I’ve been trying to get this post out for the past I don’t even know how many weeks, but it just didn’t work out. First, Disney. Second, sickness…. Whew! Now that that is finally over, I’m ready to ROLL!
With the warm weather we’ve been experiencing here in Philly (yesterday it was 70 DEGREES!), I feel like I want to run around and play like a kid again. In the spring there are SO many fun activities to participate in. Rock and shell painting and collecting, building forts, playing on the jungle gym, running around tirelessly for hours, oh… the fun.
Today I have a few ideas for things you can do with your kiddies that are fun and allergy free, so let’s get started.
First, make your own peeps! I love, love, love peeps. When I was in college, feels so long ago, but they came out with a peep maker. I was so excited. So I bought it (or, more likely since I was a poor college student, my mom bought it), brought it to school and had a blast. Okay, I used it once.. but it was still fun. You don’t need a peeps maker to make them though, it’s SO easy to make your own marshmallows and cover them with colored sugar.
And, if you make them yourself, you can make them into any shape you want with a cookie cutter!! I actually dug up some olddddddd oldlddd photos from college to show you the peeps I made:
Me and my AWESOME roomie makin' peeps
The peep makin' process...
There was actually a most fabulous post recently from The Kitchn on how to make your own marshmallow peeps with a recipe and instructions and I suggest you check it out: How to Make Marshmallow Peeps at Home. Theirs is much better than my college version, though I’m sure if I made them again they’d be prettier. 
And if you’re celebrating Easter or Passover it’d be fun to make your own!
Next on the list is making surprise gift balls. I’ve seen this done so many times, but the ones in the recent issue of Martha Stewart Living have to be the best because they put bunny ears on them! You can do this for any occasion though. I remember once on a vacation a really long time ago my mom brought presents for my brothers and I so we could open one every day and play with it. This would be a fun version of that…
All you do is start with one present for the center and wrap a brightly colored streamer around the gift. As you continue wrapping to make a larger ball, you add more secret gifts and goodies for your kids to unwrap. It’s so much fun and you can do this for Easter or no reason at all.
To see the ones that Martha created with the bunny ears (though so not necessary), you can check them out here.
One last thing, and this is something I LOVED to do as a kid. Go on a picnic. I still love to do this and Adam actually bought me a picnic basket for my birthday a few years ago (one of the best birthday presents I ever got)!
We go on picnics everywhere.. in the park across the street from us, on a vacation up the coast to Main, in Hood River, OR this past summer (as you can see from the below picture — by the way this isn’t the picnic basket Adam bought me, the one I have, of course, has wine glasses in it haha)…
It’s fun for kids because you can get them to pack lunches with you (allergy free of course) and they can then play at the location you choose after the picnic! Great way to get everyone outside and enjoying the warm weather. OR, now is almost the time to start roasting s’mores (my favorite thing to do as you know from my indoor s’more party this winter), so get to it!
Now, I’m going to go enjoy some warm weather of my own…
