Springtime Easter Play Date - Story Book Reading

My daughter wanted to have a get together with some of her friends so we decided to do a Springtime Play date. On the invitation I put that my daughter would like to invite (and listed her friends names) to a Springtime Play date.  The rest of the invitation said, It's a Springtime Play date!  We will be decorating flower pots and planting in them an Easter Egg Hunt and watching Here Comes Peter Cottontail."  I then added that the girls could ride the bus home with my daughter as the party took place after school from 4-5:30pm. 

DECORATIONS:  We kept this relatively simple.  I had some Baskets with eggs in them Blow up Rabbits Pastel plates cups napkins and table cloth.  I drew an 8 foot tree trunk and branches and hung it on the wall.  I decorated that with different things my kids had made for spring already - like a caterpillar lady bugs birds flowers rainbow pictures etc.. 

When the kids arrived after school of course they were hungry so we started with SNACK/cake/etc.:  I had made them each a plate that had: "bunny fruit/salad" which was a upside down  1/2 pear (body) with a small scoop of cottage cheese for a "tail" 2 sliced almonds for rabbit ears 2 raisins for eyes and a red hot for the nose. 

They also had bunny biscuits which were small refrigerated biscuits - one is just the circle then you take a second one and cut it in 1/2 to make ears bake it at 350 for 10 minutes then use chocolate chips for eyes red hot for nose and frosting for whiskers mouth and fill in the ears.  I made them dirt cups for dessert - chocolate pudding in the bottom of a cup add a couple gummy worms and top it off with crushed Oreos.  Their drink was juice bags.  After snack we moved to

ACTIVITIES/CRAFTS:  We made rabbit ears out of a paper plate.  You cut a out almost a whole circle from the center of the plate cut the center circle in 1/2 and fold up to make the ears - the girls also colored the paper plates/ears anyway they wanted (this was their COSTUME).  We decorated flower pots with stickers filled it with dirt and seeds - for our springtime flowers.  I had saved up ice cream buckets and each child decorated them with stickers and dry erase markers to turn them into Easter baskets.  I put Easter grass in the bottom of each bucket for our hunt for later. 

GAMES:  For games we started out with animal ring toss.  I had ring tosses that were small and big  there were 7 of them so all the kids could be playing at the same time.  We had a big blow up rabbit a small bunny and there were also different animals. 

Next we moved to our animal cake walk.  I had several animal pictures and put them in a circle on the floor.  Each child stood on one.  I put music on that was songs about the Easter bunny spring etc..  The kids walked around in a circle until I stopped the music.  Then I spun a picture and that child was eliminated  which we did bunny hops and cheered for each child telling them they did a great job.  We continued until one child was left  they were declared winner but there were no prizes given. We danced the bunny hop.

The kids then listed to the story of Peter Cottontail.  This was a book and tape combination that my daughter was in charge of being page turner so that I could get the egg hunt ready.  I hid the eggs outside since it was a super day  there were enough for each child to get 12. 

When the story was done the kids grabbed their buckets they made and lined up on the patio to start an egg hunt.  I said ready set go and the kids ran everywhere.

 Following the egg hunt we came back inside.  The children then sat down to see what treasures their eggs held while watching the movie Here Comes Peter Cottontail.  Suddenly it was time to go.  The kids took home their buckets eggs flowers rabbit ears and a goodie bag. 

GOODIE BAGS:  Each child received sidewalk chalk bubbles water squirting rings bunny rings Easter Egg cellophane wraps Easter Egg holders and some candy necklaces.  The party was good fun and the time flew by!"