As of the past month or so, David has suddenly become very, very interested in crafts. He loves it all — cutting, coloring, gluing, stickers, painting. This is a new development, I used to have to work really hard to get him interested in crafts. I don’t know if it’s because he’s older, or because of crafts he does at school, but I’ll take it.

We’re also hosting some family for a little Easter celebration next weekend. Those two things combined inspired me to do some spring-inspired crafts with my kids.

Easy Easter crafts for toddlers

These are all really simple — perfect for toddlers. And they require very little prep or clean-up — perfect for tired, 33-week pregnant mamas.

The first thing we made was a giant banner for our dining room.

Easy Easter crafts for toddlers

Can you tell what it says? (Giant banners are so hard to photograph in a tiny dining room. Even if you are the graduate of a beginner’s photography class.)

HE IS RISEN! And now we have a banner to remind us every time we walk by the dining room.

I started by cutting out bunting triangles and writing each letter. David painted them with dot paints. I’m not an educator and I don’t really have a ton of experience with kids (besides being a mom, I guess), so when I do crafts I always learn things. First, I always over estimate the attention span of a 3.5-year old. I had no problem cutting all the paper and writing the letters in one sitting, so shouldn’t David do his part in one sitting, too?

No. And that’s totally fine, ok, AMANDA? David learned about letters and colors and paint, and I learned to check my expectations.

Second, my absolute top, #1, favorite thing about doing crafts with David is that I have an idea of what the finished product will look like, and he comes up with something totally different. I assumed each letter would be one solid color. Making rainbow letters never occurred to me, but the ones he alternated colors on are my favorites.

Easy Easter crafts for toddlers

The dot paints were a little tough for Mary Virginia, but she really wanted to participate. I squeezed paint out for her and let her paint and play. She loved it.

Next, a few days later, David painstakingly glued each letter to a piece of construction paper.

Then I did my part and strung it up. I made Easter eggs with Mary Virginia’s paintings.

Next — and this was my favorite — we made a little flower chain. I picked up these felt flowers and crochet lace at the Target Dollar Spot. David placed them along the lace in a pattern.

The flowers had a tiny adhesive dot on the back, but after he placed them I secured each one with glue. I tied it around a lamp in the living room.

(I can’t decide if I like it with or without the bow showing. David doesn’t like the bow, so this is how it looks now.)

For the next craft, I traced bunnies from this printable, and David painted them with watercolors. Again, I envisioned solid colors, but David did an great mosaic-style. It looked awesome. After they dried, we glued cotton balls on the tails.

We also made chicks (I free-handed mine, but here’s a good guide). After I’d already traced the bunnies and the chicks, David picked up the guide and traced one himself. I felt like a fool. Look at this fine-motor control! When did he learn to do this?

We glued cotton tails on the bunnies and feathers on the chicks, and then taped them on the wall at toddler-height. I told David it was a “bunny trail” and he corrected me, “No, Mommy, it’s a parade.”

Another surprise for me, I love these Easter decorations. Every year I try to think of one good reason to justify spending a lot of money to decorate my house with Pottery Barn’s amazing Easter decorations. But these decorations are even better. And as much as I love them, David is so proud to see his work displayed around the house, and it’s inspired him to create even more.

He’s SO PROUD and SO EXCITED that I’ve already stashed away an extra bag of jelly beans to quell the tantrum he throws when it’s finally time to take it all down.

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