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Surviving being at home with the kids

Samatha Mosse • 2 April 2020
How does the Easter bunny stay fit? EGGS-ercise or HARE-robics!
Why shouldn't you tell an Easter egg a joke? It might crack up!
What kind of books do bunnies like? Ones with hoppy endings!
Easter holidays fun for families
Entertaining the children during the Easter break is not always the easiest thing to do. If you are at home this Easter, you may want some tips on things the children can do that will keep them occupied and having fun. Our ideas will not break the bank and are a great alternative for indoor fun especially if the weather is not in your favour.


Use up odd socks by making an Easter bunny sock puppet. Use buttons or cut out pieces of paper or card for eyes and a nose and hey presto! You have all you need to create your own Easter bunny puppet show.

Make Easter cards. You can use scraps of paper, old birthday and Christmas cards, magazines etc. 

Have an evening abroad! Choose a country, say Italy for example. Spend the afternoon making Italian flag placemats and table decorations. Look up on the internet how to say a few Italian words like hello, goodbye, please and thank you. Get the kids involved making an Italian dinner like pizza or pasta and enjoy. There are so many countries to choose from it's a great way to encourage the children to experiment with new foods and languages. 

Make use of your local library. It's free to join and you can borrow multiple books at a time. For a small fee you can also borrow DVD's and music CD's. 

Make a pasta picture. A small pot of glue and a bag of dried pasta shapes can be bought very cheaply and can produce amazingly creative results. 

Have a picnic. Prepare your lunch, lay down a blanket and enjoy your day out. If it is raining or cold, you can have an indoor picnic instead! 

Memory Minute - Place ten small household items on a tray or table, cover with a tea-towel. For example, a button, keys, a cotton bud, a fork etc. Show the items for about thirty seconds then re-cover. Each child has a minute to write down as many items as they can. Smaller children can reel them off and you can write them for them. The best memory wins. 

Bat and Ball keepy-uppy - Use a soft indoor friendly ball, sponge balls are ideal. Each child takes turns with the bat to see how many taps they can keep the ball in the air. 

Precision Roll - Find a long clear space on the floor. Place a tin from the cupboard at one end of the room, kids at the other. Each child has one chance to roll the ball as near to the tin as possible. Use a tape measure to record the distance for each child, closest wins. 

Egg Collage - give each child a piece of paper and draw a big egg shape outline on it. With a pot of paste and scraps of material or ribbon they can make their own creative picture. For ribbon scraps raid your wardrobe and snip off all those ribbon hangers in the shoulders of tops and jumpers that often don't seem to serve a purpose and usually end up getting in the way. Have a small prize for the best one or the best one in each age group so everyone gets to be a winner. 

Mini egg challenge - Make up a small race track or obstacle course on the floor or table. Give each child four chocolate mini eggs of the same colour and a straw. Let each one have a turn at blowing down the straw to guide each egg in turn to the end of the course. You could use your watch to time how long it takes for all their eggs to get "home". To make it even more of a challenge you could tie their hands behind their backs with a scarf so they are not tempted to use them to cheat.

Easter decorations - Use paints or felt tips to decorate some eggs (you can use hard boiled or blow some if you prefer). To do these, make small holes each end and then blow the contents into a bowl - you can use this for scrambled eggs or omelettes for tea. As it's a good idea to rinse the eggs out and leave them to dry you might like to do this the day before the planned activity. Keep the egg box to stand them in and it's also useful to put them in when they are drying off after being decorated. Suggest faces with glasses, hair, beards, etc. or zig-zag patterns or just let the children's imaginations run riot. When they're done they can be used on a plate as a decoration - perhaps with a couple of chicks on top (these are really cheap to buy in card shops or similar or make your own with yellow wool) or you could get a small twiggy branch from the garden or elsewhere and stand it in a vase and hang your eggs on with cotton or ribbon. 

Jokes - most children love telling jokes (often the same one over and over again, and it's not always funny!) Sit down with them and think up words to do with Easter - eggs, bunnies, lambs, chicks, etc., - and see if they can make up jokes or rhymes. Here's a few to get you started:

How does the Easter bunny stay fit? EGGS-ercise or HARE-robics!
Why shouldn't you tell an Easter egg a joke? It might crack up!
What kind of books do bunnies like? Ones with hoppy endings!
You might want to get baking, use this recipe below to make Easter nest cakes which are of course very yummy! 

225g/8oz chocolate, broken into pieces
50g/2oz butter
2tbsp golden syrup
75g/3oz cornflakes or shredded wheat
36 mini chocolate eggs
Line a twelve-hole cake tin with cake cases. Melt the chocolate pieces, butter and syrup in a glass bowl over a pan of simmering water Remove bowl from heat and stir in cornflakes or shredded wheat Divide between the cake cases Place three mini eggs on top of each cake and chill for one hour.

