Although I love the “commercialized” aspects of Christmas and that holiday season as a whole, I’ll admit that I stuggle a little bit with bunnies and chicks and even eggs when it comes to Easter. For me – and I think part of it is because we’re short on time – those things seem to take away from the death and resurrection of our Savior, which is really where I want our focus to be.br /My plan is that our next three-week theme will actually be “Spring,” and during that time we’ll dye eggs, talk about plants and grow some of our own, and focus on baby chicks, lambs and bunnies. I’m thinking this might actually work out in our favor on the money end too as I scrounge the after-Easter sales. ;)br /br /Anyway, I wanted the girls’ Easter baskets to be special without detracting from the true meaning of Easter, and here’s what I came up with:br /br /em(A couple side notes: While Pumpkin Doodle had more than her fair share of goodies her first Easter, I’ll admit that Sweet Doodle has nothing from us this year for her first Easter. She doesn’t know the difference, and I’m trying to avoid buying stuff just for the sake of stuff. The girls also receive eggs, chocolate and baskets from several grandparents and great grandparents, lest you think they’re deprived in some way by their momma’s neurosis.)/embr /em/embr /br /img id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5179262459465924274″ style=”DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center” alt=”" src=”http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_PoXHVGzLUGI/R-BvxBb7frI/AAAAAAAAAAc/lzgzXHUQ4dg/s320/Easter+Baskets+small.JPG” border=”0″ /br /br /pPretty cute, huh? The baskets came from The Dollar Store (the real dollar store, where everything really is a dollar!), and inside are:/pulliA pack of note paper and matching envelopes. We send each of their grandparents and great-grandparents a note and picture each month, and I thought the girls would enjoy having their own special paper. ($ Store, which is where I’ll be buying my own note paper from now on because they have a really cute selection!)/liliTwo pencils each. The pencils are adorable and match the basket, and best of all, they’re the kind you use until the lead gets dull and then pull out the top lead and transfer it to the bottom, pushing the next lead to the top, which means no sharpening. I emlove /emthese pencils and actually got a 10 pack for $1 at Target, but I just put the rest in our kitchen organizer. (Dollar Spot at Target)/liliA CD “devotional” for each of them. We’ve been listening to a lot of stories on tape recently instead of turning on the TV, and I think they’ll enjoy these. ($ Store)/liliA five pack of flower lollipops. I thought these were just the cutest “girly” candy and couldn’t resist them! ($ Store)/liliA small satin purse to go with their Easter dresses. (Dollar Spot at Target)/liliA barrette and headband to go with their Easter dresses. I’m not actually sure if they’ll wear the headbands, but I figured it was worth a try, and hopefully I can at least get a good picture before they take them out! (Target)/liliSunglasses. Our tradition for them to get a new pair of sunglasses for Easter, but this year we didn’t get to Children’s Place “in town,” which is wear I usually get them because of their great selection and great price. Unfortunately, Family Dollar – which I don’t consider a “real” dollar store because emnothing/em is a dollar there – only had $4 sunglasses. But Pumpkin Doodle got a princess pair and Monkey Doodle got a Dora pair, so I’m sure they’ll be happy. (Family Dollar)/liliFinally, they each are receiving a small flower pot (Ikea) with their own packet of seeds (Family Dollar) so that they can grow their own flowers as we start our Spring theme. /li/ulpThat’s it for us! What’s in your children’s Easter baskets this year?br //p