Easter Excitement!

So, I don't know if I've said this before, but I'll say it again anyway. I'm not religious at all (spiritual yes, but not religious). Still, I was brought up enjoying all the children's activities that accompany the Christian holidays....and it was delightful. I feel such joy in passing on the fun and excitement I had (okay, and maybe reliving it just a little) so that other children can enjoy it at the daycare too. (I realize they are, for the most part, enjoying similar festivities at home, but I don't think they mind a double dose.)

One of the crafts we did was to paint paper eggs (I used Bristol Board).

Once the paint had dried, the older kids decorated them with glitter, stickers, yarn, ribbon and whatever else we could find in the craft bin.

The younger children also painted paper eggs, but we kept the decorations simple. They used Easter stickers, and foam shape stickers. Everyone produced something we could display on the front door.

Here is another activity that some of the children participated in. It involved painting one of their feet with whichever colour they chose, and then having them stamp their foot on white paper.

When the paint had dried, they turned this footprint into a chick, by adding a googly eye, an orange foam triangle for a beak, and some feathers. The older kids were able to draw some stick feet on the chick themselves.

This activity is so fun because they can't help but giggle when I take a paint brush to their foot! Thomas and Leila looked a little freaked out that I would paint their feet, and opted out of this activity. The youngest, though, Amadea (18 months old), was all over it. She even demanded to do more than one footprint.

We also, of course, dyed eggs. Riley and Noah did the first round of this activity and loved it.

Later, some of the kids drew on the eggs with different coloured markers. Again, artsy Amadea was right into it!

The next round of egg dyeing was underway the next day, for the little guys.

Once the eggs had dried, I helped the kids stick tiny Easter stickers onto them. Does it surprise you that Amadea outlasted them all again? At least Leila was there to give her moral support.

Riley and Noah had demanded to dye yet more eggs, so I purchased a third egg kit, and prepared more eggs. (They actually tried to help me blow some of the eggs out, but didn't get very far.) Finally, we were finished with the egg dyeing and decorating, and had two beautiful centerpieces for our dining room table.

And here are some of the decorations displayed in various locations at the daycare. I loooove children's artwork on the walls! I hold on to it for a bit before I relinquish it to the parents. ;)

And finally, I have the Easter egg hunt and party to report. Even though B. has now officially left the daycare, he is never far. We get to see him nearly every day, and he and Noah still have play dates. We were so happy that he was able to join us for this special afternoon, and his mother helped out with the festivities as well.

In fact, she and my assistant brought the little guys out to pick the boys up from school. Meanwhile, I played Easter Bunny and hid the eggs. Riley arrived late that day, but after I had hidden the eggs, so she and I waited a few minutes in the hallway for everyone else to get back.

They were pretty excited. :)

I hid plastic eggs, empty of chocolate. (I really just hadn't gotten it together in time, and when I had visited Walmart the night before, a blackout drove me away before I could purchase the chocolate.) I thank the heavens it worked out this way though, because I can, in hindsight, find numerous reasons why this could have turned a happy hunt into a chaotic mess.

Plus, they had a fabulous time enjoying the game, without craving the treats.

I hid 60 eggs in total (okay, a few extra as a safeguard), and each child was allowed to keep 10. So, once someone had amassed 10 eggs in their basket, he or she was then encouraged to help one of the other children find more eggs.

They were all very good at following this rule. When we thought we had found all the eggs, we counted them. There were not yet 60, so it then turned into a bit of a game for me, to recall where I had hidden them all!

Finally, everyone was allowed to come to the table and enjoy a marshmallow egg while I got lunch ready.

After they ate their lunch (and for the older ones, finished their veggie), they were allowed to have one chocolate egg.

The kids were very eager to play "Pin the Tail on the Bunny", and simply could not wait for me to clean up from lunch before getting this game underway. Thank goodness B.'s mother was there to help out on this front too!

Later on in the day, we played Bunny Bingo. Even Leila got into this!

Of course, we had to play it enough times to make sure everyone had a chance to win. What a beautiful day to enjoy with the kids! I hope they had as much fun as I did! ;)