Hippity Hoppity Easter Basket Ideas

I enjoyed sharing Easter Basket Ideas on Good Morning Texas this morning! 

Here are the links to each of the items in the baskets.

Happy Easter!

For a Little Girl:

Bunny Ears Headband – Sunday Best Little White Gloves – Billieblush Bunny – Hair Pins – Beaded Necklace – One More Tickle Puppet Book – Lindt Chocolate Bunny 

For a Little Boy:

Confetti Eggs – Stack the Carrots Game – Wireless Headphones – Lego Chick – Sunglasses – Miracle Melting Bunny – Lindt Chocolate Bunny

For a Teenager:

Journal – BKR Water Bottle – Phone Case - Mini Emergency Kit – Bunny Trinket Dish – Clinique Sweet Pots Sugar Scrub and Lip Balm - Lindt Gold Bunny 

For a Friend:

Nest Candle – You are my Sunshine Mug – Egg Shaped Salt and Pepper Shakers – Souffle Pens – Secret Garden Adult Coloring Book - Smith and Cult Nailpolish – Monogrammed Guest Towel – Lindor Eggs

Highlights from Our Annual Easter Egg Hunt

This isn't our exact invitation but it is the design that we used from the amazing LoraLee Lewis.  She has the most charming invitations for all occasions and this is the third event we have used her designs for.  

The entrance to White Oaks Ranch, the site of our annual Easter Egg Hunt!

I found these huge Bunny Topiaries in the window display at Pottery Barn and begged the store manager to sell them to me!  They are "faux" but look very real!  It was a great spot for a family photo opp! 

The tables were set with  orange and pink cloths and covered with an embroidered bunny and chicken overlay that inspired our color scheme.  I chose to use potted azaleas in baskets for the centerpieces because we had two dates for the event - the first try and the rain date! I needed flowers that would stay nice until the second round!

"Rabbit Food" (baby carrots) and "Bunny Tails" (white cheddar puffs) were put out in small galvanized buckets on the children's tables.  The winds were strong so we had to line the bottom of the buckets with rocks to weigh the tablecloths down.  Calligraphy by Halo Calligraphy.

My little Millie Stuart in her Easter bubble from Southern Living's collection for Smocked Auctions and her bonnet from The Beaufort Bonnet Company.

My son, JR, in his Southern Living for Smocked Auctions shirt.

My son and nephew enjoying the piglets in the petting zoo!

It was set up under an oak tree and was obviously a big hit!

My darling nephew, Tobin, enjoying the set up at the Children's Table!

My father, sister, and mother were still smiling even though I put them to work on the set up!

There were lots of monograms and bonnets from The Beaufort Bonnet Co. around! 

When the time was right, the Easter Bunny gathered the children up on the steps so that we could be the hunt started after prayer and our annual tradition of asking someone special to our children to read the Easter Story to our guests.

My friend Kimberly Chandler led our guests in a beautiful prayer....

and our son's teacher read the Easter Story to a captivated audience.

Then it was time to hunt!  The Easter Bunny led the eager children to the front of the house to start the hunt!  

It was a blast and I can't wait to do it again next year!  

For images, tips and inspiration from our previous hunts, click here!

I hope you and your family have a blessed Easter!

Photography by John Cain Sargent

Tablescape Tuesday: Easter Egg Cup Place Cards

Easter is my favorite time of year!  I love the deeper meaning behind the season but I also love the bright and cheerful way we celebrate this time that reminds us of our greatest blessings.  

Here is a detail from our the Easter Egg Cup Place Cards I created using Lemons to add a bright and cheerful touch to our table.  I simply pulled bright Meyer Lemons and made a small slice in them to hold the cards.

Here are a few links so that you can shop the look:

Blue and White Platter - Similar
Blue and White Egg Cups - I love these!  - On my wish list!
White Egg Cups - Similar but these are on sale!
Green Glass Plates - similar.  I snatched mine at an Estate Sale but these are pretty too!
Yellow Napkins - I had mine monogrammed by Halo Studio.

Photography by Kelsey Foster

Styling by Hilary Walker

Food Styling by Stephanie Greenwood
Calligraphy by Halo Studio
Flowers by Hope Hill Desgin

Inspiration Board :: Easter Centerpieces

What better way to kick-off our week of Easter inspirations, than with Easter centerpieces? One of our favorite elements of Easter decor! 

For last year's centerpieces, we covered large silver trays with lots of moss and placed (ceramic) chocolate bunnies throughout. To finish off the look, we filled mason jars with all sorts of purple spring flowers like tulips, and sweet peas.  

For the kid's tables, we placed nests made of branches down the center of the table and placed these crayons that look like birch wood on the ends of each table - a fun activity for the kids to enjoy!

(Photography: Susan Hudson) 

Happy Easter!

