our easter

I absolutely loved Easter this year. Noah is at that age where he gets so excited and right into everything. It was so fun in the lead up to the weekend, as he walked around the house in the ears he made at school with a basket of empty plastic eggs leaving them around for me to find. I'm sure I'll be finding some of his hiding spots for a few weeks to come!

We had friends over on the Saturday and I did this very quick table. I hadn't really planned on doing any 'table' as we were so busy in the lead up to Easter. But I found we were so organised and ready for them to arrive that I was able to use what I had made for the party along with stuff we have at home to throw this very very simple look together.

After a late night with friends we almost forgot to leave out water and a carrot for the bunny.

Our Easter morning consisted of checking out the Easter goodies.

Playing with our Easter goodies.

Trying to capture a nice photo of myself with my little guy. There is something about being 4 and always having to make a silly face for photos ... sigh

And of course we ate chocolate. Probably a little too much even though the bunny doesn't bring a lot, we had cookies and cupcakes and crunchy noodle nests as well left over from our party the day before. I'll be happy if we don't have chocolate for a while. And if I don't have to clean up this messy face {+dress+bib+highchair+floor+legs+arm+hair} again until this time next year.

Then we painted their little faces. I love this and think we should do it more than once a year.

It really is too cute!

Can you tell she had a big day? Fast asleep after dinner. Picked her up out of her high chair and she snuggled in and zzzzz. Poor little munchkin.

I hope you and your family had a beautiful and safe Easter. x

ANZAC Day

This year, with ANZAC day being so close to Easter, I am feeling that we are overlooking it a tad. Normally, before something important and significant such as ANZAC day, we talk with Noah about why it is a special time. I also do a few activities but this year we were so busy with Easter craft I literally ran out of time to find some ideas.

So I did these printable poppies up on Friday night and am sharing them with you in case you find you have got some time today to do them with your kiddos.

If you are not familiar with ANZAC day - you can read a little bit about it here.

You can also read about the red poppies significance here.

They are designed so you don't have to do anything but cut and glue while you talk about our Diggers and how they are our true heroes.

Hehe - a little onlooker.

 So after we glued the poppies together we taped green pipe cleaners to them. You could use sticks from the backyard or straws or popsticks so you can put them in a vase. Or you could use them to decorate something in your home.

We made a vase of poppies with the big ones. And the small ones we will pin to our shirts with a safety pin.

If you like you can download them from here.

Lest We Forget. 

easter egg shaped chocolate chip cookies

This was so so easy, it made me wonder why I haven't done it before!

I used my basic cookie dough recipe, the same one I used for my heart shaped cookies we did for Valentine's Day.

and then I shaped them into egg-ish ovals. 

And then I baked them.

And ta-dah! Really, I am not sure why I have never done this before? 

I didn't need a special pan or anything. Too easy.

easter salt dough

This is an activity we do every year. It is very fun, sometimes messy, always a great way to spend a saturday morning :o}

To make salt dough:

Mix together

1 part salt {table salt, not cooking salt, as it is finer}

2 parts plain flour

and as much water as needed to create a dough consistency. Add this just bit by bit - add more flour if you end up adding too much water.

To bake:

line cookie sheets with baking paper and bake in a 150-160 degree oven until they are hard. This time varies according to how big / thick your salt dough ornaments are.

It should look nice and smooth like this...

And then you can colour it. Separate some dough and then just add a few drops first and knead the colour through. 

You can roll it into shapes and you can roll it out flat and use cookie cutters to make shapes.

I used a mini cookie cutter for the carrots and little chickens. And then I used a larger one for the rabbit faces and the egg shapes.  We then just rolled dough into egg shapes. A lot of this tray is stuff I made.

Noah really just likes to play with the dough - drive cars through it etc. But he is also more than happy to 'decorate' the shapes - such as this bunny face :o}

He decorated a few eggs as well - and then also made a mobile phone out of dough which of course we have had to bake!

I also made these salt dough tags to tie to easter baskets or for hanging. This is just an egg shape with the letters stamped into the dough before baking. {I just used a regular rubber stamp set} 

I also made a hole in the top for the twine.

After baking I used a silver pen to accent the letters and I glued a little salt dough chicken on as well.

