Free Letter From The Easter Bunny

"Create a free letter from the Easter Bunny and make this Easter a magical experience for your child. Imagine the smile on your child's face when they receive their own personalized Easter Bunny Letter. Using our fun, free and easy online letter creator, you can customize a letter for each of your children and print them out using your own computer and printer. An Easter Bunny Letter will be one of the most memorable gifts you'll give this Easter. So don't delay, create your loved ones a letter from the Easter Bunny today!"

10 Ways to Get Creative with Easter Egg Hunts

Easter is this Sunday, (March 31, 2013), and it is time to devise our Egg Hiding Strategies! Instead of the old stand-bys, like hiding the eggs in the grass, try some of these fun ways to spice up the traditional Easter Egg Hunt! 

First, you need to decide if you are going to hide hard boiled & dyed eggs, or plastic prize filled eggs. We use the plastic eggs for The Hunt in our house, because half the fun is opening them and seeing what sort of goodies you got! Plus, I am afraid we will miss an egg and end up with a horrible smell! If you do use boiled eggs for your hunt, make sure you write down the location of every egg. 

If you are also using plastic eggs, try some of these fun tricks and tips:

1. Hide handmade coupons good towards a special treat inside a few of the eggs. (Examples: "Good for one free hour of TV", "Good for one free hour of uninterrupted mommy/daddy time" or "good for staying up 30 minutes past bedtime" are a few I have used.)

2. Add in temporary tattoos, fun shaped erasers, tiny nail polishes, plastic dollar store toys and other non-candy treats inside your eggs.  One reader wrote in that she sometimes puts a dollar inside a few of the eggs! She also noted that adding quarters made the eggs pop open. (Thanks Suzy!)

3. I just got a bunch of Free Food Certificates to add to our eggs for The Hunt. Each book costs $1 and comes full of coupons for free burgers, drinks and ice cream. 

4. Make an Easter themed scavenger hunt by hiding clues in plastic eggs. Give each person an egg with a clue to the first hiding spot. At the first spot, hide an egg with a clue to the next spot. Hide as many clues as you would like. Put a prize at the end of The Hunt as a reward. If you a lot of people playing in the scavenger hunt, you could create multiple hunts.

5. Hide a prize filled egg on their chair before breakfast - they will start their day with  their first egg of The Hunt! Put a few gummy vitamins inside! 

6. Have your Hunt at night and put mini glow sticks inside each egg! The kids will have a blast seeking out the glowing spots in the yard. 

7. Instead of using baskets, try having the kids decorate a pail, then use them to collect the eggs during The Hunt.  

8. Get creative with hiding places! Pick a part of the house to be the focus of your Hunt, I suggest the main living area. Then, pick unusual places to stash the eggs! Inside shoes, under the couch, tucked between books on the shelf...

9. Make it a little more challenging for older kids by stepping it up a notch with the hiding spots. Tuck an egg inside a paper towel roll, inside a coffee cup, inside coat pockets or cleverly hidden among a cluster of objects on a table. 

10. Get adults involved! Hide a few special eggs (maybe a different color or mark them with a marker) with fun adult goodies inside, like cash or a gift certificate to a local restaurant or coffee place. Everybody likes being remembered on Easter! Make the adult eggs very hard to find! Place eggs inside hanging light fixtures, on top of the fridge or other high places. 

This work by Little Mom on the Prairie is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

How to Plan a Perfect Easter Egg Hunt

Step 1: Location
The first thing to think about when planning your Easter egg hunt is where the focus of the hunt should be. This activity can be held indoors or outside in the yard depending on the weather. If you decide to have the Easter egg hunt outside, choose an area that is safe, like a yard free of debris and animals. If indoors, I suggest the family/living room as a good place to have the hunt. 

Step 2: Egg Preparations
Buy small plastic Easter eggs, based on the number of people that are going to be at the hunt. A good rule of thumb is to have between 15 and 20 eggs per person.  If the hunt is with older children, or if you want it to be a more challenging activity, buy more eggs to hide at the hunt. You can color coordinate by child, or by age group. 

