Easter is one of my favorite holidays, probably because I LOVE spring! There are so many reasons to love Spring. It’s full of new beginnings, the weather is beautiful, flowers are blooming, baby animals are being born and so much more! I am also very sentimental about Spring because I was pregnant with Lilly and gave birth to her in late May. *cue happy tears* (See photos below.)
This year I wanted to put together an Easter “basket” for Lilly that was practical and eco-friendly. I also wanted to limit the sugary treats and support second hand and small shops as much as possible. I thought a lot of my followers would resonate with these value so I decided to put together a blog post to share what we did for Lilly this year.
Due to the current pandemic *ahem looking at you corona virus* some of the items I had intended for Lilly’s Easter basket are not shipping to us until this is over. I was originally planning on posting this a few weeks prior to Easter to give my followers some inspiration for a more practical, eco-friendly and mostly sugar free Easter. Most of my items are either stuck in transit still or only recently arrived. I had also intended to try to find as much as I could second hand before purchasing new items, but as you can probably already guess, the thrift stores have been closed for weeks and the consignment sale I normally attend in the spring has been postponed until further notice. Therefore, all of the items were bought new. I did purchase some items through small shop owners when I could. Despite all that, I am posting what I can.
I was generously gifted some items from OAKI for this blog. However, all thoughts and opinions are my own.
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For The Basket
I wanted to skip the basket. I knew a basket wouldn’t get much use past Easter so I brainstormed ideas for what I could use instead. We ended up deciding to get her a radio flyer wagon for her to pull around her toys or use outside in the garden. We own this one to pull her around in when we go places and I loved the idea of a mini one for her. Here is a link to the one we bought on Amazon.
Her grandparents had the same idea and bought her a wheelbarrow for the garden at their house, to use as their Easter basket. Link to order wheel barrow here. Some other great ideas are to use rain boots, an umbrella, an outdoor chair or children’s recliner, a kiddie pool, a water table or a dump truck. These are just a few options. There are so many things you can use instead of a basket.
Fillers
This coloring book was only a few dollars and is super cute. The pictures are large and simple for toddlers to practice coloring. It has 24 images to color such as flowers, bunnies and Easter eggs.
I also couldn’t resist this Peter Rabbit coloring book. Peter Rabbit has been her favorite movie since we started screen time for her. Her first word may have even been “Bwee” (bunny). It was really inexpensive and is great quality. The pictures are little more complicated than the coloring book above, but they are so cute! Purchase it here.
The next item I bought her is this Melissa & Doug reusable sticker book. There were lots of themes to choose from such as princesses, cars, oceans and zoos. Lilly is a huge animal lover so I chose this one with 5 different scenes with animals from the ocean, rain forest, Africa, farm and even dinosaurs.
Lilly, like most kids, is obsessed with bubbles so I got her this bubble shooter. You can refill the bubble canister by purchasing bubble solution in bulk like this. We find the best deals on bubble at our Walmart. This was the very first item she grabbed out of her “basket” and has gotten so much use already. It might just be her favorite gift.
I could NOT pass up this incredible deal for sidewalk chalk. Any parent of a chalk loving toddler needs to purchase this. 120 pieces for only $14.99! Of course we didn’t give her this whole box for Easter. We pulled out one of each color and put them in a cute little sachet I received from an online order. They fit perfectly and she was so excited. I am happy to have all this chalk as back up because we are going through chalk like crazy now that the weather is warming up.
At the last minute I saw this puzzle and just had to add it. It has some of Lilly’s favorite animals and is perfect for her age. Each puzzle is only 2 pieces that are big and chunky so little hands can easily put them together. It has the English and Spanish names on them and is perfect for practicing matching up pieces. Lilly has already assembled these puzzles so many times. Purchase it here. I plan to order the transportation version of this puzzle for her birthday next month.
Next, I was gifted some incredible new rain gear from Oaki. I got her a rain coat, rain boots and rain pants. Goodbye mud stains! Oaki is a huge advocate for getting outside no matter what weather. I love their products, their mission and the quality of their outdoor gear. They have clothing for all weather from snow to rain to summer.
This was the perfect opportunity to give Lilly some new rain gear after all, April showers bring may flowers. LOL. (Funny story, Lilly was born in May so we always joke about April showers bringing us our May flower Lilliana (Lilly) Rose.) If you are in need of some outdoor clothing for your kids I highly recommend Oaki. They are very affordable without sacrificing quality.
I also ordered her two new shirts from one of my favorite small shops Trio Trendy Threads. I have become friends with the owner through Instagram over the past year and she is the sweetest mama who shares a lot of the same values as me. I love supporting small shops, especially when they are a friend. I love the message behind every piece she creates. She devotes a lot of time, energy and love into every part of her business. She uses eco friendly and ethical practices right down to the compostable mailers and water based non toxic ink. I have nothing, but incredible things to say about this mama and her business.
She was super generous and offered me a discount code to share with you guys. Use code Katrinalee to save on your order. I purchased the above two shirts in white. Find her website here and her Instagram here.
I ordered these adorable wooden Easter themed toys from a recently opened small shop by a mama I met on social media. Find her facebook group here to order. The little wooden peg doll bunny is just the cutest thing I have ever seen and the bunny puzzle is perfect for Lilly. She is really interested in puzzles right now and this is a simple deign with only 3 pieces for her to practice.
I also ordered her a wooded mommy and baby duck puzzle and two threading puzzles from this Etsy shop. Unfortunately these won’t be here until after Easter, so we might just give them to her for her birthday in May. I am a huge fan of wooden toys, especially when I can support a family with their purchase.
The last thing I added to her Easter “basket” was some of her favorite treats Justin’s Organic Mini Peanut Butter Cups. We buy these dark chocolate mini cups and she loves them.
Some More Ideas
There are lots of things you can add to an Easter basket that are practical and eco friendly. Here is a small list of ideas:
- Butterfly Kit – This is a fun learning opportunity for little nature/science lovers.
- Bubble bath/Bath Bombs
- Bath Crayons
- Experience Gifts – Memberships, tickets, library card
- Tub toys
- Outdoor Toys
- Seeds and gardening supplies (Lilly has this garden kit)
Vegan Zero Waste Easter Eggs
One last thing I want to share with you is this fun option to replace dying eggs. Lilly and I are both vegans. For those of you that don’t know what that is, it means we don’t support the use of animals so we don’t consume or use animals or animal by products such as eggs, milk, wool, leather etc. We didn’t want to use plastic eggs for environmental reasons so I was excited to find these wooden eggs. Find them here.
Lilly had so much fun getting messy painting these. We were able to hide these for her to hunt and now we can add more each year. It will be fun to see our collection grow each year and look back at all the eggs from years prior.
I always save the packaging paper from our online orders to lay down during messy projects like painting. I loved the colors we created this time and thought it would be sweet to frame a piece of her “art work”. I love the way it turned out and the look on her face when she woke up from her nap to see this hanging was priceless. She squealed with joy and asked me to pick her up to get a closer look.
Thanks for stopping by! I hope you found some inspiration here. For more ideas check out my Stocking Stuffer blog post here and click here for my recipe for Healthy Chocolate Peanut Butter Eggs.
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