Forgot to pick up an egg dying kit? No Problem!

All you need to dye your eggs is:

• 1/2 cup of water
  
• 1 tsp vinegar
  
• 20 drops of food coloring
  

(This is per color)

That's it! Just mix and dip! Cheap and easy!

I made just primary colors so we could practice dipping the
eggs in multiple dyes to create our own secondary colors.

Mixing our own green and orange by dipping in multiple dyes worked out well, but as you can see by this egg on top, the "purple" was less than desirable. It's a hard color to mix.

I hope I saved at least one of you "Easter Procrastinators" out there a trip to the store. I sure saved myself a trip to the store! Happy Easter, Everyone!

Small Successes

Today, I'm participating in Faith & Family Live's Small Successes. This has been a really busy week for me being Holy Week and all, but also we're traveling to Michigan on Good Friday for our new Goddaughter's baptism, and my son's 1st birthday is on Holy Saturday. Plus, I had an Easter party for my mother's group on Tuesday. So I have had a very very busy week. I thought I wouldn't get time for any "extras" between the packing and planning, but I have 3 small successes to share with you today!

1. I did a cute hand print Easter Lily craft with my 3 year old daughter. You can find the directions here. She loved it- especially the cutting! I am always meaning to do more art projects with her, so this was actually quite a success for me!

2. I made a set of Holy Week Eggs for my daughter. These are more commonly known as "Resurrection Eggs". Click here to see my directions to make your own set. It's a great way to go over Holy Week traditions with your kidos, and you just make them out of stuff you already have around your home! I was surprised at how much my 3 year old learned. Yesterday, she was playing with the palm from one and saying "Jesus rode in on a donkey!". It was so cute!


3. I made thrifty Easter basket treats. Yay! Check them out:


To make your own goldfish carrots, use fold-top sandwich baggies, fold as indicated in the picture below, and hold with a few pieces of tape. I won't insult your intelligence by explaining how to fill the bags and tie them with green ribbon. ;-) I found this idea on One Pretty Thing (one of my favorite blogs!)

You can print the labels for these "lamb tails" here. Honestly, I think making "bunny tails" out of marshmallows is a cuter idea, but the lamb thing seemed more Jesus centered rather than just piling on the Easter Bunny stuff.

These are just very inexpensive butter cookies with a spice drop in the middle. If your spice drop is a little too small to stay in the flower, give it a little "squish" by pinching it after inserting the spice drop in the cookie. Yes, you will break a few cookies :-) I got this amazing idea from Brenda at Party Planning Mom. Love her blog!


Ok, those are my 3 small successes this week. Time to go back to running around like a chicken with my head cut off getting ready for our car trip! So much for finding time for reflection on this Holy Thursday! :-)

DIY Resurrection Eggs with 2 Dozen Ideas!

I'm trying to celebrate holy week with my daughter (who is 3) this year, and as I was looking for ideas, I ran across Resurrection Eggs. You can buy them, or you can be amazingly thrifty and crafty and make your own :-)

This idea originated from the children's book Benjamin's Box: The Story of the Resurrection Egg.

I opted for the tightwad way (as I always do) and I wanted the eggs to include as many Catholic holy week traditions as possible. I also wanted to make sure to tell the whole Easter story rather than just try to come up with the cutest stuff to put in eggs. So here's what I came up with:

How I made my "Resurrection Eggs" or "Holy Week Eggs":

1. Palm Branch (Made out of a leaf from a fake flower arrangement. I just sliced "palm branches" into it with some scissors.)
2. Soap (For when Jesus washes the feet of the disciples. I wanted to include this since feet are washed during the Holy Thursday mass.)
3. Cracker (For the last supper.)
4. Flower (For when Jesus asked his apostles to stay awake with him in the garden. I wanted to include this since it is symbolic of the Catholic tradition of staying up in adoration Thursday night.)
5. Dimes (For the 30 pieces of silver that Judas betrayed Jesus for.)
6. Ropes (For bounding and arresting Jesus. I think this is a pretty crucial point for the story.)
7. Crown of Thorns (I made mine from a twig I pulled from a tree in my front yard. Make sure you get a green one so it's flexible enough to weave it into a circle. Don't worry if it snaps in a few places when you're weaving it- mine did, too.)
8. Nails (self explanatory)
9. Crucifix (Mine is from a broken rosary. You could also just stuff a whole rosary in there, or make a cross from toothpicks.)
   
10. Sponge with Vinegar (I just whacked off a piece from my kitchen sponge.)
11. Spices and Fabric (For preparing the body for burial. I just put some oregano in a ziplock bag and tied it off with a knot.)
12. Stone (just a piece of gravel will do.)

Some more ideas I came across for Resurrection Eggs were: A Die (for the soldiers casting lots for Jesus' garments), Fur (for the donkey Jesus rode in on), A Feather (for the rooster crowing), A Thick String (for the scourging), Small Piece of Wash Cloth (for washing of feet), Small Cup (for when Jesus says "let this cup pass from me"), A Black Cloth (for when the sky went black), Small Piece of Rose Bush Stem (in place of crown of thorns), An Empty Egg (for the empty tomb) or a Cloth (for finding empty burial cloths in the tomb), Cotton Ball with Perfume (for the perfume Mary put on Jesus' feet), Purple Cloth (for the robes they wrapped Jesus in), and a Sign that says "King of the Jews".

There's really no reason why you can't make 2 dozen resurrection eggs with all of these ideas! :-)

When you've collected your stuff, just put them all in some plastic eggs...

And number them!

And if you're not the "do it yourself" kind, you can order sets of Resurrection Eggs that are already made, although you can't buy stations of the cross eggs.

Then you can just put them into an egg carton and decorate it! For younger kids, you go over what each piece stands for and pass it around so they can hold it. For older kids, include a piece of paper in each one with an explanation, and a bible verse they can look up for that part of the story! :-)

What Jesus did for us during this week of his life is so amazing! Share it with your children. Don't just allow the true meaning of this amazing holiday to get lost in the Easter Bunny shuffle!

You still have time to do this, and the stuff can be found around your home :-) It worked for me! To see other Works for me Wednesday posts or particiate yourself, click here.

Click here to see pictures of my last minute Easter Party!

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Easter Eye Candy

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