Things To Do With Left Over Plastic Easter Eggs

Everyone has tons of plastic Easter eggs left over after Easter . I came up with a small list of different things we have done in the past with the eggs after the season.  

Here are some of those ideas:

• The eggs are great to use as scoops in a sand box or dirt pile. You can't imagine how well a plastic egg can move dirt! Just think of the egg castle you could make at the beach!
• Guessing game anyone? Fill the eggs with different things (feathers, coins, marbles, beads, rocks, etc.) and have your kids gently shake them and guess what is inside! My kids love this!
• They are perfect in a play kitchen because the kids can actually tap them and "break them open". My daughter loves to use these instead of the wood ones because the wood ones aren't as "interactive".
• They make for "egg-cellent" little bug catchers in the spring and summer. They are small enough that little hands can hang on to them and a lot of them come with small holes on the ends which make great air holes for the little creatures inside.
• Speaking of bugs ........... get crafty! These bright little eggs would make great bugs! Add some googly eyes, puffy paint and/or permanent markers and let your imagination fly!
• My daughter is into Lego Friends and she has tiny little pieces so we use the eggs to keep all these pieces together (this would work for small Barbie accessories too). Put them inside an egg carton to keep it all together.
• They make great molds for clay and play dough play.
• In the summer, we have thrown them in our bags when we head to the splash pad. Just an extra toy that they can use in the water.
• You can donate them to any place that hosts an Easter Egg Hunt each year.
• You can bring them out in the summer and have a educational egg hunt like the one I posted about here. This is a fun way for the kids to get in a review without doing boring worksheets!

These are just a few ideas that we have used in the past that I thought you might find useful.

What do you do with your extra eggs after Easter?

Geocaching - New Age Treasure Hunting!!! Family Fun!

 

On Easter Sunday, my husband brought out this new little "gadget" he has been wanting to try! Introducing...... the geomatejr. Who knew this little gadget would bring so much adventure to our Easter Sunday?! You can order one of these green little "machines" here . I also found out that there are free apps for your phone that will do the same thing. Love that!!!!

I am so excited to tell you all about this little activity! If I would have known how much fun our family would have had with this, we would have done it a long time ago. The kids were enthralled with the "treasure hunt" aspect of the whole thing. I was loving all the exercise we were getting. The kids were enjoying the hunt so much that they didn't complain about all the walking! My husband liked being out in nature and exploring our local park in this way. Usually, we go to feed the ducks, play on the playground and then head home. Today, we were exploring the park in a whole new way!

Okay, let me tell you about our time geocaching and give you some pointers that I wish we had on our first trip out. The first thing you need to do is head to geocaching.com and look up your local area parks. This website will tell you if there are "treasures" hidden in your local park. Next, pack a little "geocaching pouch" to take along with you. You should have a pencil (or something to write with), your geomate.jr (or your phone with the app), little trinkets to leave in the "treasures" you find (you will see below why I say this) and also pack a garbage sack to pick up all the trash you will find along your geocaching route. What a great way to teach the kids about cleaning up the earth! Make sure you are dressed in comfortable shoes and clothes because you will be walking a lot. Now, head to your local park and start searching! Once you get to the park, the geomatejr will tell you which direction to go in and how many feet you have to reach the "treasure". When we got to our first location, we didn't know what we were looking for, but once we found our first "treasure" it was easier to locate them. YOU HAVE TO LOOK CAREFULLY because they are all different - I missed a lot of them. They blend very well with the surroundings. You will see in the pictures below what I mean and how you could easily miss them. Some of the treasures had little notebooks and pencils inside them and others had little trinkets in them (this is where it would be nice to bring your own trinket to replace the one you took for the next person traveling on that geocaching route).

I thought this would be a great activity to do if you were camping! What a great way to change up the camping scene and explore where you are! Below you will see some pictures from our little adventure today. I would highly suggest doing this with your family. It is something different and has many good benefits: bonding with your family, exercise, cleaning up your park, adventure, enjoying outside and nature and so much more! Just plain family fun!

This is the gadget that guided us on our "treasure hunting adventure"!



Our geocaching future was so bright, we had to wear shades!

I was FREEZING, but enjoying the fun!



The geocachingjr was great for the kids to use. Very easy to read and navigate!



This is how it looks in action. We are heading to our first "treasure".



Our first treasure was hidden inside a tree. It really blends in so you have to look hard!



This one had a piece of paper and pencil in it to write your name on.



Gabrielle is writing her name on our first find.

The next one was hidden up in a tree. It was kind of high so the kids had a hard time spotting it. This one looked different than the last one so you have to keep your eyes peeled!

