April Playdate

The month of April was a full one for the four of us mommies in playgroup. Each one of us had family visiting at some point in the month, and one of us welcomed a new addition (a sweet little baby girl) to her family. So, with all of this excitement, we were only able to schedule one playdate for the month. Our gathering primarily centered on Easter with an additional Earth Day type activity.

Jenna found a super cute snack idea on Pinterest-- an open tomb representing Jesus' resurrection. She even made signs for each snack that read, "He is Risen." When the kids sat down for snack, we talked with them briefly about what the snack meant and reminded them of Jesus' great love and sacrifice for them. We know that the kids got at least some of the story because at the end, many of them kept asking for another "grave" or "tomb" to eat when they wanted another donut. :)

After snacktime, Jenn brought out a game she had created, geared mainly for the older boys. She had written uppercase and lowercase letters on a set of Easter eggs.

Then, she separated each of the eggs and asked the kids to match up their uppercase and lowercase letters. The greatest part of the game was that if the kids were struggling to find the letter match, they could sort the eggs by color to help narrow down their choices. What a great educational game! The younger kids had a ball with this game, too-- basically just opening and closing the eggs.

Our next activity was an Easter craft. We taped a contact paper cross for each child to our sliding glass door.

Each child decorated his or her cross with small tissue paper squares. 

This craft was a perfect one for the variety of ages of our kids. Even Cody and Jaden totally understood what to do. The crosses even ended up looking great if the kids stuck a whole clump of tissue paper on their cross. 

We gave the older boys their own spot next to our front window so they'd have a bit more room. 

It worked out well, since these 2 boys were willing to put in a little more careful time into their project. Their crosses ended up looking the best since they took the time to fill in nearly the entire cross.

In the end, though, Cody and Jaden's crosses looked pretty good though, too! We still enjoy looking at their nice decorations each time we sit down to eat dinner.

Our final playdate activity was a neat scavenger hunt idea that I happened to see on Pinterest. Before our playdate, I gathered 12 different nature items from around our yard and took pictures of these items on white paper. I had a tough time finding 12 different things, though, so I grabbed various colors of rocks for a few of the items. I placed these pictures into a sort of table and printed them off so they'd be just the right size to fit above an egg carton.

The kids' job was to see how many of the nature items they could find around our yard.

The egg cartons made a perfect holder for their items as the kids hunted.

 The hunt kept the kids occupied for quite some time. Jaden and Cody, of course, didn't really understand the concept. They spent their time either following the other kids around or just playing in the sandbox. :)

None of the kids had quite the attention-span needed in order to find all 12 items, but they seemed to all have a good time running around the yard.

Here is an example of one of the semi-filled egg cartons. Not every item is in the right spot, but you get the idea. :)

At the very end of our playdate, we had an exciting surprise...

...a visit from the garbage truck! I love how the arrival of this vehicle takes instant precedence over ANYTHING else going on in our household! It was great seeing how the older kids were still just as interested as the younger ones in watching the garbage truck. What a great end to a great playdate. :)