Easter 2013.

the sun shined for Easter in New England!

that was one of the highlights of our day.

the easter bunny did not show up last night for his glow-in-the-dark night-time egg hunt,
and our kiddos started to worry that it wasn’t going to come – but he didn’t forget us this morning!

i hope your day was filled with loved ones, and lots of good food. boy-oh-boy do i have to start eating good {AGAIN} and working-out extra starting tomorrow… anyone else with me?

xo.

{pictures by me, Jane Rhodes}

Posted in easter, holidays, KJ, myla, sela, traditions | 6 Comments »

13/52

“a portrait of my children, once a week, every week, in 2013.”

me: when I say, “Easter” what are the first two words that come to mind?

kiana: eggs. bunny.
myla: jesus. eggs.
kj: egg. fun.
sela: easterrr-geasterrr.

Posted in 52 project, easter, kiana, KJ, myla, sela | No Comments »

Easter table setting :: for kids + free placemats printable

are you hosting an Easter breakfast, brunch, lunch, or dinner this weekend? if so, do you have plans for a kids table? if you answered yes to both of those questions, here are my ideas for you:

we plan on having a simple {cereal, eggs, and bacon} Easter breakfast, tending to our traditional festivities, and then we are dining out for Easter dinner. because our mornings can be crazy when six of us are all getting ready in our sunday best, i want to make breakfast special, and memorable for the holiday, but easy. a good combination, right?

for some time now i’ve wanted to create a custom placemat that could be used all year long. so, i chose the classic dots game and a leaf design that i can’t get enough of lately! both of these designs could be adapted to any holiday, birthday, or everyday meal use!

i printed the placemats on white and brown kraft paper card stock to get two different looks. i adore both of them, and can’t decide which i like best! the white placemats underneath the floral splashes of color is beautiful, and i love the brown underneath white dishes, clean and simple. which do you like best???

to download the paper placemats, click on these links:

dots placemat here.

leaf garland placemat here.

i recommend printing the placemats on card stock. if you do print & use the placemats, i would love to see a picture of your event or pretty tables! regardless of if you celebrate Easter, i hope you are planning a weekend filled with your passions and those you love. i don’t practice my faith exactly like my parents practiced theirs and i greatly respect and learn from friends who practice different faiths than mine, and yet we all make opportunities this time of year to create meaningful celebrations with our families and our children. make every day uniquely yours. i encourage you to soak up all that spring has to offer, it is not an ordinary season – it is an exceptional one.  happy hosting, friends! xo.

also:  i hope to get one more {super cute & EASY} DIY Easter basket tutorial post up soon!

also, also: i posted an Easter basket fillers roundup of goodies on instagram, follow @see_jane to check it out!

***

table details:

plates from anthropologie, hobnail tumblers from anthropologie, white bowls here, mini bunny surprise balls from meri meri, flowers: ranunculus, if you do not want to make mini origami bunnies – you can find lots right here on etsy, fluorescent colored pencils found here.

{photos & styling by Jane Rhodes, placemat graphics designed by Lovely Lindsay for seejaneblog}

Posted in easter, free downloads, free stuff, holidays, hosting, parties, party plans | 12 Comments »

easter egg decorating party + free easter invitation printable

regardless of the presence or type of faith in one’s life, i feel Easter simply represents spring, and life. arriving appropriately when things are hatching and blooming and green is finally awakening under blankets of melting snow. it just seems right… to celebrate life and to include family and friends in those celebrations.

we are not seeing the signs of spring here in new england {yet}, since we woke up to a fresh six inches of snow this morning. {ugghhh…} however, we are still starting our spring traditions and this year with something new – an easter egg decorating party!

we invited a dozen mommas + their kiddos to join us for an evening of egg decorating and dinner. open-house style.

keeping the color theme simple and modern, i printed the invitations on brown kraft paper and i used a white gel pen to fill-in all the important party information:

* you can download and print the happy easter invitation here! *

i fell in love with these bunny jars, so i made them to deliver with the invitations. only, i didn’t get them all delivered before the party, so we also handed them out at our party as ‘thank you for coming!’ treats. you can find the bunny jar tutorial here. i used schleich wild rabbits for our bunnies.

for the easter eggs, i wanted something simple & modern this year. we used sharpie markers, paint markers and puffy paint. i absolutely love how the white paint markers turned out on the brown eggs. easily my all-time favorite easter eggs!

i needed something for each guest to place their finished eggs in so the eggs could travel home safely. our local whole foods market uses these tan bowls in their salad/food bar area, i’m not sure if every whole foods market uses these or not. they are typically not for sale but i inquired with the deli if i could purchase 50 of them, and they allowed me to. {yay!} we filled the bowls with natural grass {also from whole foods market}, i liked the simple-natural look.

i was so impressed with how creative everyone was! look at these:

this was such a fun evening, i love holidays and the Life that rises to the surface because of them. the balance of simple and extraordinary.

happy spring friends! i really hope it’s warming up where you live. xo

{photos and styling by me, Jane Beckner Rhodes. easter invitation designed by Lovely Lindsay for seejaneblog.}

Posted in create something, easter, easter eggs, free downloads, parties, party plans | 42 Comments »

easter 2012.

easter was packed with good food,  new friends, and love.

check out the latest designy temporary tattoos, here!

{all photos by me. this is not a sponsored post.}

Posted in easter, kiana, KJ, myla, sela | 3 Comments »

weirdo glasses

the easter bunny hopped on by at nighttime on easter eve again, this year! i can still hear the squeals and screams of excitement when they saw his note taped on the front door—

the only bummer, it was so dark outside that i none of my pictures turned out + the videos i took are little spots of flashlights bobbing around in the blackness of night. + more screams of, hey! i found one! there’s more on the trail! ahhhhhhhhhh! mom look! omgosh, what’s on the porch? dad, i need to find six more! the bunny brought us gifts! ::wink: it was a very beautiful moment in time.

the silly bunny gave kj these weirdo glasses.

maybe i’m just a goofball, but i think they are hilarious! cheers to silly family memories. xo.

i may just steal these from kj for a while & take pictures of all my friends in them – i’ll create a wierdo friends & family photo album!

{photos by me. this is not a sponsored post.}

Posted in easter, family life, husband, jane, KJ, sela | 1 Comment »

confetti egg fight

easter eve afternoon, we were in tears from either laughing or pain… using *these.

*cascarones (kas-ka-ro-nez) are beautifully colored eggs filled with confetti and small toys traditionally made in mexico and central america to celebrate easter. easter confetti eggs are often broken over someone’s head as a symbol of good luck. the cascaron or confetti egg tradition is said to have begun in italy using hollowed eggshells filled with perfumed powder.

it seems myla is going to be very lucky! ::smiles::

{all photos by me. this is not a sponsored post.}

Posted in easter, family life, husband, KJ, myla, sela | 1 Comment »