Landen was able to get it down.



See how different it looks from the last one we found.



There were little trinkets in this treasure.



One of the last ones we found was under some bleachers. This was the hardest one to locate! It looks like it is part of the bleachers! This one also had a little notebook with pencil in it to write your name and date.

All in all, this was a great day and a new and different activity for our family. We are excited to go geocaching through the other parks in our area!

 

On a side note, we did find out that you can set up your own "treasure" spot to maintain and hide for "geocachers" to find! You can find out more information at geocaching.com.

 

I would love to hear if your family has tried geocaching!

Lisa Leonard Designs - "Meaningful" Pieces!

I won a gift certificate to Lisa Leonard Designs and I just received my necklace in the mail! The packaging is so cute! I love the little bag with the "enjoy" tag on it. I am also really happy with my necklace and can't wait to wear it! If you are in the market for a special "meaningful" piece of jewelry, I would highly recommend making a stop at Lisa Leonard Designs.

Earth Day Fun For Kids and Families

Earth Day is fast approaching and I think it is a perfect time to challenge yourself and you family to be more "earth friendly". On the way to school today, I opened up a discussion with my kids about Earth Day to hear what they had to say. My daughter said "It is the day we celebrate Earth's birthday!" (too cute). We talked a little about conserving energy and other ways we can help protect our earth. My son said, "I think we should keep all lights off and no TV for the entire day on Earth Day!" I said, "Wow, do you think you can do it?" His reply was, "I am up for the challenge".

My blog is full of ways that I repurpose, recycle and upcycle things that would have otherwise went to the landfill. I love a good trash to treasure story and I can't pass up on ANYTHING that I think I can do something with! ;0)

Below, is a small list of some of those projects. All of these things were either found on the curb or it was something we weren't using anymore as it's main purpose (we needed a new garage door so we turned our old one into a lemonade stand!!!) so we repurposed it for something else.

• bowling ball caterpillar
• buffet
• plant stand
• lemonade stand
• toadstools

I love incorporating a holiday/event to teach the kids something new and fun and to also base our activities around it. Below is a list of some great activities you can do with your kiddos on Earth Day:

• nature hunt
• recycled apple
• alphabet hunt

Another way to incorporate Earth Day is to talk to your kids about recycling and repurposing. And, always have recycled "stuff" on hand. I keep a basket full of toilet paper rolls, wipe tubs, egg cartons, tops to squeezable applesauce, Kleenex boxes, etc. right by the art table. The kids are able to use it for crafts and projects. Here are some of their recycled creations:

• valentine
• traps
• bunny puppet

A great way to get the whole family involved in an Earth Day activity is a scavenger hunt! I planned one for my family and everyone loved it (even my hubby!). It is a great way to get outside and enjoy nature and all that it has to offer! Check out our scavenger hunt here.

Preschool "B" is For Bunny Easter Activity

For this activity, I cut out the letter "B" from some light weight cardboard. Then, I cut out a pair of bunny ears from the same cardboard. I gave the kids glue and cotton balls and told them to glue cotton balls all around their "B". We then added the ears to the top of the letter. In the end, we added a light blue bunny tail (so it stood out from the white cotton balls) and a pink nose (the nose and tail were pom poms) and a googly eye. For the inside of the ears, we added some pink polka dot duct tape!!! You could add some whiskers to your bunny too! The kids loved making a bunny out of the letter "B".

Preschool Carrot Patch Math Activity

I came up with a cute little math activity to do with the kiddos today. It is perfect for a spring and/or Easter theme! Great for this time of year!

The first thing I did was draw 5 triangles on orange paper and added some lines on them to make them look like carrots. I had the kids cut out the triangles (working on cutting skills and shape recognition here). When they were cut out, I wrote the numbers 1-5 on the carrots. Next, I gave the kids a piece of white paper and had them color it with a brown crayon. This was our "dirt" for the carrot patch. Then, I had the kids glue the carrots in numerical order on the "dirt patch". They made need some help with this part (at the point, they are learning number recognition and numerical order). While they were gluing on the carrots, I cut out "carrot tops" from green foam (you could use ribbon, green paper, scrapbook paper, whatever you have). Now, to plant or carrot patch, we had to look at each carrot's number and glue that many "carrot tops" on it (this is great for counting). In the end, we had a flourishing carrot patch!


Here are some pictures to show you what we did:

 Now that is how you grow a carrot garden!!!

Recycled Kleenex Box = Cute Creation!

Okay, so what do you see when you look at an empty Kleenex box?......



