Planning for Easter

Holidays are full of fun traditions.  Bags full of candy at Halloween.  Turkey dinners at Thanksgiving.  Stockings and cookies at Christmas.  Baskets with eggs full of candy at Easter.  Do you see a theme here?  Food.  Every holiday seems to revolve around food.  Now don't get me wrong, I'm not really complaining about that.  Some of my fondest memories as a kid revolve around food.  I remember helping my mom roll out dough for chicken n dumplins.  I remember hunting for Easter eggs at my grandparents', that were usually chock full of sugary goodness.  I remember helping my niece make and decorate sugar cookies when I babysat her.  But, when you have a child with food allergies, it can definitely make holidays a little more challenging.

I've never been one to stuff the kids' Easter baskets full of candy, even before food allergies.  I usually fill them with books, movies, toys, or clothes.  But I do always include a chocolate bunny, and some other small candies.  This year I was still able to do that.

I actually bought all their Easter candy before we decided to go dairy-free for Rapunzel.  I had planned on filling some empty Easter eggs with jellybeans from Whole Foods, and chocolate covered sunflower seeds.

I can still use the jellybeans, but the sunflower seeds are going to be replaced with Yummy Earth gummy bears.

And I'd originally bought each of them a milk chocolate bunny.  Rapunzel's is being replaced with a dark chocolate bunny (which is dairy-free).

Another fun tradition we have at Easter is dying Easter eggs, of course!  My kids LOVE deviled eggs, so we usually use our colored eggs to make some the day after Easter.  So this year I set out to find a natural egg dye kit that didn't contain corn.  I had a gift certificate to Natural Candy Store, and I found this natural egg dye kit.  I'm planning on having the kids use it this weekend, so I'll let you know how it goes.

And then of course there is the Easter dress.  Since switching Rapunzel to 100% cotton, she's been much more comfortable.  So I was determined to find her an Easter worthy soft cotton dress.  It took some shopping around (no complaints here!) and label reading (I sure read a lot of labels), but I was actually able to find several options!

Option 1 is a green dress from The Children's Place

 Option 2 is a yellow dress from Target

And option 3 is a pink dress from Crazy 8

I bought all three, because they're all perfect for Sunday church anyway.  Which one did Rapunzel choose to wear for Easter?  I guess you'll have to come back after Easter to find out!

And the best part of Easter, which food allergies and eczema have absolutely no bearing on, is that we get to celebrate the fact that we are saved by our Lord Jesus Christ.  He paid the ultimate price for our sin by dying on the cross.  I am daily grateful for His unending love and grace.