Church and Good Food: Our Plans for Easter with a Toddler

Last updated on March 16th, 2024 at 01:51 am

Celebrating Easter is an occasion I always look forward to. Stuffing myself into billowing pastel church dresses and savoring Easter basket chocolates piece by piece has given way to dressing my own daughter in pretty frocks for Sunday service and… skipping on the candy for as long as possible. Toddler parents, you know why!

Easter is a wonderful time to celebrate the resurrection of our Savior with our church, friends and family members.

Here’s what we’ve got planned for the day at a glance:

Dressing up in special Easter outfits

Though it’s not necessary to go out and purchase dozens of new clothing items for Easter, I do find it worthwhile to find a cheery and light dress to celebrate the holiday and usher in an upcoming season of warmth. My aim for this new spring frock is, of course, cuteness, lightness, and reusability.

I found just the piece for my daughter. Her Easter dress that we have planned is made in the breeziest, lightest cotton and covered in a baby pink gingham pattern. The stubby cap sleeves ruffle out like fresh flowers showing off. A loose elastic cinches together its waist, creating fluffy pleats down the skirt. The dress even features a teensy tie at the upper back along the neck (nothing too plunging) as a little extra decorative touch.

Stitching up bunny ears on a toddler T-shirt

Not entirely sure my active daughter will stay in her dress all day, I looked for a cute play outfit idea. There were a bunch of inspiring options, but in the end, I picked the easiest method, which was of course, making it myself. (I include some of my previous DIY projects on this site as well, if interested!)

I chose to decorate one of my daughter’s plain T-shirts that came in an assortment of colored cotton toddler tees. I whipped up a pattern for two little bunny ears and set to work.

After tracing my ears on a beige cotton square, I cut the ears out. I then traced two smaller versions of the ears on a springy floral fabric and cut those out. They would serve as the pretty “insides” of the ears.

Then I hand sewed the insides of the ears to the bigger ears. I used a straight stitch with a regular needle and cream-colored machine thread.

Finally, I pinned the ears down onto the front layer of the T-shirt, making sure there was equal distance from each side. I hand-sewed these down as well, knotted off my stitches and took out the pins– voila!

And though I have these stylish and fun Easter outfit options, I also plan to add in our green matching mother-daughter dresses to the slate sometime that week. These were perfect for a little St. Patrick’s Day cheer (who knew this year they’d come in handy a few days later for Easter week!)

They’re just too pretty not to wear again and again!

Keeping our toddler occupied during the service

Books we’re bringing for our book-loving daughter

Our almost-two-year-old daughter will stay with us throughout the church service, so I’m already thinking of toys and snacks to bag up and bring to keep her occupied.

She loves books– especially the Peekaboo board books by Camilla Reid and Ingela Arrhenius. I like them too– for their simple and eye-catching designs and durability! These books are not as easily bent or ripped as those with less sturdy peekaboo flaps.

This adorable title will be joining us in the pew for sure!

I also snagged this giant felt quiet book for the big day.

This book is actually quite a wonder– it’s sturdy, made with strong felt sheets sewn together. There are a ton of fun little pieces that I fully expect to get lost throughout the course of play, but that’s a sacrifice I’m willing to make.

There are a few choices available for this Montessori-style quiet book– I chose what was called the Rainbow Book. It features dozens of cute and interactive pages, like a laundry page in which little felt outfits can be moved into a washing machine with a hinged clear plastic door and hung up to dry with tenny tiny clothespins on a mini clothesline. And that’s just one page.

The detail on this quiet book is just incredible. And the price was reasonable to us. I can’t wait for our daughter to play with it!

Making homemade play dough as a cheap thrill

To add to the entertainment options, I also whipped up a batch of homemade play-dough.

I remember making homemade play dough for my first graders all the time (nothing says single first-year teacher like making play dough for your students, right?). Now I can have fun with creating this for my daughter.

The recipe inspiration came from the Living Well Mom, who suggests throwing 1 C flour, 1 C water, 2 teaspoons cream of tartar, 1/3 C salt, 1 Tablespoon vegetable oil and food coloring into a pot over low/medium heat.

At first, it looks like some weird floury mixture, like a gravy gone wrong. Especially since I dyed mine a light robin’s egg blue using my natural food dyes from this pack bought on Amazon.

But you keep stirring up that bad boy, low and slow, until the mixture gets real thick. I took the mix off the heat once it was so thick it plunked off my rubber spatula in heavy balls. Like a dough, just a bit gloopy.

I set this dough on a piece of parchment paper to cool. After cooling, I started kneading the dough into a big ball, using extra flour to absorb any lingering stickiness. The result was the softest, pudgiest dough!

Lastly, I split the dough into thirds using my bench scraper. Then I added yellow dye to one ball, kneading and mixing it in thoroughly to spead the dye evenly. It made a green play dough ball! I did the same with red dye to create a purple ball. Again, this was after really working the dye in over and over to get it spread evenly.

At last, the homemade play dough was available in a pretty assortment of colors and ready to play with!

We tested it out today, and will definitely be bringing it in a container to the Easter service as another source of entertainment.

Easter foods to make

There are a whole host of flavors that come to mind when I think of Easter: carrots, warm cake spices, chocolate, cream cheese, herbs, fruits, etc.

Because of all of this inspiration, narrowing down our menu has been dizzying.

Plus, we have a bounty of farm-fresh strawberries because my daughter and I picked eight pounds of them at a local U-pick. I could see us incorporating the bright and sweet berry into many Easter foods.

Another possibility for our Easter eats will be chocolate cake. For some reason, my mom always made a chocolate cake with Easter lunch, and it was always decadently rich, perfectly moist and swathed in the thickest, creamiest frosting known to the human race.

I attempted such a cake last year, with a little “nest” as a seasonally inspired decoration. So it’s a definite possibility this cake will make its rounds once more.

And I would be remiss to mention a holiday classic: cinnamon rolls. Christmas morning, these pillow-soft swirls of pure goodness make their warm appearance. Naturally, I find it a fine choice for Easter, fitting in especially with a brunch-type situation.

We shall see. I’ve experimented with a few recipes, and I ended my search the day I found Christina Tosi’s cinnamon roll recipe. It’s perfect.

Planning for a holiday with a toddler

If I’ve learned anything in my over 1.5 years of knowing my daughter, it’s that with children in the mix, I have to hold my plans lightly.

So, just as the light springtime breeze will greet me as we approach Easter Sunday, so I intend to mimic the wind’s lightness and breeziness. (Okay, so in Florida, it’s more like one sustained hot breath, but you get the picture).

This coming Easter can be fun, celebratory and meaningful while forgoing the highest-held expectations and inevitable disappointments.

Or, at least we’ll try. Happy Easter, my friends who celebrate!

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