WISHING YOU A HAPPY EASTER FROM FAMILY LIVES!




by Samatha Mosse 5 May 2020
Amazingly enough it's due to be a spectacular May day; 21°C toasty warm, fingers crossed there will not be a cloud in the sky, the air still, and everything around us will be silent. How to make a memorable, exciting, celebration of a day when you're all alone in the middle of fields surrounded by beautiful Suffolk countryside? All I have for company three children, my husband and wildlife! Tim, my husband, is only interested in cutting grass and cutting wood when it comes to the great outdoors. He is incredibly practical, and he's not really into creating memorable happenings and pretty settings. The children just want to play on the Xbox and fill their heads with a lot of nonsense with like-minded friends. Then there is me, who has the urge to hang out bunting, fetch the trestle tables and deck them with tablecloths and wildflowers. Creating artistic flourishes and nostalgic wimsies to my hearts content. Loading the tabletop with beautifully tempting treats, savouries and cakes. What about dripping sandwiches, corned beef hash, faggots and eggless fruit cakes, jam sandwiches, scones and pork pies for a start! The thought of getting the garden looking delightful is a scratch that needs to be itched.
by websitebuilder 1 April 2020
Best Lamb for Easter
by websitebuilder 1 April 2020
SPRING + EASTER DECORATING TIPS Today I wanto give a little inspiration using Easter decor in case you are looking for some holiday decorating ideas. When decorating for spring or Easter, there are a few easy things to keep in mind. When decorating for Easter, you don't have to go crazy with decor, especially if you've already added some spring touches like tulips around your house. Place a bunny or religious artifact alongside what is already displayed in your home. Switch out your throw pillows and blankets for something lighter and brighter than what you used for winter. Take down your curtains and drapes to allow the spring sunlight to stream into the house. There isn't always a lot of choices when it comes to actual spring or Easter decor, like there is with Christmas. That makes it easy to fall into the trap of thinking anything will do. But those bunnies and eggs that you display will look a lot more natural and "at home" in your space if they stick with the style you ordinarily gravitate to. You don't have to decorate with brightly colored plastic Easter eggs or cutesy bunnies if you don't want to! During this time when we are being asked to stay in our homes and can't spend time browsing around shops for new decor, take a look at what you may already have that could be updated to better fit in with your style. A quick coat of paint can do wonders. Or wrap those plastic eggs with some twine or yarn you already have at the house. With everything that is happening around us at the moment, I think it is more important than ever to make your home a peaceful and homey place to be. Freshening up your decor with something for spring or Easter is just one way to add a little bit of life into your home when you need it most. I hope these simple tips gave you an idea of something you can do today to add a seasonal touch to your space. How to blow eggs Decorating empty egg shells is the perfect Easter holiday activity for your little ones. Once you know how to prepare the eggs, the only limit is your child's imagination. Plus, you can make an omelette for lunch afterwards with the leftover unused egg yolks. You will need: Fresh eggs in an egg box A safety pin A toothpick A straw A measuring jug or bowl Pens and other art materials to decorate Method: 1. Sit an egg in your egg box to steady it. Holding the egg still, carefully tap and push a hole in the top centre of the egg with your safety pin. Once you have made the hole, carefully push one end of the pin in as far as it will go to widen it. 2. Take the toothpick and insert it into the hole; stir it around to help break up the yolk and make it easier to remove the insides at step 4. 3. Flip the egg over and make a second hole on the opposite side with your pin. Try to make the hole on the bottom a little bigger but be careful not to crack the shell. Break up the yolk again with your toothpick. 4. Hold the egg over a measuring jug with the bigger hole facing down. Use a straw to flush out the contents of the egg by placing the tip of the straw over the hole and blowing hard. First the egg white will come out, followed by the yolk - it can take a minute to get going, so be patient. You will know that it's all out when it becomes lighter and you are just blowing out bubbles of egg white, followed by air. 5. Clean the shell by holding it carefully under running hot water from the kitchen tap. Wipe carefully with kitchen paper and leave to dry. Now you’re ready to decorate with paint, pens, stickers, felt, glitter or whatever else takes your fancy. 6. We created written hashtag designs with permanent markers, like ‘fresh’, ‘goodegg’ and ‘dippy’, plus an Easter chick using yellow, orange and black coloured markers and the snipped-off tied end of a red balloon for its crest (we poked the bit of the balloon into the hole on the egg top). Our little flower girl design was just a sprig of thyme snipped from the garden and secured at the back with a little bit of tape.
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