Creative Easter Projects You and Your Children Can Create

In our family, we try not to focus too much on the idea of "receiving" when it comes to any holiday throughout the year. We try to focus on what we can give to or do for others. We accomplish this through creating our own gifts to hand out during holiday time. Here are some projects we'll be working on this year:

1: Gramma Easter Basket:
Every year, my children receive small gifts and trinkets from their grandparents and they're always wondering why the Easter Bunny doesn't visit adults during this holiday. So, because they want to give them something special, they're creating baskets for their grandmothers. Each basket will contain:

> a framed portrait of each of the children
> a framed portrait of all of them together
> a framed portrait of the entire family
> a small plant
> a flower pot
> a set of candles
> a book
> a chocolate bunny
> a piece of art created by each of the children

2: Greeting cards for distant relatives:
We have a considerable amount of family that live in states across the country. This is unfortunate during holiday time, but we make due by creating cards for each of them. For this project, we create both the cards and the envelopes so the entire project is a handmade gift. The cover of the card contains a picture of the kids together and, inside, are three wallet sized pictures on the left side. They embellish the card with their drawings, glitter glue and a letter.

3: Baked good baskets:
In our area, there are a handful of stores carrying marked down baskets right now. We pick up a basket for the grandparents, great grandparents, aunts, uncles and close family friends we'll be seeing that weekend. In each basket, we put the following:

> a loaf of banana bread
> a loaf of apple spice bread
> a carrot cake
> a coffee cake
> chocolate chip cookies

The kids love baking all of these treats and they love wrapping everything in pastel colored plastic wrap before putting them into the baskets. We embellish each basket with colored cellophane, thick ribbons and egg shaped gift tags created by the kids.