Easter isn't crazy commercialized.
It shouldn't be, right? Because it is such a wonderfully marvelous celebration of the Christian beliefs in Jesus as our Savior, the risen Lord, the Son of God... Wonderful, Counselor, Amazing Grace Kind of Guy!
So after 40 days of prayerful contemplation, beautiful services, the poignant joy of Palm Sunday and the grave sorrow of Good Friday, we have the amazing blessing of EASTER!!!!
And we like to have fun on Easter... A big Easter egg hunt on the farm for the grandkids, a nice ham, some kind of cheesy potatoes, crepes for breakfast (RECIPE HERE!) and of course desserts...
Here's a super easy fun Easter centerpiece, Lacey's "KIT KAT CAKE" done with pastel M&M's and ... wait on it... Kit Kats! This is so simple... Bake a 6 or 8" cake, any flavor.
Layer cake together with frosting of your choice. If you don't choose chocolate, I will make fun of you. Nicely. Of course. :) Trim top with large serrated knife so it's level. Frost top and sides. Press Kit Kats against frosting. Tie with ribbon.
Set top bunny in place, sprinkle M&M's around.... Done! Remove bunny and ribbon to serve.
Now here's a favorite that Beth Jamison (my editor daughter) does for us:
And the kids love them! Most popular part of Easter for the littles and the mediums!
Then there's this idea. Easter Cookie Cake done with chocolate chip cookie dough... laced with pastel M&M's:
First I draw a circle (using a dinner plate) on parchment paper. Flip paper. Press cookie dough of your choice onto paper to fill in circle about 1/2" thick. (Cookie will "spread" a little as it bakes. To help prevent this I use a folded piece of aluminum foil to form "sides" and help keep it in place.) Or... if you have a round pan, press the dough evenly over pan leaving about 1" EMPTY at sides because dough will spread to fill in. This avoids that puffed up overdone edge.
I bake it at 325 so it takes a little while, generally about 15-19 minutes.
Then you can frost or decorate anyway you want! I couldn't find the Easter Cookie picture, but here's a Christina birthday cookie cake pic:
This was all done with drop tips... nothing fancy!
And here's a project we did a couple of years ago and I meant to do it this Lent... but we had so many sick people this year! And Lena wasn't here to do preschool, so we'll do it next year and the pot will stay under my dresser for another 11 months....
But it's a beautiful centerpiece to make with kids, or just for yourself.
The base of a 10 or 12: flower pot.... potting soil. Sprinkled with grass seed. You use a small plastic cup to form the cave. A handful or two of pepples... and the crosses we made with twigs and twine. So simple. So poignant. So thought-provoking.
We did this as a lesson with 5 year olds and we watered every other day. It took about four weeks to get the grass grown enough, and then I just trimmed it even with scissors.
Such a great reminder of the true reason of the season!
We are all praying for a beautiful Easter for all of you. God bless you. May He keep you and yours safe and sound and may you be blessed in so many ways. And may the strength and grace of the risen Lord be with you now... and always. Especially during this trying time, but then we remember that plights of all kinds befell our forebears in the Bible and in history, even in the history of settling America.
At least this time, we saw it coming!
God bless us, around the world, everyone!
