Candy-coated chocolate eggs

When in doubt...add more sprinkles!!

That pretty much sums up the Butterballs philosophy when it comes to baking:)))

After having a blast with our sprinkles-coated cookies, I decided to try them out on our easter eggs as well!

Supplies : candy-coated chocolate eggs, glace icing and of coarse, SPRINKLES!!!

I prepared the glace icing by mixing 100ml of icing sugar with a few tablespoons of water, stirring till it formed a thick paste.

Using a basting brush the Butterballs coated half the egg with icing, before dipping it into the sprinkles.

I found that the best way to get the sprinkles to stick,

 was to coat half the egg first,

then let it dry over-night before dipping and coating the other half.

End result...too cute to eat!!

Naturally, this didn't stop the Butterballs, 

they loved every sprinkle-encrusted bite!!

I will definitely be doing these again.

They will be stunning as an edible centerpiece for our Easter dinner!!

Washi Tape Easter Maze

This easy activity requires no prep - except of course, gathering supplies!

All you need:

Washi tape, craft foam Easter stickers and a large window/glass door.

Stick the washi tape onto your window to create a maze.

The maze can be as simple or complicated as you want.

I settled on a fairly simple one that Ethan would be able to do.

The Butterballs get to make their way through the maze using the bunny footprints as markers.

I used lots of different stickers not just to make it pretty 

but cos it adds variety...

The Butterballs get to 'find' different things each time...

an egg, a butterfly, a cute chick...

that way, it will take a while before they lose interest!!

I'm going to try replacing the chicks and bunnies with Easter egg stickers.
The Butterballs would have to plot the way to the red/green/blue egg...
that way they get to work on their color identification skills as well as problem-solving skills.
Super learning fun!

Glow in the dark Easter Egg Hunt - LED vs Glowstick

The Butterballs love playing with their flashlights in the dark!

So this year, instead of our usual egg hunt, we set up a glow-in-the-dark egg hunt.

After searching through Pinterest,

I found two basic ways to set up a glow-in-the-dark hunt:

sticking glowsticks inside the easter eggs or

sticking LED lights inside the eggs

I decided to try out both methods.

The egg on the left held an LED tealight and gave off a strong, bright glow.

The egg on the right held a glowstick which gave off a muted softer glow.

I found that glowsticks only work in large eggs. 

I tried squeezing them into a smaller egg and ended up breaking the glowstick.

Glowstick liquid is VERY messy.

Also, I needed to tape the egg shut to prevent the glowstick from popping it open.

In the end, we did two egg hunts...

One using eggs with glowsticks, 

the Butterballs needed to use flashlights for this one cos the glow is quite subtle,

For the other hunt, we used LED-light filled  eggs.

No need for a flashlight - they glow pretty brightly!

I think that the LED lights are perfect for toddler egg hunts as they are really easy to find.

The glowsticks subtle glow make them perfect for intense late-night treasure-hunting...

armed with a flashlight of course ;)

Easter Sprinkle Cookies

For this weeks sweet treat, the Butterballs and I baked a batch of Easter sugar cookies.

Once cooled, the Butterballs dipped them into melted white chocolate...

then into a tray of sprinkles.

When in doubt...add more sprinkles ;)))

We used pink fondant icing, which is quite like edible playdough,

albeit a bit sticky...

as decoration.

The Butterballs loved rolling, squashing and shaping the fondant.

So did I...

Build-a-Bunny Bathtub Fun

Craft foam is one of our favorite art supplies...they can be used in hundreds of fun ways!!

Today, the Butterballs enjoyed a splashing-good session in the tub with their new bathtub activity.

Supplies : Sheets of craft foam, a few pom poms(for the nose), scissors and a sharpie.

Cut out a bunny head and ears from the craft foam, with little fingers-the bigger, the better.

Next cut out a few features using different colored craft foam.

Draw in the eyes and whiskers using Sharpies.

Fill the tub with water, bubbles, anything you fancy and you're ready to go!
Don't you just love easy-to-set-up activities :)))

The Butterballs were delighted with their colorful bunnies and quickly set to work assembling them.


To get the craft foam pieces to stick to the tiles, we simply wet the back of the shape with a little water. If we found that the pieces weren't sticking well, I smeared a tiny bit of soap onto the back and it stuck perfectly!

The craft foam bunny puzzle is waterproof and reusable. By including many different colored pieces, the Butterballs could create and recreate different bunnies each time.

The Butterballs LOVED building their very own Easter Bunny.
Ethan had lots of fun mixing up the features to create 'a special bunny' :))

 The bunny pieces now 'live' in the bathroom cupboard, ready to come out and play through the month.

Cost efficient, reusable, fun!!!

Easter Bath Bombs

The Butterballs totally LOVE messing around with Baking soda and vinegar!
Especially when I add coloring or bubble bath.
Today I decided to give them a different kind of fizzy fun with DIY bath bombs.

Supplies : Easter egg molds, Bath bomb powder

I followed this easy recipe to make the bath bomb powder:
 (makes 9 small eggs)

3tbl baking soda (bicarb)
4tbl cream of Tartar
2tbl Epsom salt
2tbl Cornflour
1tbl olive oil
11\2 tsp essence
few drops food coloring

Stir dry ingredients with a fork.
 Add liquids and mix till coloring is well blended.
 It should have a dry crumbly texture.

Adding water causes the bath bomb to fizz, leaving you with a bombed out bomb.

I made 3 batches:
the yellow batch was lemon-scented,
the pink batch was strawberry-scented,
and I used peppermint essence in the green batch.

It smelled absolutely delicious.
I had to watch Ethan like a hawk, to make sure that he didn't taste it, to check if it was as yummy as it smelt!

Next, I filled my egg molds, pressing the powder down firmly.

The eggs were left to dry over-night.

The next day I excitedly unmolded them,

 only to find that it didn't turn out the way I had hoped  :((

Instead of sticking together and forming a perfect egg, I now had 2 neatly formed halves!

They still smelt and looked amazing - the color and scent hadn't faded a bit.

All was not lost, 

I decided to used the bath bombs in the egg mold and treat the Butterballs to an Easter Egg Bath.

I filled up the tub and tossed in their plastic eggs.

I also included a bowl full of Bath Bomb Eggs.

As expected, the Butterballs began opening up the eggs and using them to scoop and pour the water.

It didn't take them long to discover that some eggs had a surprise in them!

'What's this Mama? It's so pretty' ...Tamlyn

' Mmmm, smells good, I eat it?' ...Ethan of course!!

 I told the Butterballs that it was like a special 'bubblebath' that makes only a little bubbles, and makes the water smell nice and their skin feel silky soft.

'Oooo, silky skin!' exclaimed an eager Tamlyn!

The Butterballs quickly dropped the first few bombs into the water and watched them dissolve.

They were disappointed that there wasn't much bubbling and fizzing

 so we tried slowly lowering the bombs into the water.

Ethan began giggling cos the fizzing felt ticklish.

Tamlyn was amazed that she could hear the popping and fizzing.

I saved a few bath bombs, for the Butterballs to play with later,

 and left them to their pouring and exploring.

After they had dried off, we decided to explode our remaining bombs on a plate

(where I could get a better photo!)

I poured a tiny bit of water into the plate and placed in the bath bombs.

The Butterballs were able to see and hear the fizzing clearly.

The fizzing is nowhere near as pronounced as a baking soda\vinegar reaction,

but it was still fun to watch.

It also smelled so much better than a vinegar\bicarb reaction!!

Afterwards, the Butterballs got to play with the pretty, sweet-scented water.

An all-round feast for the senses!