Step 4: Hiding Spots
Keep track of where you hide the eggs, and how many eggs you have - especially if you are using hard boiled eggs. You can get creative and try to use harder hiding spots for the better prizes or for the older children’s eggs. Read this article on 10 Ways to Get Creative with Easter Egg Hunts.

Step 5: Collecting 
Hand out tote bags, pails or sturdy baskets for the kids to use at the egg hunt. If you see a kid having trouble finding eggs, help them out. You can use the "getting hot...hotter...no, colder...hot...hotter" method of guiding younger children if they have trouble finding eggs. Use hints for older kids if necessary. An Easter egg hunt is meant to be a fun activity for everyone involved! 

Step 6: Prizes
Try non-candy alternatives, cash, gift certificates, or handmade coupons good for fun activities. Decorate one plastic egg and fill it with a special prize, whoever finds that egg gets the extra special something inside. Get adults in on the fun, hide adult prizes in different colored eggs and hide them up high, where only adults can reach! Prizes could be a gift certificate to a coffee place or cash. 


This work by Little Mom on the Prairie is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Re-Use an Old Mouse Pad as a Trivet/Pot Holder

I came across this awhile ago on Pinterest, but I must not have actually re-pinned it, because I cannot find the original post anywhere...

If you have old/not currently being used mouse pads laying around (we have a small boxful, since we are all computer nerds in my home!) you can re-purpose them as a trivet/potholder, in your kitchen! 

Make sure they are made with non-coated fabric (sometimes the fabric has a plastic-y seal on top - this will melt under your hot pot. 

This work by Little Mom on the Prairie is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Build a Free Easter Basket

Easter is around the corner...

we have a double whammy, my daughter's birthday is the day before Easter...so I had to get creative with Easter Basket ideas, for free or darn cheap! I am sharing the basket I've built for my daughter, and if you hurry, some of these deals (or deals like it!) are still available! Get them while supplies last!!

Yard Sale Season is Starting! 5 Places to Find Sales Online

Yard Sale / Garage Sale Links

Check out Garage Sales on Gsalr.com
View and search for sales by map. Save your gas money and plan your garage sale routes in advance using the directions tool!

Post estate sales at EstateSales.org

You can also post sales through yardsalesearch.com

Free-cycle often has listings where people list their garage sale leftovers for free. 

Check out your local Craigslist.com for garage sales. I quite often advertise my own sales here. It's free to put up an ad, and they change daily, so post at least 2 days before your sale!

This work by Little Mom on the Prairie is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Make Gift Baskets Like a Pro

When I was in high school, I worked for a little "Mom & Pop Gift Shop".  My job was to make gift baskets for baby showers, birthday parties, corporate parties and graduations. They offered "build your own baskets" which really mean that you choose from a store full of items, and I put it together for you. It seems like an odd skill to have, especially since it was before the time of baby diaper cakes and internet access for small businesses, but I have put it to good use over the years. It is especially fun to use freebies to fill the baskets, as long as you use the right ones! 

There are a few basic "ingredients" to a professional style gift basket. You will need:

The Basket/Vessel: Sometimes I used little cardboard boxes that looked like a cake, or a galvanized tin for a beer-themed basket. It does not actually have to be a basket, be creative! 

Kitchen Short Cut: Stock Cubes in the Freezer

I love to cook soups and stews, and I am also a big lover of efficiency in the kitchen. This little trick saves me time when building a base for a soup and allows me to make the most out of my leftovers. 

Use Ice cube trays to freeze things like turkey/chicken drippings, leftover au jous or gravy from beef dishes, or juice from pot roasts. 

Turkey stock cubes

I have a plastic gallon freezer baggie of turkey stock cubes & a freezer baggie of beef and mushroom gravy cubes. I add these to stews, chili, and even casseroles - pretty much whenever something needs a little depth to the flavor. It is also a great time saver for homemade soups, just add to the pot and you have a stock base. 

Beef & mushroom gravy cubes

This work by Little Mom on the Prairie is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.