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Every family has different Easter traditions. I have a very vivid Easter memory of when I was a child, my dad made a jellybean trail from my bedroom door down the hallway to an Easter basket filled with chocolate bunnies, Easter eggs, and treats. My parents were going through a divorce at the time and I remember that small act of “I think your special and I love you” being really meaningful.



The basket looked very similar to this fun Easter Basket from Berries.com
I am so grateful that my children are blessed to have their grandparent’s presence in their life and we are able to celebrate Easter together. Easter baskets are a sweet reminder of that whether you live close or far apart from loved ones.

My husband tells me that it was tradition in his family that every child get a chocolate bunny and that chocolate bunnies are best eaten after they have been chilled in the fridge. His mom still gives out chocolate bunnies.

If you are of the Christian faith, then you might also call Easter Sunday “Resurrection Sunday” as we do. It was and still is a tradition to greet someone on Easter with “He Is Risen”, and they respond with “He Is Risen Indeed”.

Recently, I was given the opportunity  to choose from some the fun and unique Easter baskets from Berries.com (a partner site of Red Envelope). I have written about Red Envelope before, and their partner’s Shari’s Berries take great pride in creating some of those same lifetime memories and traditions that I mentioned above. Whether it’s offering up some yummy chocolate covered Strawberries, creating a classic Easter basket or offering a healthier spin with some delicious fruit, Shari’s Berries is dedicated to helping it’s customers find the perfect gift.

If you can believe it, I offered my kids a choice as to which one they wanted and they chose the fruit! Not joking. The fruit. I wasn’t going to complain.



The basket came wrapped in a gorgeous basket. Had I sent this as I gift, the receiver would have opened a card wrapped in vellum.


The kids chose the fruit basket with the cheese and crackers. The kids couldn’t WAIT to dig in.The cheese was delicious and sweet.






*** I was provided with a basket from Berries.com to share with you about their fun and unique Easter baskets. The content is original and all mine. The fruit was delicious.

One of the many ways to get your kids excited about eating fresh local foods is to take them along on shopping trips. Take them to local fruit stands or farmer’s market. Seeing fresh fruit and vegetables outside the grocery store breaks the mystery about where food comes from.

 In an intimate setting like a farm, fruit stand, or farmer’s market, you can get up close and personal with local sellers. It becomes and enriching experience for the whole family.

We went to our local farmer’s market last weekend and enjoyed some delicious strawberries, snap peas, and blood oranges. If you are low on funds. Bring with you a small amount of cash and sample only a few items. Many booths will let you “try before you buy”. You can see my daughter sampling a strawberry in the photo above.



The more you go to farmer's markets, the more you will know how certain booths price their fruit; which ones are certified organic and which ones have organic practices, but don’t have the certification.
If you can’t make it to the farmer’s market, your local grocery store may carry organic and local alternatives (and don’t forget to to check what’s on the clean 15/dirty dozen list). but, be sure to do your research.

I made a delicious spring salad (recipe below) with the strawberries we bought.


Spring Salad with Strawberries, Goat Cheese and Balsamic Dressing





Ingredients
Organic salad greens with spinach
Fresh sliced local organic strawberries (about 1 basket full)
Goat Cheese (4-8 oz, crumbled)
Favorite Balsamic dressing

**Toss together and serve!

This weekend, I made little paper dolls from cupcake liners. You know how I love cupcake liner crafts. Because sometimes I am just a little girl at heart, I made up little back stories for each of them. This one likes strawberries and likes to help mom in the kitchen, that one likes pancakes and plays make believe.

Meet the Muffin Cup Cuties:
Zoe, Joy, Kayla, Kya, Monica and Paige, Abby and Cindy



I made the rainbow cupcake liner paper dolls out of Martha Stewart cupcake liner treat wrappers and heavy weight cardtock. Muffin Tin Girl named a few, I named a few.

How to:

• Fold the cupcake liner in half and in half again until it forms a triangle for the dress, making sure to leave it as untouched and poofed out as possible (the more you touch it, the more it will wrinkle).
• Using a circle punch, or circle cutter, cut out a small circle for the head.
• Draw on some eyes and a mouth.
• Cut a circle for the hair the same size as the head. Cut it in half. Trim and play around with it to make a hairstyle. use your imagination.
• Using adhesive, glue the hair to the head.
• Freehand scissor cut some arms, angling the ends.
• Glue the arms to the cupcake liner dress, inserting them into the folds of the liner (I cut a slit in one side).
• Glue the head to the very tippy top of the liner (as shown). I used a liquid quick dry adhesive.
• Add embellishments as desired.
• They should stand up on their own. If they don’t, add a dab of glue to a small square of cardsock and set her on top.

