A Little Bit About a Lot of Things

It’s been a while since I last blogged, so I bet you thought that I forgot about Easter! I’m back, just in time for some last minute Easter basket ideas. While last year I focused on some really great candy/food options, this year I wanted to focus on baskets for kids that were a little older (with less of a focus on sweets). My mother in law is firmly in camp “team cavity” – I’m not really comfortable with so much sugar.

For my first basket, I used my Pottery Barn small basket with blue gingham liner – bought these last year on super sale the day after Easter – I think they were 50% off – so it was a steal!

Armitron sent Nancy this cool watch to review – and at $35 the price is right. I love the idea of watches in an Easter basket, but if that’s too high of a price point, I would go with sunglasses. Babiators are always a good choice and I picked up some cute ones for my kids (I think they were $12, at Nordstroms).

Did you know that if you are a AAA member, you can get discounted movie tickets? This pack of 4 was $38. Perfect for a fun family day out.

Temporary tattoos seem to be really popular with teens and tweens these days. I picked up some really cute ones from Tattly but you can easily pick some up at your local 5 Below store or even Target. I love the Very Hungry Catapiller tattoos from Tattly – Eric Carle is one of our favorite authors!

Crayons are always a great idea – you can never have too many. How cute are these? The vintage style box and the sharpener in the back make these a winner. Oh and they’re only $4.99. But I pick up boxes for $1 at my 5 Below store – you just can’t beat a dollar!

The therapy dough is so cool – it’s stamped with”pinch me” on the actual dough too! While lavender is usually too strong of a scent for me, this was actually quite mellow. We found this at Quinstance in Lynnfield. A substitute could be some Play-Doh – I have seen really affordable packs at Target at at my local T.J.Maxx. Just like crayons, you can never have too much Play-Doh at home.

I couldn’t completely leave out sweets from this basket, so I chose some Cotton Candy popcorn, and two types of chocolates. The Cotton Candy popcorn was from Coast Maine Popcorn Co. They have out of the box flavors like black licorice, cotton candy, apple pie a la mode and red hot cinnamon to name a few. Oh, but they also have your classic favorites and some with chocolate – so you can get something for everyone. You could even make your own if you wanted – drizzle on some chocolate, add some candy and put in a super cute bag with a ribbon!

The chocolates with the  pretty patterns on them are from Serenade Chocolatier in Brookline, a cute little shop specializing in European style chocolates.

My new favorite chocolates may be those “Cubze” from the Happy Chocolatier. Back in my PR days, when Valentine’s Day would come around, we would all have a box of these on our desks in the morning from my boss. Each truffle is hand wrapped with an inspirational message about happiness inside. Makes you feel good about eating chocolate! Located in Acton, owner Paul McMahon left his job in corporate to pursue his love for chocolate. The shop has a wide variety of choices – there is something for everyone! Did I mention that the Acton shop also serves ice cream, year round? You can even get a Cubze Parfait – your choice of ice cream layered with your favorite Cubze flavor and garnished with whipped cream and a chocolate drop.

For my second basket, again, I used a Pottery Barn small Easter basket with a madras lining. I love the prints and look forward to using them year after year.

In this basket I picked up these cute bunny ears from the dollar bin at Target. Super cute way to dress up the basket, and my kids will use it for dress up year round.

My kids use bubbles like there is no tomorrow – I kid you not, I probably have 2 gallons of bubbles in my basement for this upcoming season! I found these personal sized ones at Target – Blitz is my go to brand for bubbles, they just work the best!

Mad Libs were always a favorite thing of mine growing up as a kid – I picked up one for this basket, but you could easily swap it our for a coloring book or an activity book if you have younger kids. Check your local dollar store or 5 Below store for inexpensive options. I’ve seen coloring books for $1 at Party City and Target has some good choices as well. If you don’t want to do books, you could always throw in some stickers. My kids used stickers like we have an endless supply. I don’t even buy “good/expensive” ones anymore – Michael’s has a whole section of stickers that come in books that are a $1. Perfect. Target’s dollar spot also has some good sticker options, but I find it can be hit or miss.

My kids recently told me they “hate baths”. A) where did you even come up with that and B) where did you learn the word hate?! So we try to find inventive ways to get them to take baths. We love the Kneipp pink princess bubble bath, which Leah got us hooked on. They only come in sample packs and they run $4 a packet. I stock up when they have sales, but even at 50% off, that’s still pricey. We love the expandable sponges for the bath but we have been recently introduced to bath balms. I picked up the Rubber Duck one at Paper Store and since unicorns are so in these days, we had to get one of those too. While they are still pricey, 3 for $20 (sale price), it mixes things up for bath time. I’ve seen people make their own – so if you’re crafty like that (I’m not), give that budget friendly option a try!

While I talked about crayons in the other basket, I found these really fun name crayons on Etsy. These are made by Art 2 the Extreme and are perfect not only for Easter, but for birthdays or other events. They have name crayons and some super fun shapes too – how cute is the peep crayon? Prices vary by number of letters in the name.

With all the snow we have been getting, I am seriously itching to get the kids outside. In addition to the bubble blower we have, chalk is one of those things that can keep my kids occupied for a long period of time. I found this company, Twee, that sells the most adorable chalk I’ve ever seen. As I mentioned, we are big into unicorns these days, so the obvious choice here was the unicorn horn chalk, but they come in other shapes like donuts and even sushi!! Prices range from $8 – $22.

I thought that the egg shaped EOS lip balms we a perfect addition to the basket. They come in all different colors and flavors. You don’t have to pick up this particular brand, I was in Target the other day and found a really cute Lip Smacker Disney Tsum Tsum Star Wars Storm Trooper that my son absolutely adores.

Nail polish is always a fun choice for the kids – I picked up various shades of pink and some fun glitter top coat. Essie and Opi are two of my go to brands, you can pick them up at your local Target or even at CVS.

And my one sweet for this basket is the Happy Chocolatier’s milk chocolate m&m bunny. At $4.25, this was a good buy – I would rather give the kids one “good” piece of chocolate than lots of “junky” candy.

So that’s it for this year, leave a comment and let me know what you love to full your Easter baskets with!

Disclaimer: This is not a sponsored post. The only item that was sponsored was Nancy’s Armitron watch – all other products were purchased at full retail. As always, all opinions are my own.

Tags: candy, holiday