Easter Baskets: Ages 5 to 7

We love the holidays around here and, being a mother of three children (a five year old boy, a six year old girl and a seven year old boy), I have to keep my ideas fresh year after year. This year we're taking a different approach to Easter basket filling for a variety of reasons, the number one being how much sugar our children consume. Next on the list is, of course, budget.

We have a selection of baskets already from previous years that'll work very well for use again this year. They've been stored carefully in our basement for this very reason. If you plan to re-use your baskets year after year, it's important to choose on that is very sturdy and be sure it's stored away from moisture.

Plan your basket filling well in advance so you're not making impulsive decisions at the store. This could cost you more money and lead you away from the goal you originally intended. Plan on visiting several different stores (or pick things up when you're shopping for other things and store them away), including the dollar store, grocery store, bookstore and discount clothing store.

Set your budget and try to work at sticking with it throughout your basket filling adventures. This is difficult for some, especially when the stores are all decked out with pretty "impulse" items. Here's a list of what I plan to include in my baskets this year:

• an age appropriate book (check the bargain books section of the bookstore, not necessarily an Easter theme)
• coloring book (the dollar section of the craft store has these)
• crayons (the dollar section at the craft store has these)
• a chocolate bunny (grocery store)
• 2 craft projects (there are some great wooden projects in the dollar section of the dollar store)
• pencils ($.10 a piece from the craft store)
• stickers ($.25 per package at the craft store)
• Easter themed cookie cutters (to use both for baking and play dough - found at the dollar store)
• t-shirt (I add this instead of grass at the bottom. Found at the discount clothing store.)

I wrap the entire basket with colored cellophane and add a large ribbon. Each child's favorite color is used on their basket, right down to the color of the t-shirt. That way it's personalized to them and can easily be identified from the others.

When you visit the dollar store and the dollar section of the craft store, the ideas will hit you very quickly. Usually I go in with a list and end up walking out with things I would've never thought they'd have. So, keep your options open. We do a lot with arts and crafts in our household, so theming the baskets around that works for us. It may not for you, though, which is why that list is just provided as an example.

Instead of filling the baskets with pre-filled plastic eggs, I buy empty eggs and fill them with our own treats. We fill them with M&M's, jelly beans and nuts. (the options are endless - choose your favorites) Then, we use them for an Easter egg hunt.