 Whew!  I finally have a minute to sit and sort through some of the highlights of our egg hunt and make a proper post!  I had such a great time this year and we doubled our guest count!  It was so much fun as I absolutely subscribe to the "More the Merrier" party mantra.  Here are a few of our event highlights:

 The tables were covered in Lilac ticking stripe from La Tavola linen rentals.  It was a great base for our centerpieces made up of large round (23") trays covered in sheet moss.  On top of the moss we placed faux chocolate bunnies made from old bunny molds.  I found them on Etsy and the talented Darlene Hinrichsen made them in ceramic!  There were three different styles and we placed one of each on every table.  Between the bunnies we placed mason jars filled with various purple flowers.  Jars were filled with Tulips, sweet peas, and hyacinths and randomly placed around each tray.

We added a face painter at my four year old son's request this year!  I requested that the kids choose Easter motifs but little guy talked the face painters into turning his entire face into Spiderman!

The children's tables were covered in brown ticking stripe and doodle paper.  Little birch boxes filled with birch crayons were placed around the tables.

One of the hits at every party are the vanilla cupcakes topped with peeps!  So easy! 

Our Easter Bunny Mascot was a hit!  He entertained the children and then led them to the start of the egg hunt!

My very helpful husband and mischievous little son were great sports and dressed the part to match our color-scheme!

Here are a few quick picks from yesterday's Easter Egg Hunt!  I hope you are having a wonderful Easter with your family and friends.
God Bless!

All Photography by Susan R. Hudson

Our Easter Egg Hunt Traditions in Southern Living

I love being Editor-at-Large at Southern Living for many reasons but mainly because I get to share family traditions with you!  Here are a few of my favorite shots from the Easter Egg Hunt I hosted in our April Issue.  Please comment and let me know what your favorite Easter Traditions are!

Click here to read the whole story. 

Click here to watch our video. 

Our Annual Egg Hunt Video: Enjoy!

Easter Egg Hunt Tip!

My clever mother-in-law, Caroline Whitman, gave me a genius idea for our Easter Egg Hunt last week. We had a variety of ages on the guest list and I was planning on making some of the eggs very easy for the 18 month olds to find. I was worried that the eager 4 year old guests would snatch up the easy eggs before the little ones got a chance at them. Caroline's solution was to hide the green and blue eggs in more difficult spots. We instructed the older hunters to look only for blue and green! It was great! Happy Hunting!

Spring Tablescapes

I can't get enough of Tablescaping!  I typically like to do something for Easter but this year my sister and my father tackled the project while my mother was cooking because I got stuck with another project...babysitting!

My friend (and co-founder of Feather Your Nest) Ashlee Kleinert, sent me this link to a fantastic Easter Tablescape.  I love it because it can be anytime in spring and it only requires plain white china!  Plain white china can sometimes be a bit boring but I love the way it was used here.  Enjoy and please send me photographs of your spring tables!

Dallas Blooms at the Arboretum

If you are looking for some spring fun then look no further than the Dallas Arboretum. Their Dallas Blooms event has become the largest floral display in the south! The festival goes on through the 11th of April and features over 500,000 spring blooming bulbs such as tulips and daffodils and over 100,000 pansies and poppies!

Don't hesitate to head that way on a cloudy day because they now offer a Rain Pass! If it starts to rain during your visit they will hand you a Rain Pass when you exit and you can come back any other day in the next three months!

Dallas Blooms is a perfect get away with the kids too. On Mondays and Tuesdays from 10 to 2 you can keep your children busy with a petting zoo, arts and crafts and face painting. For $5 you can have a silhouette made and for $15 you can capture your gorgeous child among the gorgeous flowers from James French Photography. If it is raining outside, they will take the fun indoors! I can't think of a better way to tire out my son on a rainy day!

There is a special Easter Celebration for Children with a concert by Eddie Coker on the 2nd of April from 11 to 12 and then again from 1 to 2.

This weekend they host the annual Artscape event featuring 90 artists on their beautiful grounds. Take a stroll through their booths from 9 to 5 on Saturday the 20th and Sunday the 21st of March.

Easter Egg Hunt!

It is that time of year again! Time to start planning your Easter Egg Hunt! We had so much fun at our event last year so I can't wait to do it again! Here are a few photos from last year: We served simple rice crispy treats and added little egg themed candies to the top.









My God Mother, Sheri Staten, read the Easter Story to all of the children before the egg hunt began. Drinks were served in these adorable little lamb and duck sippy cups and the tots and adults alike dined on finger sandwiches and sweets. We placed jelly beans on the tray under the sandwiches for a festive look! We had a real live bunny there that each of the guests got to have a photo with and we also stocked up on extra baskets so that the forgetful guests would still have a hunting basket! Putting out Bunnies crackers in a bowl was the easy part but getting a friend to dress as the Easter Bunny proved to be a challenge!!! This year we plan to do much of the same but we will add jelly bean pizza's to the menu and we purchased pre-filled eggs to hide instead of spending hours and hours filling empty ones like we did last year!