The Year of Color {Pastels} Edition

With April being Easter month pastels seemed only fitting for the Year of Color selection.

However, finding a craft, an experiment, a book, and a treat to fit within the color scheme proved to be more of a challenge than I expected. That doesn't mean we didn't try.

Let's start with the obligatory monthly photo. This time I had Scott jump in the photos with the kids and me. We had just gotten back from Easter Mass and we coordinated pretty well. Not to mention, I've kind of made it mandatory that we take a family photo every Easter.

This was the very best photo of the whole bunch.

Julia's personality on display...

Marcus wins the character award.

I feel our Easter attire was pretty spot on in regards to pastels. I'm not sure I can say the same about the rest of our Year of Color activities, but we had fun in the process!

Read

We read several Easter themed books this month. None were specifically designated "pastel," but the colors within the books illustrations were. I figured that was close enough. 

What a Wonderful World - Tim Hopgood
The Littlest Bunny in Los Angeles (also available for other cities and states) - Lily Jacobs
Easter Bunny's Amazing Day - Carol Benoist and Cathy Gilmore
God Gave Us Easter - Lisa Tawn Bergren

Grandma and Grandpa Dudding sent the kids What a Wonderful World. The song by Louis Armstrong is one of my all time favorits, and to have it in book form is pretty special. It was near impossible reading this aloud without actually singing the song.
The Littlest Bunny in Los Angeles (also from Grandma and Grandpa Dudding) was a fun story of a brother and sister who adopted a tiny bunny. At night the bunny became the Easter bunny and goes on several adventures throughout Los Angeles. Marcus really enjoyed this one.
Grandma and Grandpa Macke sent the kids Easter Bunny's Amazing Day. Talk about a unique and beautiful way to entwine the story of the Easter bunny with the story of Jesus' resurrection, and in a way that kids could understand. I had no idea what to expect with this book, but I love it, as does Marcus, as he's asked to read it several times. I highly recommend this book to anyone looking for a great way to explain the Easter bunny and Jesus at the same time.
God Gave Us Easter (also a gift from Grandma and Grandpa Macke) has been on repeat with the kids. It's another fabulous story of Jesus and the meaning of Easter.

Bake

For the baking portion of our color I went the easy route and made up some Easter Blossom Sugar cookies.

Marcus enjoyed helping with all the sprinkles, as well as making the cookies disappear. I tried to get fancy and use Robin's Egg candies in lieu of regular Hersey Kisses. I did not love the final look, or taste of said candy. Next time we'll stick with the Kisses.

Easter Blossom Sugar Cookies Recipe

Experiment/Craft

Finding a pastel colored experiment was impossible. I scoured the internet looking for something, but came up short. So, we combined our egg coloring (the craft) with the experiment...

Thanks to Erin for sharing this fun and easy way to dye eggs!

1) A can of shaving cream in a large pan.

2) Several drops of food coloring dripped on to the shaving cream.
3) Lightly swirl the food coloring drops into the shaving cream with a straw.

4) Lightly roll hard boiled eggs in the shaving cream/food coloring swirl mix.

5) Allow eggs to sit in the mix for at least 15 minutes (we left ours in for two-ish hours).

6)Admire the finished product!

There you have it. Another month of color! If you're joining us this month for pastels be sure to link up below!

Next month (Friday, May 19th) we'll be showcasing YELLOW!

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