Happy Easter!

Introducing young children to Easter traditions is fun and requires practice. You can't just give kids a basket and expect them to know what to do with the eggs in the grass. We started with empty eggs in our front yard. We had to constantly remind them to pick them up and put them in their baskets. The best part of this age is half the time when they bend down, they dump out more than they pick up. It's the never ending game!

 After a few practice sessions at home over a week, we headed to our city egg  hunt on a Saturday. There were 5 different fields for the different age groups (1 was for special needs kids as well). This time rather than stopping to play with the first thing they picked up, they finally understood. They ran around filling their baskets and having a great time.

 We also dyed some eggs at home. There are no pictures of the process because with two toddlers, two adults, one dog, and many colors of dye we didn't have a free hand for the camera. After all, we didn't want the camera ruined or blue in the end. The kids loved it though and they gently played with the dyed eggs for a few days. (She refused to wear a hair bow.)

 Another tradition for my family is playing with cascarones. I didn't learn about this until college when a friend came up to me with a dyed egg and smashed it on my head. What I didn't know is that they are filled with confetti. We only let our kids play with cascarones after they have seen us throw out the dyed eggs. I don't want them trying to smash the dyed eggs. We also don't smash them on heads at this age. We will wait until they are a little older for that. For now, we just taught them to throw the eggs on the driveway. They loved being surprised by the confetti and who doesn't like being told to throw things and smash them?

What are some of your Easter traditions?