Easter Bonnet Parade

An Easter Bonnet represents the tail-end of a tradition of wearing new clothes at Easter. So I'm all for any excuse to make a new hat to wear. Beautiful bonnets are a must at every Easter parade, those made with such love and worn with such pride as the little legs often carry the heavy load on top. This year is Master 4's first Easter Hat parade at Kinder and I have to admit he is very excited, and so is his mum! Together we had great fun chatting about what colours we should use and what the colours of Easter represent. While we worked on the hat together it gave me an opportunity to talk to Master 4 about the meaning behind the Easter Celebration and why we use certain symbols to represent this time. (Egg/Chickens represent New Life) He is becoming increasingly interested in the stories we read from his Children's Bible and enjoys the opportunity to ask me questions. We really had great fun spending the afternoon creating his masterpiece which I know will be worn with such pride as he walks with his classmates tomorrow morning.

Prior to going to the discount store to buy bits and pieces to make the Easter hat, I had chatted to Master 4 about the colours that represent Easter within our church. He then decided that he would like to make a purple and yellow hat. We had so much fun looking for everything for his hat.

We bought some cheap polystyrene eggs that Master 4 enjoyed painting in purple and yellow and then rolled in glitter. When you paint polystyrene I always find it easier to put a kebab stick into it to hold while you paint. Put the sticks into an apple while they dry evenly.

Here is the master piece! I love the way we were able to bring patterning into the activity as Master 4 decided he wanted to patterned the feathers around the edge of the hat. (purple/yellow/purple/yellow etc)

While we were waiting we had a go at baking these super cute Easter Bonnet Biscuits from a recipe I found.

Ingredients
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla extract
3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tbsp. baking powder

Decorations, such as frosting, tubes of decorating gel, sprinkles, fruit leather

Instructions
In a large bowl, beat together the butter and sugar until fluffy.

Beat in the eggs and vanilla extract, then stir in the dry ingredients and combine well.

Divide the dough and roll it into 2 logs, one about 10 inches long and 2 inches in diameter, and one about 10 inches by 1 inch.Wrap them in plastic and refrigerate until firm, at least 3 hours.
Heat your oven to 400 degrees.

Cut the logs into 1/4-inch slices and bake on greased cookie sheets for 8 to 10 minutes for the large slices and 5 to 7 minutes for the small.

Cool on wire racks.
Stack the small cookies on top of the large ones, gluing them in place with a dab of frosting.

Frost the bonnets, then decorate them with gel icing, sprinkles, and fruit leather ribbons.

Makes about 40 bonnets.
http://familyfun.go.com/recipes/easter-bonnet-cookies-687502/