it extra special, have your child(ren) paint a clay pot and plant the flower/plant in the pot.
• If you have a class picture, find a mat that will fit and frame the picture. Have everyone sign the mat and place a message like "Best Teacher", "We Love You", or "Thank You For Making Our School Year Great". Make sure to put the year somewhere on the mat too.
• Baked goodies. I have ton of cookie and dessert recipes on the blog, including individual Pie Jars!
• Things for the classroom. I found these cute 3D bookmarks that would make great prizes or treats for the teacher to hand out.

DM Tip: If you are sending something breakable, remember to package it well so it will survive the bus ride and trip to the teacher!

End Of The Year Teacher Gifts

I cannot believe it is time for End Of The Year Teacher Gifts already! While some weeks flew by, others dragged by so slowly it seemed like summer would never come. It's hard to believe another school year is almost over and how old my boys are getting.

I was trying to come up with some new ideas for teacher gifts for this year. (For more ideas check out this post: Teacher Gift Ideas.)

This year I am doing gift cards to Target with a few little things thrown in. I am packing a reusable cup, a bottle of bubbles, a note, and a gift card in a butterfly net. Hubby didn't understand my seemingly hodge-podge collection of gifts, but here is my reasoning. I know Bernardo's teacher is big on reusable cups and recycling, so I included the reusable cup. I also know that some of the teachers have their own kids that will be home with them all summer, so I included the butterfly net and bubbles to help keep the kids busy (at least for a few hours to give them a break after teaching all year). The bubbles and net could always be used in class next year (Higgins almost always spills his bottle, so they probably need a ton of new bubbles).

I wrapped each net in cellophane to help protect the mesh from ripping. I then tied it closed with a ribbon and a little tag (Thanks For A School Year Net Full Of Fun, Thanks For Helping Me Net A Great School Year, Thanks For Helping Me Catch A Great School Year).



What are your favorite gifts to give teachers? If you are a teacher, what is your favorite or least favorite thing to receive?