Easter baskets for toddlers and preschoolers

Easter is almost here so I figured it was time I get my act together, and get a post together on the kids' baskets. I'm going to start off by remaindering everyone that this is Easter and not Christmas. I see these photos of kids getting a table full of presents for Easter and it really makes me scratch my head. When did Easter become such a big, commercial holiday? What happened to colored chicken eggs and some chocolate?

This summer we are planning on take the kids on a few camping trips, so I thought this would be a good time to buy them some fun things that they can take with them. Our first trip is going to be almost a 5 hour drive one way, so we're going to need some mobile entertainment. A great way to save money on holidays like this is to disguise things that the kids actually need as gifts. Because let's face it, they just like opening new things and don't really care what they are, especially at this age.

Let's start with the youngest first. For Bianca I picked up a two piece rash guard set from Old Navy, which just happened to be 50% off when I was in the store! I'm sure these flamingos will see a ton of use this summer. The rest of Bianca's basket came from Dollar Tree. The black container is actually for holding beads but I plan on using it to hold Bianca's massive supply of hair elastics. For our trips, I found an expandable wash cloth, bubbles, an Easter board book and a coloring book. The markers it comes with are those fancy shmancy ones that only write on paper; super handy for a toddler! Instead of a basket I decided to use a sand pail, double use!

Roman is currently still wearing swim suits that he's had for a few years so I figured it was probably time for an upgrade, again it was 50% off at Old Navy; whoop! Poor kid has pasty white skin like me so he can use all the sun protection he can get. I picked up the same expandable washcloth, bubbles and coloring book, and sand pail for Roman as I did for Bianca. I also found some small notebooks that I think Roman will get a ton of use out of. He loves drawing treasure maps and going exploring, and while he's exploring he can collect some bugs with his new bug collecting kit. Tell me that last sentence doesn't sound like something you'd hear in a Price is Right description haha. I had picked up a bug kit like this a few months back for a friend of Roman's birthday, and Roman hasn't stopped telling me how he wished he had one too. Man kids learn how to guilt trip quickly!

I also found some joint gifts for the kids; another coloring book and some egg shaped chalk. The egg and bunny game was actually intended for Roman's basket last year (or maybe even the year before...) but it got forgotten in the closet.

Obviously there isn't any chocolate in these baskets. I'm going to put a few chocolates into plastics eggs for the kids to hunt on Easter morning. There also might be one more small thing that we have for the kids....and by small I mean a 1kg hollow chocolate bunny. I never in a million years would buy the kids a chocolate bunny the size of them, but it was the freebie a couple weeks ago at Superstore. I couldn't add a photo of it because I was not risking getting caught by the kids with a giant chocolate rabbit.....