We successfully made it through Resurrection Sunday and church without an Easter egg or mention of the Easter Bunny. But as soon as lunch rolled around with my parents and dinner with my husband’s family, it was an all out egg-fest! And it was fun! The kids had a blast and I’m quite sure made ZERO connection that the baskets and egg hunts were in response to Resurrection Sunday. They just thought it was another hanging-out-with-the-grandparents day! That’s the good part of having grandparents that spoil on a regular basis!

Well, now that we have a huge amount of plastic easter eggs hanging around, I thought we needed to do something fun with them! Here are the…

TOP TEN IDEAS FOR CRAFTING WITH PLASTIC EASTER EGGS

1. Animals

mouse, skunk, dog, cat, pig

Lydia actually brought these home from her cousin’s house one year. So, I guess my sister-in-law made them with her. Then we made them at our Spring Party last year. Aren’t they adorable?! I love the skunk. And the pig–especially his little tail! Make and Takes also has some cute animals with pipe cleaners and wiggly eyes!

2. Flowers

{from No Time For Flashcards}

We made these for Mother’s Day one year and added a little foam leaf as the card. (Mother’s Day is in less than 2 weeks!)

3. Shakers

{from Muffin Tin Mom}

There is nothing more fun than shaking things and making noise. My kids like to play with the popcorn container. So, I’m sure they’d love this!

4. Marionette

{from Dollar Store Mom}

You know I love puppets. My kids would have so much fun making and playing with their own marionette!

5. Learning Games

{from Playhouse In Maryland}

I love this matching upper & lower case letter eggs. This post from Playhouse in Maryland is actually a Top Ten list of learning games with plastic eggs!

I also found this cute color matching game:

{from Siayla}

6. Envelope

{from givers’ log}

How great is this? If you have family or friends living far away, how much fun would this be to get in the mail?!

7. Decorate

{from Family Chic}

There are tons of egg garlands around online! This one is just clipped together with the eggs. I found others that were strung through the holes in the tops and bottom. Either way works!

8. Caterpillars

{from The Hills}

I love this because you could do so many things with it! You could work with patterns, make rainbows or even match them up with your favorite team colors!

9. Teacups

{from creativity in progress}

Would this be awesome for a Tea Party Birthday or what? I love love love this! {and check out her egg cupcakes, too!}

10. Bumble Bees

{from the inadvertent farmer}

I thought this was like a crocheted cozy but it’s just yarn wrapped around. SO CUTE!

What have YOU made with plastic easter eggs?

linked to Top Ten {Tuesday} at ohAmanda.com & We Are That Family‘s Works For Me Wednesday!

Do you get Thriving Family magazine? It’s a publication of Focus on the Family–filled with parenting and marriage guidance and fun stuff to do with your kids. (And it’s FREE right now!) This month they had a whole week of Easter/Resurrection crafts and activities to do with your kids.  We picked one of them to do yesterday–first we read 1 Peter 1:18-19,

The blood of Christ set you free from an empty way of life. That way of life was handed down to you by your own people long ago. You know that you were not bought with things that can pass away, like silver or gold. Instead, you were bought by the priceless blood of Christ. He is a perfect lamb. He doesn’t have any flaws at all.

Lydia and Asa are waaay into Jesus being the Lamb of God. We got that whole thing solidified at Christmas! Their favorite Christmas song says, “Yoooou are the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the wooorld!”. So, to build on the Lamb of God born in Bethlehem and add the spotless, sinless Passover Lamb was really cool.

After reading and talking about the verse we got some white carnations and put them in a vase. We looked at them and noticed how “spotless” and perfect they were. We compared the flowers to Jesus’ perfection.

Then we put some red food coloring into the water. I explained that in a few days the flowers would soak up the red dye and their petals would no longer be spotless-but covered with red dye. Just like Jesus took our sin on himself while He was on the cross.

The flowers have been sitting on our mantle for about a day now–still no red in the petals. But I’m waiting! I’m pretty sure they’ll show up soon! Regardless, the kids had a good time talking about spotless versus spotted and perfect versus sinful. And soon, it will be an awesome visual of what Jesus took upon Himself–for us!

See all of our Easter & Resurrection ideas–and add your own!

I got inspired by my Dogwood post at the MOB Society this week and decided to make some paper dogwoods. I actually found a tutorial on Martha Stewart but she made it too artsy and perfect for a kid to do. So, here’s my {better} tutorial…

1. Start with a square piece of paper. Mine were 5×5. I had to cut them from a regular old piece of copy paper. But tissue paper would probably look neat. Or some of that cool origami paper.

2. Fold in half. Then fold in half again.

3. Fold diagonally. Then the other way. Now you should have lots of creases on your paper.

4. Fold it back up, following your creases until it’s a triangle. Hold it with the folded side to the left.

5. Begin cutting a semi circle (half heart? ice cream cone?) from the cut side.

6. You should end up with the final shape!

7. Open it up and see your flower! Experiment with different widths and shapes of cuts to make them look “more” like dogwoods!

8. Use a marker (or glitter glue) to make a few dots in the middle of the flower.

9. Highlight the 4 “corners” with red marker.

VOILA!

I hot glued them to a branch and added a few construction paper leaves and we have a beautiful (If I do say so myself!) Easter-Spring-Time-Resurrection-Day decoration!

See all our Easter & Resurrection Day ideas–and add your own!

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