Lovely Little Easter Baskets & Carrot treat bags

Easter is such a beautiful holiday, for so many reasons and the meaning runs deep for us. Part of the lovely is the traditions of it all and now with littles, those darling Easter baskets are a joy to put together as a mom. I loved Easter baskets growing up. Candy, small new toys and an egg hunt, seriously what could be better? As a little there is something magical about a basket full of goodies. As a momma, there’s something sweet about thinking through these charming baskets for each of my kiddos. This is my first year putting together a little girl basket too! Not that my 3 month old will be joining in on an egg hunt but I couldn’t leave her out and I included more age appropriate toys like rattles and a sweet, heirloom-quality stuffed rabbit.

I like to fill their baskets with sweet little finds that I gather over time being thoughtful and purposeful, our baskets aren’t huge so it doesn’t take much. I try to fill them with as many non-candy options as I can since my kids go coo coo with sugar. Hubby helped with the baskets this year choosing these sweet T ball gloves for the boys. I love art-inspired options…chalk, paint, markers. And who can resist bubbles. My boys are still in love with bubbles.

Now it is Easter and candy abounds but one thing that I’m a teeny bit particular about, probably my masters in nutrition rearing it’s head again, is the candy I include. You don’t have to be around kids long to know they go CRAZY with sugar. And many kids have allergies to dyes found in these sugary treats. I was mindful when putting these baskets together to avoid as much sugar as possible and choose wisely the ones I included because honestly I’m the one that has to deal with meltdowns and whiney kids. This year I special ordered candy in advance from one of my favorite websites, naturalcandystore.com. I’m not collaborating with this company or receiving any compensation, I honestly just really love it, use it for my boys and want to pass a good thing on.

How adorable are these “carrot” treat bags!? They’re easy to make and SO sweet. I got these Jordan almonds in light peach/orange color that were dyed using natural dyes and have less candy coating, more almonds. They’re from the french brand Percou. The candy shell is very thin. The boys think they’re getting an exceptional candy treat but they’re also getting the protein from the almond. Clearly be mindful if you have nut allergies but my boys adore almonds and this makes them a “special treat” and boy does the protein help offset the sugar high (read: CRAZY MELTDOWN LAND). I used them to make the adorable carrots you see in their baskets. Here’s how I did it.

DIY CARROT TREATS

Clear Frosting Bags

Peach or Orange colored candies

Green 5/8th inch width silk ribbon

Scissors

Thin twine

Ruler

I cut about 7″ off the top of my 16″ heavy duty frosting bag.

Try to find the skinniest almond you can to push into the tip of the bag. Once you do that, fill the frosting bag with a few handfuls of the almonds leaving a good one and a half inches at the top so you have room to close the bag .

I used two different colors of green silk ribbon and cut eight strips total in two different sizes, six inches and eight inches. Layer them on top of each other, kinda like you’re making an ‘X’ with the small ones on the bottom and the larger ones layered on top. I alternated colors since I had two colors of green silk ribbon.

Fold the stack in half and tuck into the top part of your carrot bag.

I used a thin piece of twine to tie the bags shut which keeps the ribbon topping in place.

Cut the extra plastic around the top and then tie another ribbon around to hide the twine closure. Voila! The cutest little treat bag to tuck into your Easter baskets, use as favors for a party or surprise coworkers.

My sweet friend Ruthie from Ruth Eileen Photography took these lovely pictures. From family pictures to blog shoots, she’s amazingly talented. You should have seen us trying to pull off pictures with a our two little babies. It was a sweet time of laughter and drives home her rockstar status as a photographer.