It was hard to choose a favorite, I love them all. But Joy holds a special place in my heart. Cancer may be ugly, but bald is beautiful.

• Spinach & Herb Flour Tortillas (We used Mission Brand)
• Cheese of your choice, shredded or thinly sliced
• Heart-shaped mini food cutter
• Knife/or Pizza cutter

  
  

  Here’s the “How to”

There you have it, a green shamrock quesadilla lunch perfect for the kids on St. Patrick's Day

Dr. Seuss’ birthday is March 2nd. The Cat in the hat is one of my all time favorite Dr. Seuss books. That and Star Belly Sneeches, but I digress.

To make this simple Cat in the Hat craft, you’ll need:

• red cups
• white craft paint
• paint brush
• glue
• white (or red) cupcake liners

You'll need paper muffin cups or cupcake liners. I chose these adorable ones from the Martha Stewart Collection at Michael's Arts and Crafts. To make a heart, simply fold your liner in half several times until you get a triangle and round the edge with scissors. Open it up and cut along the folds.

Putting together those new Lego sets can sometimes be a challenge. Muffin Tin Boy received some pretty amazing Lego Ninjago sets for Christmas and the Legos seemed to be continually sprawled across  the middle of the family room as he was searching for each piece. Plus, I would inevitably step on a piece or three.

Enter my solution to keep the pieces easier to see and assemble and easy to put up and out of the way mid assembly. Sort them in a muffin tin (or cupcake pan if that's what you call it).


Click here to see More uses for a muffin tin

If you own the board game Scrabble (or Bananagrams, which is a "speed scrabble" knock off pictured above), then this is a fun sorting activity for your preschooler.

Grab all your tiles and an empty muffin tin.
ave your little one sort the letters into each cup.
This activity works best with two 12 cup tins (but can always be altered of course).
We ended up putting the x's, y's and z's in a little pile next to the tin.

The Muffin Tin Kids loved it!

My son, who is not as alphabetically advanced as my daughter, liked the scaled down version I made below. I chose A,B and C and had him put them in order- he loved that.

A Christmas twist on the beloved apples snack with caramel dipping sauce. Changing how you plate up your toddler, preschooler and child's food can be a creative way to inject a little fun into mealtime.

Just a little fun crafting. Our house isn't about muffin tins every day. We love to craft too! Pine cones (rescued from the roadside), acrylic craft paints, and glitter. While the paint is still wet, sprinkle with glitter (we used ultra fine white). So easy. And it takes a bit of time to paint all the little pieces of the cone, so it is a great Christmas break craft or snow day craft (but you'll have to find the cones before you get snowed in! hee hee!)

*first published on December 20th, 2010

To make this easy Christmas Rudolf Reindeer snack for kids, you'll need:

Antlers: 2 pretzels with the rounded edges bitten cut off
Face: 1 piece of bread cut in a circle shape with the Pampered Chef Cut N Seal and covered in peanut butter or your favorite spread (Maybe Nutella or Hummus as a healthier alternative)
Eyes: Chocolate chips
Nose: Marachino cherry
Mouth: red sprinkles/jimmies

Assemble as shown and enjoy.
Happy Snacking!

Now it's your turn!

Welcome to Muffin Tin Monday! The world famous blog link up that features reader submitted muffin tin meals made by moms for kids. Have a "picky" toddler, preschooler, or older kid? Try serving their next meal in a muffin tin. You might be surprised at this simple mealtime food presentation is enough to get them curious about their food and willing to give it a try.



In this tin: peach yogurt with sprinkles (a family favorite), cheese circles, cherry tomatoes (not touched -but I tried), animal crackers, leaf shaped apples 
I completely forgot about the time change here in the US, I had to photograph this week's MTM in the dark. The time change has me all in a funk. This was actually what we had for a snack at 5pm! We had to have "2nd dinner" about an hour later. oh well!