Over the Easter break, why not throw an Easter party for the children?

Think bunnies, chicks and, of course, Easter eggs. Here are some simple ideas to keep every little bunny happy!

Games

Easter egg hunt

This one is an absolute must but can be a bit of a free-for-all! To make things run more smoothly and make sure each child gets the same amount of sweets, try these:

Colour-coded eggs
Make it fair by ensuring you have equal amounts of eggs in different colours before you hide them. Each child only collects eggs of a certain colour. It takes longer and avoids any arguments about who has the most eggs!

Treasure trail

Fill some baskets or little bags with goodies. These can be little chocolate eggs and general party bag treats, such as small toys, bubbles, tattoos etc. Hide them in different spots in the house or garden and lay trails of jelly beans, using a different colour for each child, leading from the starting point to the goodies. Keep the jelly beans further apart to make it more difficult.

Egg and spoon race

To avoid a mess use hard-boiled or plastic eggs!

1. Split players into teams in single file. Then put flags or markers about 5 metres away from the starting points opposite each team.
2. Balancing an egg on a spoon, the first player in each team runs around his/her team’s flag and back, then transfers the egg onto the next player’s spoon. If a player drops their egg, they must run back to the starting point and start again.
3. The race continues until one team completes the course.

Pin the tail on the bunny

Just like ‘pin the tail on the donkey’, just draw a large bunny shape on thick card instead. Hang it on the wall and give each child a different coloured bunny tail. Use blue tack instead of pins for safety.

Make your own Easter bonnets/masks

Punch two small holes on either side of some paper plates and give one plate to each child. Make eye-holes for the masks. Stock the table with pens, glue and bowls of sequins, glitter, plastic jewels or coloured feathers and let them get creative. Fasten the bonnets/masks with ribbon or elastic.

The chocolate game

This is a great game for school-age kids and always gets a laugh. Put a giant bar of chocolate on a plate with a knife and fork. Find a hat, scarf and some gloves and get the children to sit in a circle around the chocolate. Each player takes it in turns to throw a dice. Whoever throws a six has to quickly put on the hat, scarf and gloves and eat as much of the chocolate as they can using only the knife and fork, until the next six is thrown. Then the woollies must be quickly removed, passed onto the next lucky player and the whole process is repeated until the chocolate is gone!

Bunny costume

1. Cut a 10-15cm oval out of pink felt and sew it onto the tummy area of a plain white top.
2. Next, sew a white pom-pom onto the back of white tights or pyjama bottoms for the tail and allow to dry.
3. Cut a bunny ear shape out of white card. Then cut out a smaller one from pink card and glue it on the lower middle of the white one. Repeat the process.
4. Then cut a strip of white card and measure it around your child’s head before cutting it to size and stapling it together. Then attach the ears to the front of the headband.
5. You can even make a bunny nose by cutting out one of the cups from an egg box, leaving an extra inch of card attached for the teeth. Paint it white and draw a black line down the middle of the teeth part. Add a pink pom-pom to the nose and make some holes at the bottom for air-vents. Cut two pipe-cleaners into three, poking them through the sides of the cup for whiskers. Secure to your child’s head with elastic.

Food

Bunny biscuits

This lovely recipe makes about 25 biscuits, depending which cookie cutters you’re using.

Ingredients:

• 125g softened butter
• 75g caster sugar, plus 1-2 tbsp for sprinkling
• 1 egg, separated
• 200g plain flour, sifted
• ¼ tsp ground cinnamon
• ¼ tsp mixed spice
• Zest of 1 lemon
• 75g currants
• 2 tbsp milk

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 200°C, gas mark 6.
2. Beat the butter and sugar together in a bowl until pale and fluffy.
3. Stir in the egg yolk, reserving the white.
4. Gently fold in the sifted flour, spices, lemon zest and currants.
5. Gradually stir in the milk until the dough starts to come together.
6. Tip the dough onto a lightly floured worktop and knead gently until smooth.
7. Roll out to about 5mm thick, then cut out the biscuits using Easter-themed cutters.
8. Place the biscuits on a greased baking tray and bake for 10 minutes.
9. Remove from the oven.
10. Whisk the reserved egg white very slightly, brush lightly over the biscuits, then sprinkle with sugar.
11. Return to the oven for a further 5 minutes, until just golden.
12. Remove and place on a cooling rack.

Egg-shaped pizza

Use pitta bread as a base. Use toppings such as slices of red pepper and sweetcorn to decorate like pretty Easter eggs.

Bunny cupcakes

Cover some cupcakes with white icing and sprinkle with dried coconut. Halve marshmallows, squeeze them into ovals and paint the sticky side with pink icing. Stick onto the cupcakes for bunny ears. Use silver balls as eyes, jelly-beans for noses, mini marshmallows for cheeks and sugar strands as whiskers.