With Easter just a few weeks away I wanted to share a little peek inside what we’re putting in Olivia’s Easter basket this year. I don’t love the idea of filling her basket with sweets and treats, so instead we filled it with things that she will enjoy for a long time. I also don’t love spending insane amounts during holidays so I’ve been collecting these items over the past several months.
Jellycat Octopus | As most of you know, we practice minimalism and simplicity with all of our baby products. Therefore, rather than getting her a stuffed bunny every year, I want to keep her stuffies unique and meaningful and decided to give her a sweet little octopus instead. This way her stuffie collection is full of all different species rather than 100 bunnies. Unless you love bunnies. You do you.
Felt Play Food | Olivia loves her play food so when I found these fun little felt veggies in the dollar spot at Target I had to snatch them up (sorry I can’t link dollar spot items, but they are still tons of these at our Target).
Sensory Balls | Olivia is all about the sensory toys right now, and in her music class every week she always sprint crawls to the pokey balls. So I knew I had to include something similar for her easter basket, which I’ll hide in the eggs. I also threw in a koosh ball (throwback!) and a fun little sensory ball full of glitter.
Miracle Bubbles | Olivia LOVES bubbles. So now she won’t have to wait until Little Gym every week to get her bubble fix. If anyone knows an organic / natural alternative to these (that don’t pop immediately!) I’m all ears.
Spanish Flash Cards | We are also learning lots of new words so I threw in some flashcards I also picked up in the Target dollar spot. They had a ton of different themes to choose from.
Wood Clacker | Olivia is so drawn to music and loves all of her instruments, so when I saw this sweet little wood clacker, I had to get it. She is going to be obsessed with this thing. Also from the Target dollar spot (it was SO good this year!)
Books | Of course we had to fill her basket with books. Rather than just including Easter-y books, I specifically selected books all about spring and gardening. This way they will grow with her all year long (and years to come!) rather than being too seasonal.
That’s Not My Duck | Olivia is obsessed with this entire series and there are tons of different animals that are spring related: lamb, chick, bee, bunny, etc. They are full of touchy-feely elements on every page which she just loves these days. It’s so funny we’ll be flipping through one and I won’t know where the touchy-feely part is and she finds it right away. Like a moth to a flame.
Secrets of the Vegetable Garden | This is from the shine-a-light series where images are hidden on every page that you can reveal with a flashlight or holding the page up to the window, so fun! Plus the illustrations are so beautiful.
Peek Inside the Garden | Olivia is all about the interactive books these days so I was sure to grab a couple of the lift-the-flap books. I chose this book because it has lots of fun little animals to find on each page under the flaps which she will just love.
Birdhouse | This book is just so beautiful. My mom’s entire family is obsessed with birds (is this a Michigan thing?) so I wanted to start her off on the right foot learning alllll about birds. This also has some great lift-the-flaps on each page so its nice and interactive for her. There was a bug one too but we’ll stick to birds for now ;)
How Things Grow | This is such a great book that will definitely grow with her over the years. It’s full of facts about nature, plants, fruits and veggies, types of seeds, everything!
Why Do We Need Bees? and How Do Flowers Grow? | I am obsessed with this series, and I’m trying to slowly collect them all so that Olivia has a great reference book section in her library that we can go to when she has questions (about seriously anything you can think of). They are filled with flaps to lift with so much information hiding under each one. Also. You know I’m a sucker for good illustrations.
Questions and Answers About Nature | This is another series where I’m trying to collect every book subject. These are a little more in depth than the other lift-the-flap ones, so I’m hoping they will just propel her curiosity to learn even more as she gets older.
1,000 Things in Nature | I had similar books like this as a kid with each page filled with every single bird, bug, leaf, nut, tree, fish, etc. I can’t wait to use this as a tool to expand her vocabulary along with her knowledge of different species. It’s not just a leaf it’s an oak leaf, etc.
So there you have it! Don’t worry Geoffrey’s easter basket will be filled with treats haha. What do you like to put in your kiddos’ easter baskets?
In case you’re looking for other seasonal books: