Past Easter Fun! {Re-cap}

 Today I wanted to share a quick re-cap of some of the fun Easter activities and crafts we have done in years past here at Blue Skies Ahead!

I hope if you're like me and looking for some last minute inspiration this may provide a teensy bit at least! ;)

If your looking for something inexpensive that your kids will love to find in their Easter baskets, check out our Homemade Bubble Bath!

Every year we have a traditional Jelly Bean hunt before the kids get their Easter baskets...one year I made these fun Mini Fabric Easter Egg Baskets perfect for all those jelly beans!

One of my kids FAVORITE activities was going on an Easter egg hunt...for their lunch!!

We made dying eggs a little more exciting using Kool-Aid and making Secret Message Easter Eggs!

Our new favorite Easter tradition, Resurrection Rolls, help kids understand the Resurrection in a fun and yummy way :)

Whip us these adorable Rice Krispie Easter Egg Treats

Finally, just a few weeks ago we made up this 

simple and sweet Easter Printable reminding us of the real reason for Easter.

Easter Printable

There you have it!  Lots of Easter goodness in one place...hope you are all having a fantastic week so far!!

Free Easter Printable

It's another sunny, beautiful day here!!  Things are looking good all-around...I am almost 34 1/2 weeks and by this Sunday I will be OFF bed rest!!  Hooray!!  

Just in time to get ready for one of our favorite holidays...Easter!

Before my hubs went out of town he humored me by putting up the few Easter decorations that I had, and I decided I needed a fun, new printable to tie it all together.  I really wanted to make something that helped remind us for the REAL reason we celebrate Easter.  As I was trying to think of what I wanted, the words to one of my favorite Primary song kept coming to me again and again. 

This is what I came up with...

I love celebrating this time of year, and remembering the Resurrection of our Savior, Jesus Christ.  Not only that he died for us, but the real miracle...that He LIVES!  He lives,and He will come again!  

 

If you want this printable for your home, just right-click, save, and print away!!

Thank you so much for stopping by today!  I know it's been a little boring around here lately, but I am thrilled to get back to normal (if there is such a thing!) and post some of the ideas that have been floating around in my head these last few weeks laying on the couch ;)  Have a wonderful day!!

Secret Message Easter Eggs!

Hello everybody!! :)

Tonight we did the classic easter egg dying...and it was a blast! Thanks to Pinterest I found THIS great idea to make your own dye using ONLY Kool-Aid and water.

It is easy, cheap, smells GREAT, and the kids loved it! The eggs dye much quicker too, I will never use vinegar again :)

As you can see from these cute faces, the kids had a great time!

Paul and I decided to add a little bit of extra fun to our night at the last minute. After I had hard-boiled all the eggs I picked several out and with a white crayon wrote letters on individual eggs to make up a word.

I told the kids a special treat was waiting for them...but they had to put all the eggs with letters together to spell out the treat's hiding place! :)

The kids were SO excited each time they took an egg out of the Kool-Aid and saw a letter! You could do a million different things with this...it just added a little bit more fun and excitement to an already great family activity.

I was so mad I forgot to get a picture of the treat! BUT...I do have the printable for you if you want to make it for yourself :) All I did was have Paul pick up some powdered sugar donut holes and put them in a bag with this cute tag attached.

Such a fun night! So fun in fact there MAY have been lots of crying when it ended. And I might have had to promise the kids we would do it again tomorrow night :)

Thank you so much for stopping by today! I hope it has been worth your time :) Have a great night!

Rice Krispie Easter Eggs

Hey everybody!

I just wanted to share a quick, fun Easter Treat that we have made the last few years at our house. I found this idea on the Rice Krispies website and we love making up a batch and delivering them to our neighbors :)

First of all...you need to get some cute little helpers.

And cute aprons my mom made for Christmas don't hurt either ;)

Then you make the original Rice Krispies treat recipe.

1 bag of marshmallows

3 Tbsp butter

6 C Rice Krispies

Once you have your treats made, grab one of those plastic Easter Eggs you have lying around. Spray it with some Pam and mold your Rice Krispies into egg shapes.

