Every holiday we celebrate as a family of three seems to always be more special and memorable than the one before and this Easter was no exception! We didn’t do anything fancy, but it seems as though we always treasure the simplest moments the most. Our holiday recap is a few days late, as usual, but we hope your family had a blessed Easter and we are honored to share a little of our family Easter with you today.
This post contains affiliate links. We earn a small commission each time someone makes a purchase through one of our links, which helps to support the blog.
Giant Egg Painting
A few weeks ago, Dessa was battling a bit of a cold and we were just trying to take it easy around the house. She was fascinated with a giant piece of paper that was crumpled up and used as filler for a package we had recently received and I realized it was a perfect opportunity for us to do a not-so-little painting project. I had seen the idea on Instagram from @happytoddlerplaytime and decided to just go for it! I drew a simple egg design with pencil onto the giant sheet of paper, then traced over the lines with a black Kwik Stix paint marker to make a nice, bold outline. As soon as the egg was ready to go, I dragged our coffee table into the kitchen to help minimize any messy accidents, dug out some washable finger paints (mine are from Michaels but you can buy a 10-pack on Amazon) and foam brushes I had on hand, rolled up Dessa’s sleeves, and let her get to it!
Dessa had a great time painting the giant egg and made more progress than I expected. She eventually lost interest with plenty of blank canvas left on her egg, so I put the materials away for the day and let her continue the project on a few different days. I knew it was a big, messy project and I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. But she did such a great job that I’m sure we will do more large-scale painting projects in the future.
Easter Egg Hunt
The week before Easter, we took Dessa on her first Easter egg hunt outside of the home. My grandmother lives in assisted living facility and we brought Dessa to their annual Easter Egg event. Dessa joined the fun after the kickoff round of egg hunting in the facility courtyard and it worked out perfectly. Our little toddler was able to take her sweet, old time finding seven eggs to fill her bag without any worry of being knocked over by excited big kids.
The Easter event included photos with the Easter Bunny, egg dyeing and face painting, but we skipped all of those activities because they would either scare Dessa or be far too messy for our little one. But there was a station set up to let kids decorate a small white bag to hold their dyed eggs. Dessa had so much fun using stamps and stickers to decorate her very own bag.
We checked out the decorations, saw the Easter Bunny from a distance, then went to spend a little quality time with Dessa’s great-grandma Odessa. It was a perfect visit!
Dyeing Easter Eggs
We never got around to dyeing Easter eggs last year and were excited to finally start the tradition with Dessa this Easter. We didn’t do anything crazy – just old-fashioned egg dyeing in mugs filled with water and food coloring, but Dessa wasn’t complaining. She loved the entire experience.
I try to buy as many organic foods as possible for our family and was so excited to find organic food coloring at the grocery store. I love organic foods as much as the next health-conscious mom, but next year I think I’ll go ahead and buy the regular variety of food coloring. We poured the entire bottle of dye into each mug and the colors were still incredibly muted. I found a single bottle of regular red food coloring in our pantry (leftover from a kindergarten project, I’m sure) and added that to our existing mug of red dye and you can see what a dramatic difference it made for those red eggs.
We waited oh-so-patiently for the other eggs to catch up, and blue was the saddest color of all. It didn’t matter how long we kept the egg in the mug full of colored water, it just wasn’t going to darken. Luckily, Dessa didn’t care. She was perfectly content to stare into the blue water at her egg while it slowly took on a pale bluish color.
In the end, she was incredibly proud of herself. And now she likes to eat hard-boiled eggs – go figure!
Easter Sunday
After so many fun preparations, Easter Sunday finally arrived. We had a very busy day that started with an Easter egg hunt. It was pretty chilly outside that morning, so the Easter Bunny decided to hide his eggs upstairs in our bungalow, along with a special Easter basket for Dessa. She zipped right past the eggs and went straight for the basket.
It didn’t matter that we went upstairs to look for eggs. Dessa dropped everything and really took her time checking out her favorite items from the basket. The first thing she grabbed was the personalized “Dessa” puzzle that was tucked into the back. She wanted it opened immediately so she could start to play. This was followed by a few minutes of exploration with the clock puzzle that was also in her Easter Basket.
From there, things sped up considerably. Dessa quickly pulled out the star-shaped cookie cutters and a new Duck & Goose book. Then she dove right in and pulled out her favorite part – the Easter grass!
There were also some pajamas and a sun hat in her basket along with a dinosaur book, but apparently those items weren’t very exciting. They stayed in the basket while Dessa’s attention turned to the Easter eggs scattered throughout the room.
There were only about a dozen eggs hidden upstairs and Dessa quickly found all of them. The Easter Bunny knows we try to eat as healthy as possible, so he tucked a blueberry into each of Dessa’s eggs. She sounded so excited and surprised every time she opened a new egg to discover a blueberry inside!
We were thankful to have a quiet and slow start to our Easter Sunday because rest of our day was a bit of a whirlwind. We hurried out the door to attend 12:00 Mass and got front row seats. Dessa always behaves well at Mass, but she was exceptionally good on Easter. Dessa loves any kind of music and church hymns are no exception. Right after the music ends and the church goes quiet, Dessa always fills the silence by clapping and saying “Yay!” She certainly brought a smile to the face of everyone sitting around us on Easter Sunday.
After Mass, we hopped back into the car for a quick visit with Dessa’s great-grandmother and namesake, Odessa. Those two girls love each other so much and it just melts my heart.
Dessa thankfully took a nice, long nap in the car after we left Odessa’s. Rob and I used the opportunity to head home and take turns changing clothes and eating a quick lunch lunch while Dessa slept in the car. We had one more big visit ahead and we were so thankful that Dessa wasn’t going to be overtired that afternoon.
Dessa woke up just as we pulled up to Rob’s parents’ house, which was already full of family celebrating the holiday. There were lots of hugs and kisses, good food, more eggs to hunt, and even another basket of treats. Dessa loved every moment – especially chasing after their dog, Kasey.
Our Easter celebration was every bit as perfect as we could have hoped for – complete with beautiful, sunny spring weather. We tried getting a family photo a few times throughout the day, but we were always in a hurry to arrive at our next destination or Dessa just wasn’t in the mood. Thankfully, we were finally able to take a picture with all three of us (plus Kasey to help) before packing back into the van and heading home for bed.
This Easter truly was a spectacular day to celebrate the Resurrection of our Lord with beautiful weather, a new set of memories to treasure, and time spent with the people we love. Happy Easter from our family to yours!