Getting ready for Easter

I just love Easter. I love what the holiday means to me. I love the getting up super early and going to the sunrise service Easter Sunday (okay, I love the service even if the getting up super early is not my favorite). I love the flower cross our church does each Easter. I love the hymns. I love the "He is Risen, He is Risen Indeed" greeting. I love the hiding and finding of the eggs. I love the egg decorating. I love the chocolate. I love the bunnies. Easter is just so much fun for me. I cannot wait to share it all with Sydney.

This year, I know she is going to love the egg hunt. She has already practiced "hunting" for leaves with one of the spare Easter baskets (see, I love the holiday so much that there are spare Easter baskets - plural - at the house). But for the longest time I could not figure out how to make egg decorating toddler friendly. It wasn't until I realized that there was no rule that said you had to decorate real eggs that a plan came to me.

So today, Sydney and I decided to decorate Easter eggs. Since real eggs are fairly fragile and toddlers aren't known for their delicate touch, we decorated plastic eggs with finger paint instead of using the hard boiled variety and egg dye. I highly recommend this activity, but only if you don't have carpet and your ten year old cousin is visiting and can man the camera AND handle the floor portion of the clean-up while you bathe the toddler.

The final products looked something like this.

While we were decorating eggs, Sydney also worked on some artwork, so that I would have something new to put on the 'fridge. (Eggs don't frame well.)

In the midst of the creative process.

I think she's done.

The final paintings: