Ten Rainy Day Easter Activities

Think of Easter and you probably think of a warm, sunny Sunday morning where the sky is blue and children are scurrying about outside collecting Easter eggs in their pajamas. Well, at least that's how I remember Easter as a kid. Some Easters might have been a chilly, and others might have been cloudy. However, I don't remember many Easters being too rainy.

It looks as if some parts of the country may experience rain for this Easter Sunday, even thunderstorms. If that is the case, it doesn't need to ruin the day! Here are ten ideas of what you can do on Easter if it decides to rain:

1. Hide the Easter eggs inside. Sometimes, this can be more challenging because there are more places to hide Easter eggs in the house. Outside, you end up making holes in the grass or hiding eggs behind a fence. There aren't really that many options!

2. Have an indoor picnic. When you can't go outdoors and dine, eat inside! Have everyone in the family bring a dish, and stop and grab some fried chicken for an indoor picnic. You might even try putting out a red and white checkered tablecloth on the floor and having everyone sit on the floor as if you were in a field outside having an outdoor picnic. Just clear some space in one of the larger rooms in your home.

3. Watch an Easter themed movie, or a family movie. This is a great way to spend time together as a family. One movie I enjoy that shows family members sticking together is Steel Magnolias. The movie isn't all about Easter, but at the end they show an Easter egg hunt with little Jack, the child in the film.

4. Bring out the old family slides. Well, grandparents, now's your chance to bring out the old projector and show pictures from the 1970's of the family. You've got a captive audience since the kids can't really go outside, and you can show all those pictures from the family trip to the Grand Canyon or to Florida.

5. Make use of those board games. Chances are, you have at least three to five board games sitting around your house collecting dust. When's the last time you played Monopoly or trivial pursuit? Get out those board games and start the family Easter fun.

6. Cook a big meal that you've always wanted to cook. Since you can't go outdoors, you could spend all day making a meal that takes too much time to waste when it's nice outside. You could even have the whole family help out and make it a group activity.

7. Vacation plan. You've always wanted to take a family cruise or pack up the kids and go to Yellowstone National Park for a week. However, the time it takes to coordinate and plan this event means it doesn't ever happen. Who has time to find discount plane tickets, a place to stay, a rental car and what to do once you get there? I remember spending about six months organizing my own trip to Europe as a first time visitor. Well, here's a whole day you can spend inside on Easter figuring out where you want to go and browsing the internet for deals.

8. Get out of town. If you know the weather is going to be bad, go somewhere it's going to be better. Sometimes, driving just an hour or two can put you out of the thunderstorm's way. A couple of weeks ago, Ocean City, Maryland was going to be chilly, only in the 60's. However, in Baltimore, two hours away, the weather forecast called for 80's and sunshine. Baltimore was the better option, even absent the ocean air and ocean tides.

9. Everyone read a book and have a book discussion. Choose a book everyone in the family will enjoy. It could be a classic or something new like a self help book. Whatever the family agrees on, get multiple copies of the book or read it out loud together. Sometimes at the library you can find multiple copies of a book so you don't have to spend money purchasing them.

10. Karaoke. Need I say more? It's family karaoke time. And, if you don't have a karaoke machine all you need is the internet. You can find the lyrics to the song by typing in the song name and the word 'lyrics' behind it, to pull up all sorts of different lyrics websites. Then, go to youtube.com or some other website and find the karaoke version of the song you wish to sing. This way, you have the music and the words. You can also pull up the karaoke version (no words) and download songs onto your Itunes account for you Ipod. The songs cost about $1.29 to download. See what crazy songs you can sing and have some Easter indoor rainy day fun!