The next step is to dip your treats into melted chocolate and then cover with some fun Easter Sprinkles.

And now you have yourself some yummy Rice Krispie Easter Eggs!

Simple and yummy....my kind of treat!!

Linking up HERE :)

Resurrection Rolls

Today I wanted to share with you a great Easter tradition that teaches our children a little bit about the TRUE meaning of Easter.

I have had this awesome recipe in my files for years, but could not find where I first discovered it. I sure know I didn't come up with it...so thank you to whoever had this amazing idea! :)

We used this as our family home evening last night, but it would be great to do any time between now and Easter Sunday.

Here is how you and your family can make your very own Resurrection Rolls! :)

All you need is a can of crescent rolls, marshmallows, melted butter and some cinnamon sugar.

First off, I started by explaining that during the time that Jesus lived, when a person died, their bodies were buried in tombs. Then I explained that the body was wrapped in cloth before it was placed in the tomb. Our crescent rolls represented that cloth.

Once everyone had their triangle "cloth" ready to go, I handed out the marshmallows. These represent the body of Jesus. I explained how they would cover the body in oil before they wrapped it.

Then we talked about how the body was annointed with spices.

Finally we discussed how they wrapped Jesus' body in a cloth.

After your rolls are sealed TIGHT (don't leave any spots open!) place them in the oven to bake for 10 minutes at 375 degrees.

While they were baking we talked about the miracle that happened 3 days later. We talked about Mary visiting the empty tomb, and being visited by an angel.

Finally, when the rolls had cooled we let each child cut open their roll...

As you probably guessed, the marshmallows melt and the crescent roll is empty inside.

This was such a great visual to help the kids understand! You could just see in their eyes...they got it!

As my husband bore testimony of the Resurrection...I got it too :) I was once again amazed by the miracle of Easter. Can you imagine Mary's despair when she visited the tomb...and it was empty? Just as she must have deeply sorrowed, can you imagine her joy when she was re-united with the Savior?

Skylar said "I wish I could see Jesus too..."

That is the beauty of Easter. We CAN see our Savior again. Because of the ultimate sacrifice he paid for us, we can one day return to His presence, reunited with all of our loved ones and our Heavenly Father.

I know there truly could be NO greater gift!

Thank you so much for visiting today. I hope this gave you a simple way you can help your children undertand the real meaning of Easter :) Have a fantastic day everyone!!

Linking up HERE!

Easter Egg Hunt...for our lunch!!

Usually when I find really great ideas on other blogs, I use that idea for inspiration and adapt the activity or craft to something that works for my family.

When the idea is simply FANTASTIC all on its own...I just completely copy it :) Giving ALL the credit where it's due of course! :)

Brandy blogs over at one of my absolute favorite blogs, Gluesticks. She has SO many wonderful treats, crafts, and activities for her little ones. I always leave reading her blog inspired to be a better mom and treasure every day with my little family. She did THE cutest activity with her kids that I KNEW we would have to recreate at our house. So today when the littles were ready to eat they went on their very own...

Easter Egg Hunt...for their lunch! :)

I loved this idea the minute I saw it! You see...at least once a week we have muffin tin lunches. I just fill up each slot of the muffin tin with lots of different lunch food cut up into bite-size pieces. This was a great seasonal take on something we always do anyways. Plus...I usually do it on Mondays. Every Tuesday morning I do my grocery shopping, so I like to use up odds and ends on Monday when we do our Muffin Tin lunches :)

The only differene this week was I filled up all these cute Easter Eggs with the kids' lunches. Then I hid them around the living room and kitchen...and the kids had to hunt for their lunches :)

Once they found all the eggs the kids got to open them up to reveal their yummy lunches!

I love how excited Kendall was about her string cheese :)

I am so glad people blog about their wonderful ideas!

This was a quick, simple way to make our Monday a little more special. Monday is my planning day of the week, so we don't usually do much besides chores, errands, and planning! As Kendall was eating she said "This is the best day ever!!"

So if you are dreading making ONE more PB&J or one more pot of Mac and Cheese...switch it up a little bit and surprise your kids with these great Easter activity!