Easter 2012…Our first in the house and the start of a new tradition

 

This was our first Easter in the house, and the start of new traditions for our family. This was the first year we dyed eggs, the first time we hosted brunch for our families. It was a great Easter despite me being sick with an ear infection.

On Saturday Xander and I dyed the Easter eggs. He had a hard time waiting for the eggs to be able to come out of the cups. Xander loved coloring on the eggs with the crayon before we dyed them.

The menu for brunch was thought out for over a month, and poor Andrew was tired of hearing about all my plans. He only needed the details for what he would be cooking. Cooking preparations began on Friday since I was off for the day with Xander. I baked all the cupcakes that day, which were chocolate with gob icing and lemon blueberry with a lemon butter cream icing. I hard boiled three dozen eggs for deviled eggs and for dying. My sister, Jaclyn, came over Friday night to help me make some treat bags for the guests that had orange M&Ms and Reese’s Pieces in them to look like carrots. I failed to take a picture of them, but they did look great.

Saturday, Xander spent the day at my parents house and played with his cousin Avery while Andrew and I prepared for the next day.

Then on Sunday, the Easter bunny stopped by for a visit to bring Xander a lovely basket. It had movies, coloring books, crayons, a few books, playdoh and some candy in there for him. We had an egg hunt for Xander and Avery, which they both loved. I had bought some prizes for them both from the dollar sections at Target and the party store. My menu was pretty perfect for the first time hosting brunch, next year I will cut back a little on some things. Everyone who came loved the food, and our house. We can’t wait to have more parties so our families can come over. It was one of our best Easters as a family.

Xander seeing his basket for the first time:

 

Taking a closer look:

Pictures from brunch:

Dessert table:

Kitchen set up:

Buffet:

I made peep bunny lolly pops for all the guest to eat and take home for later:

Xander handing something to his Nana:

Avery opening her gift from Andrew, Xander and me.

Egg hunt:

Our guests:

Avery and Xander playing with Xander’s new sandbox from his Mommom and Pappy:

Playing with sidewalk paint

 

Here are some pictures of Xander painting with his sidewalk paint we made. He had a lot of fun and this kept him busy for about an hour after we got home one day.

Homemade sidewalk paint

The other week I made sidewalk paint for Xander. It was extremely cheap and easy to do.

What you need:

Corn Starch (4 tbs per paint color)

Water (2 tbs per paint color)

Food coloring (I used 5 drops to get the color I wanted)

Containers to store the finish paint

Place 4 tbs of corn starch in each container:

Add food coloring:

Add 2 tbs water:

Mix:

Store in containers:

Our paint lasted about a week. We just had to stir the mixture prior to using it.

Trip to the Philadelphia Zoo

On March 17, we took Alexander to the zoo for the first time. The whole family went, my mom and dad, sister, brother-in-law and niece. It was a nice day. The weather was great and the kids loved seeing the animals. Alexander really enjoyed watching the giraffes.

Homemade Burlap Wreath

I'm sure many of you have heard of the website Pinterest, for those of you who are not familiar, it is a site you can "pin" ideas to. I personally have become addicted to the site. One of my many finds were directions on how to make a burlap wreath. Amanda from My Heart's Desire has wonderful and easy directions on how to make the base of the burlap wreath. I followed the directions for the most part.

Here is how I made my wreath.

Items required:
18 inch wire wreath- Bought at Michael's
2- 10 yard rolls of burlap garland- Bought at Michael's
Floral Wire
Scissors
Felt Flowers (optional and not pictured)

Start at the top inner loop of the wreath and tie the burlap down with the floral wire. I then made 7-8 inch loops, tied them down with the floral wire and continued around the inner loop.

After I was finished with the inner loop I cut the burlap and tied the last loop down. I then started on the outer loop of the wreath.

At this point I realized I needed the second 10 yard roll of burlap. I took a quick trip back to Michael's to buy the second roll. I finished the outer layer of the wreath and was not happy with how it was looking. I took my extra burlap and started to fill in the wreath between the two layers of burlap. I just filled it in with loops until I was happy with the appearance.

After I had finished the wreath I attached the two felt flowers with clips and floral wire. The flowers are detachable and I can change out the decorative piece(s) to suit the time of season or festivity. I'm extremely happy with the final product!