Easter Treats

It has been so beautiful outside, and I've been rejoicing to be out and about in the splendor of spring.  Today is a little rainy, and a bit chillier, but spring is still in the air!

Tomorrow is Easter, the celebration of our Risen Lord!  Where would I be without Him?  I shudder to think.  Anyway, we're doing things a little different this year for our Little Mister, age 7 1/2.  We have made some changes around here in recent months, like trying to eat mostly "real food."  You know, the kind you make at home with actual ingredients, using fewer processed foods that include strange chemicals.  I always have cooked for my family, but now I'm more aware of the ingredient labels.  Not that we  NEVER eat processed foods or chemicals.  We've just cut way down.  It's a rare occurrence.  Even sugar substitutes are out of the picture (actually, they have been for awhile) because they simply aren't natural and there have been studies about the harm they do.  There are a couple newer ones I haven't researched yet, but for now we mostly just don't partake of them.

And Little Mister, who never has been allowed to eat "a lot" of sugar, is allowed to eat even less now.  He loves real food, so it's not a problem.  As long as he likes what I serve him, he doesn't miss candy and things like that.

All that to say he isn't getting candy this year.  He never has been into the Easter bunny thing, but he has always enjoyed having an Easter egg hunt, and the eggs have always contained candy.  This year we did something different.  So that he could still have a treat, but I would know what went into it, we made cut-out cookies, in egg and bunny shapes, and decorated them together.  This also replaced decorating eggs, since he hates hard-cooked eggs. :)  We had fun together and ended up with a treat we can all enjoy and they will last awhile.  Yes, they're still sugary, but minus the artificial stuff.  One thing I forgot about is the food coloring and store-bought sprinkles--I don't know what in the world might be in those.  But, hey, I was trying to do a good thing here! lol

We aren't professionals that's for sure!  In fact, you'd probably find it a challenge to distinguish the ones I did from the ones LM did. lol

Here's some of our mess.  But it was easy clean-up because we decorated the cookies on wax paper, which was on a vinyl tablecloth--very easy to wipe up!

This reminded me of when I was a young girl.  My mom made these cookies at Christmas time, in Christmasy shapes, of course, and would tint the icing in different colors and let us five girls create.  We loved it.  Same recipe, too! :)

Because Little Mister still loves the challenge of an Easter egg hunt, we're still going to hide eggs (he doesn't know that yet) and put money in them instead of candy.  He can put it all together and pick out something for himself.  He's gotten into saving his money for something and then paying for it himself at the store.  He counts his savings every so often, and seems quite proud to give the cashier the money himself. :)

We like to do *some* child-friendly celebrating on Christmas and Easter, but prefer the emphasis to be on the true meaning of the holidays.  Actually, Jesus loved/loves children, so He is very child-friendly!  Little Mister loves Him, and that makes my heart sing even more as I anticipate our full day of Easter celebration tomorrow! :)  Happy Easter to all! :)