Easter party preparations
I love kids parties. We have them at every opportunity - Easter, Halloween, Christmas and birthdays. I love organising them and watching them come to fruition. I love watching my kids get fully involved at the parties without having to think about ‘who has eaten and what’, and ‘are their hands clean?’. I love concocting themed food for each event, and games to match…it is almost a passion of mine. I love that the food and drinks are dairy-free, nut-free and egg-free.
So for Easter this year, the preparations have begun. We will be keeping the guest list to two other families, bringing the total number of kiddies up to 7.
**Decorations**
The kids love to do craft, so I have cut out a lot of egg shapes from white cardboard that they will paint and glitter them as they like. These will be hung up around the front yard (weather permitting an outside party). The rest of the decorations will include streamers tied up to blow in the breeze (white, pastel pink, yellow and blue). Some will have little cardboard eggs taped on to give a more festive feel.
**Games**
-Pin the cotton ball tail on the Easter Bunny
-Egg and spoon race: with big plastic spoons and plastic eggs that when dropped split into two and a beanbag egg white and yolk fall out
-Easter egg waddle: put confetti into a white balloon and blow it up halfway, enough to make a good egg shape. Add some dots or colourful stickers to make it look like an easter egg. The kids have a race to see who can walk from A to B with the ‘egg’ between their knees without dropping it. They then pop it. The first one to do this wins. (Watch the confetti and broken balloon pieces with little children)
-The Bunny Hop: This is like musical statues, but the children have to hop around like bunnies and freeze when the music stops. I will get some bunny ears for them which they can take home.
Egg toss: I made some beanbag easter eggs (or simply use painted foam eggs), and the kids all have a turn at throwing the eggs into the Easters Bunnies basket. This is harder if the basket has a handle on it.
-Easter egg hunt: I had always wanted to have Easter Egg hunts with my kids, I never anticipated that they wouldn’t be able to pick them up when they found them. Then with the discovery of dairy-free eggs, I thought that would be the answer. Then with the contaminated egg issue (see previous entries) this also was not an option! So each year we have a tradition that is much more fun, creative and healthier. The kids and I paint and decorate various sized foam eggs and leave them out for the Easter Bunny to hide. The kids then go around and find them on Easter morning. We will simply reuse those eggs for the party Easter Egg hunt. Each egg will represent a different treat for which they can swap, or keep the pretty eggs.
-Craft: lots of paint, ribbon glue and glitter for the kids to decorate Easter eggs, bunnies or foam eggs.
I am thinking of making an Easter egg pinata, but I might keep the pinata idea up my sleeve for their birthdays. There will be plenty for them to do as it is.
**Food**
This will be an assortment of dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free hot cross buns, home-made bunny biscuits and pastries, lots of fluffy pink and white marshmallows, Easter egg-shaped fairy bread, fruit, vege sticks, home-made dairy-free easter chocolates and small sandwiches. Lots of water and Easter Punch to drink.
This is what I plan for our Easter party this year. If you are having a gathering of your own, I hope it is a fun and safe time for you all.