Last night, my daughter saw a bunny puppet! Like always, she was in the crafting mood and came up with this adorable little treasure. I love keeping a basket of recyclables for the kids to use any time they want to be creative. I think leaving this kind of stuff within their reach can only lead to endless hours of fun and creativity!! I mean....... who knew a Kleenex box could be so cute!


This is our basket full of recyclables....... I mean, basket of endless possibilities. Set a ton of this stuff out on Earth Day and have your kids create and explore with all this great stuff!



Vintage Chair Redo

I bought this chair at an estate sale (you can see what else I scored at the sale here). It is an old chair that I thought had so much character!

 

 

I wanted to paint it a fun color and have it as an accent piece in my house. This is how it turned out:

 

 

 

The chair was a little "shaky", but we reinforced it a little. I didn't want it out for people to sit on (I don't know if it would have upheld to well), but I thought it looked so cute with this vintage quilt on it and a cute spring basket (holder of small toys for now) on top! I love it!



Bunny Bait Classmate Easter Gifts

I can't believe it is another holiday already! Time to start thinking about a little "treat" for our classmates and teachers.

This year, we put together "Bunny Bait" for the classmates and "Bunny Poop" for the teachers!

You will need:

• Easter grass
• wedding gift tins
• M&M's
• dark chocolate pomegranates (or any chocolate covered candy that will look like poop)
• raffia
• tape
• tags (you can make these, or buy them - I used my Cricut machine to cut out egg shapes)

Put Easter grass inside the tin and then add the M&M's or chocolate candies. Close the lid and tie the raffia around the tin and add your tag!

Target, Walmart and Michaels have these in the wedding aisle.

I love the crinkle Easter grass!

You can find raffia in any craft section - might be kept towards flower "stuff".

These are the classmate tins put together! Aren't they so cute!

I used my Cricut to cut these out and I wrote "Bunny Bait" on them and my child's name.

Wrapped them with raffia and added the egg tag! Very spring and Eastery!

This is what I used for my "Bunny Poop".

I added the grass and then laid in my "poop" - tied with raffia.

Added the egg tag that said, "Bunny Poop". The teachers will get a kick out of these!

Homemade Easter Bunny Pails

I thought it would be fun to make our own Easter pails for our Easter Egg Hunt this year! I love a good homemade/DIY project..... especially one you can involve the kiddos with!

This project was very easy and the pail are really durable! They will last through all your hunts this year!

You will need:

• oatmeal canister
• white paper
• googly eyes
• something for the nose (I used pink foam sheets that we cut into triangles)
• marker
• pipe cleaners (chenille stems)

First, wrap the canister with white paper. Cut bunny ear shapes out of white paper. For the inside of our ears, we used decorative duct tape. You could use anything you have for this part (scrapbook paper, construction paper) or color in the inside of the ears with markers or crayons. I glued the ears to the back of the canister and then we added googly eyes, our pink nose and I drew on the "mouth" and whiskers with marker. What a CUTE BUNNY! For the handle, I punched a hole on each side of the canister and used black pipe cleaners (the handles are DURABLE)!!!!

 

 

 

 

I wanted to show you that if you didn't have any oatmeal canisters, you could also use Kleenex boxes. The good thing about these boxes is that the kids won't lose the eggs when they are bending over because of the plastic that is on the hole on the top! I would do the same thing with the box that I did with the canisters. Cover it with white paper and then add ears, make the face and viola - Easter Bunny Kleenex Pail!  

Cheap Easter Basket Fillers - Think Outside the Box!

I just wanted to show you once again how you can save money and use past holiday stuff to work for upcoming holidays and gifts!!! I was shopping at Walgreens a few weeks ago and I came upon a tall shelf in the middle of an aisle. There was a sign on it that said "Valentine Clearance". I started looking through it all and I found some great stuff that I will be able to use for Easter baskets!

These "sets" were $1 each!!! I could not pass them up!

I just took the valentine stuff off this dog and now he will be perfect holding or sitting in an Easter basket (I have many little ones that are really into dogs right now!)

These were only 10 cents each. Cute Easter basket fillers!

 

I had the Easter baskets from last year Easter clearance. I added some $1 coloring books and then some Valentines clearance finds (play dough,  helicopters, crazy straws). I will not be spending loads of money on candy and I think the mommy's like that a little better because the kids get so much candy at Easter!

I just wanted to blog this to show you how you can think outside the box and really put cute things together on the cheap. I didn't take a picture of all my baskets, but you get the gist of what I did. I didn't spend over $10 and was able to put together seven baskets!