The eggs often crack while baking in the oven - I think it's just because they're too thick? According to Noah - a chicken has hatched out of the cracked ones. :o}

I said that salt dough is sometimes messy ... here's proof. 

It is not usually this messy - but does get harder to keep together the more it dries out, and so then bits and pieces go everywhere! Keep it moist and add a teeny bit of water if needed and hopefully you won't get this :o}

one year ago today - April 18 2010

So I have been doing a lot of walking down memory lane lately - specifically because we are approaching our baby girl's first birthday and I just don't know where all that time went? 

A lot has changed in our home since this time last year - we have a bouncing baby girl who is now walking and laughing and playing. Our house is fuller, maybe a little messier. The plants are bigger, the cubby house looks older. 

And this little boy doesn't look like he used to! This is my picture of the day for my project life album for April 18 2010. Wow! How much my little guy has grown in a year.

 I think I'll post some old POTD's now and then. I loved looking back at photos from this time last year. And I most definitely love having these photos, of random moments like this, just out watering his little veggie patch.

Do you have photos from this time last year?

handprint easter chickens

I wanted to do a handprint Easter craft seeing as we did an Easter craft using feet for bunny ears. 

So we did some handprints ...

and sponge painted this cute little chicken ...

If you want to you can go over the eyes and beak when the paint is dry to make them dark again but I didn't bother.

And then we put the two together!

Love love love this!

We also did a few other variations. If you don't want to use paint - you could always use coloured paper and trace your kiddo's hand. Or use plain paper and colour it.

And of course we had to do my little guy's favourite - glueing. Thanks to the lovely Jade of Super Organiser Mum for the idea of using some feathers! Huge hit with Noah and apparently we must make more for the grandparents.

I also printed the chicken onto yellow cardstock as another option. We did painted handprints but of course you could go the traced handprints for absolutely no messy glue or paint! The little feet are a little tricky to cut out but I did make it so that you could cut them off completely if you don't want them!

I love these little chickens as much as the paper plate bunnies we did.

11 month old handprints on the little chicken to the left and 4 year old handprints on the chicken to the right.

And here they all are up on our wall.

You can download your own cute little chicken here. I hope you have as much fun as we did! :o}

little bunny

I initially drew this bunny for us to glue cotton balls onto but ended up using our sheep instead. 

When I brought it out for Noah I was hoping he'd want to colour it. But no, he wanted to glue stuff to it, too. He loves glue!

So here we have his work of art :o}

and I thought I'd share the bunny with you all so your kiddos can colour it / glue stuff to it / what ever :o}

You can download it from here.

As with all my printables this is for personal use only and is © Bianca - a little delightful

Thank you :) 

x

crunchy noodle easter nests

So I said I would post about the easiest peasiest yummiest Easter treat I have ever made. Yes, I think these are yummier than my chocolate bunny cups, mostly because I just love dark chocolate which is what we used here. These were so very easy and quick to make!
There are many ways you can make little Easter nests and I've seen some cute ones on websites and blogs before - but I love this 'recipe'.

And you only require 3 ingredients! :o}
Not excited yet?
You also don't need an oven! :o}
Excited now?

You need:

Crunchy noodles {we used Changs} - Chocolate Melts {we used dark - yum} - Little chocolate eggs {these are from Big W - called mini speckled eggs}

 Melt the chocolate in the microwave - short 20-30 second burst, then a stir, then another burst, then another stir and so on.
Add the noodles to the melted chocolate.

 Stir to coat the noodles in the chocolate.

 Spoon into little mini muffin cups. This is just to help them keep shape. You don't have to use them if you don't have them. You could use normal size muffin cups. Or none at all.

 Before the chocolate sets, add a few of the little eggs. {These are mini eggs - a bit smaller than a peanut M&M} If you have bigger eggs, you may want to use normal sized muffin cups and make bigger nests. :o}

 Once you've used up all the chocolate covered noodles, don't forget to lick the bowl! Leave the nests aside to set.

 Once set you can take them out of the little muffin cups.

 Don't they look just too good to eat?

 Put do eat one, or lots. They taste kind of like chocolate dipped pretzels. Very yummy, we found it hard to stop at just one!