I'd love to hear what you are planning.......it may give me some new ideas and get my own mind gears working!!

Especially menu ideas.....we are vegetarian (but are lacto-ovo so egg/dairy dishes are a-ok).

I ordered some of those pastel felt eggs from Katies wool food and I'm going to assign each child a specific color of felt egg to look for and will have "clues/riddles" for the older children. Inside each egg for the older children, I'll probably put a small amount of money. We always have Ostara baskets with a chocolate treat.....but I want to stop at the chocolate treat and put some other homemade items in it but not more store bought sugar crap.

We'll natural dye eggs......I'm going to use spinach and red cabbage....what other colors can I make? Last year we used red cabbage and spinach and they worked well but I want more colors.

Decorating ideas? Hopefully if weather is good, we'll put the altar up on my outdoor altar.

For a craft.......I was thinking about making collages with what they wish to bring more of into their lives. (older children) Younger children could maybe make spring themed ones. We'll probably start some seeds indoors.......

I could use some new ideas and suggestions. (our children are ages 15, 12, 10, 10, 7, 5)

Michelle

I like dyeing with onion skins-- both the yellow and red ones. You get beautiful golden and pink colors
No decorating ideas, we're going to go down to one of the local national parks and do some barbequing with friends-- dd is too little to egg hunt. I really like asparagus, fennel bulb, tomatoes, green peppers and other veggies on the grill. YUMMY!
My mother always made quiche for Easter as we were growing up so I'll be making that for brunch

we do have a little "first day of spring" ritual. Before the day arrives we make some homemade musical instruments (although, on lazy years we grab whatever we have around). On more creative years we've made crocheted ankle bracelets with jingle bells, oatmeal container drums, shaker instruments, etc.

Anyway, when the kids get up they get dressed up in silks and stuff, grab their instruments, and go outside to "wake up the earth". We stomp on the ground and make as much noise as we can. We sing spontaneously made up songs about spring and waking up as we march around with our instruments. The neighbors already think we're freaks so it's good to confirm it every once in a while. :)

we do have a little "first day of spring" ritual. Before the day arrives we make some homemade musical instruments (although, on lazy years we grab whatever we have around). On more creative years we've made crocheted ankle bracelets with jingle bells, oatmeal container drums, shaker instruments, etc.

Anyway, when the kids get up they get dressed up in silks and stuff, grab their instruments, and go outside to "wake up the earth". We stomp on the ground and make as much noise as we can. We sing spontaneously made up songs about spring and waking up as we march around with our instruments. The neighbors already think we're freaks so it's good to confirm it every once in a while. :)

ROFL about the neighbors comment!!! I needed a good laugh this morning. :)

I love what you do to wake up the earth....if it is nice here, I think this is something our children would love.

Last night I told my oldest daughter (just a passing comment) that she could offer her ideas for things to do and she came up with a good one. She suggested we walk through the garden areas at our house and find signs of spring. Now why didn't I think of doing that?

Thank you for the idea.

Michelle

We will be making a gluten free egg shaped cake and decorating it. Dd loves to decorate cakes! We haven't decided yet on what our special Ostara meal will be, but it will definitely include hard boiled eggs, freshly dyed with natural dyes. We are also planning on waking up the Earth, like a pp, with instruments and sticks. We will do some special crafts that celebrate spring-time - like making vases for the nature table that will hold our spring flowers.

For baskets, I am making each kiddo a knit/felted basket. Each kiddo will get a chocolate bunny or egg, and then I am putting a bunch of natural playthings in them - for ds (1), a organic cotton knotty bunny, a new organic cotton diaper (dyed in a spring color - probably a nice springy green), a felted wool ball and a new silk. For dd (4 1/2), a knit cocoon with a needle felted caterpillar and butterfly, a needle felted Spring Madien doll for the nature table, some felted wool eggs for her to dye and possibly a new playsilk. I plan on hiding the baskets (inside, I am sure, since we got about 10 inches of snow this weekend and there is forecast for more later in the week!) and putting bunny prints on the floor with cornstarch for the kidos to follow to find the basket. I have done the bunny prints every year for dd since she was 1 and she always loves it!

Bonnie

we do have a little "first day of spring" ritual. Before the day arrives we make some homemade musical instruments (although, on lazy years we grab whatever we have around). On more creative years we've made crocheted ankle bracelets with jingle bells, oatmeal container drums, shaker instruments, etc.

Anyway, when the kids get up they get dressed up in silks and stuff, grab their instruments, and go outside to "wake up the earth". We stomp on the ground and make as much noise as we can. We sing spontaneously made up songs about spring and waking up as we march around with our instruments. The neighbors already think we're freaks so it's good to confirm it every once in a while. :)

I love this!!!
:flowerkit
(and what does this flowerkitty mean??)

The fairies are coming! That's our main ritual. I had to counter the Easter Bunny that visits my MIL, so I came up with fairies. Typically fairies bring tiny or shiny things, and toys that were lost. Unfortunately, the toys are typically returned to the wrong children, but we don't mind because somewhere, a child is enjoying our lost balloon, but we are enjoying a dump truck that somebody else lost. (This serves several purposes, lol. I get to grab a few new toys that may not look new, and upset children are calmed when they lose a toy, knowing they will either get it back or will get a different one).

Candy isn't a large thing in this house. This year we've already eaten it, lol. My IL's will probably go WAY overboard on it anyway, so we don't do much here.

As for dinner, that's totally up to baby Z and if/when she decides to make an appearance. Most likely I'll have no hand in the dinner issue, lol, or won't care, and we'll pick that back up next year.

We are decorating eggs :o). I'm also making a quiche or 2 because we just can't eat so many hard boiled eggs, I'm going to blow out the eggs for fairy eggs.