Print, Cut and Color a Vintage Rocking Bunny

Directions for Making This Vintage Easter Toy: Paste the cutout on cardboard. When the paste is dry, cut around the outline of the rocking bunny toy. When the toy has been cut out, bend it back along the dotted line in the middle, between the ears. Color the toy. Cut out the flaps and bend these at the lines. Paste the two braces at either end of the rockers between the two bunnies on the inside of the toy. Now you have a fun rocking bunny for your Easter table top!

• Antique bunny postcard, Easter Joys poem and a hidden nest of Mister Bunny or possibly his brother Sunny...
• Sew a vintage stuffed bunny for a grandchild or new baby this Easter!
• Strange Easter Dolls, Enchantimals, once stuffed inside baskets for Easter...

Simple Cross Stitch Patterns for Baby

       The historical Cross stitch patterns illustrated below are very suitable for decorating articles which belong to young children; for instance, the row of pigs could be embroidered on a bib, or, with the addition of some other animals, might form a border that could be applied to a nursery table cover or curtain.
      A rabbit sitting between two plants might be used just as they are for decorating some small article, or they could be repeated to form a border design, and in that case other animals might be introduced as well as the rabbit.
      The two borders and the flower sprigs could be embroidered on any article for which cross stitch is a suitable decoration. The sprigs could be adapted to a collar design, repeated to form a border, or used as an all-over spot pattern. Any plant with a definite outline can be translated into cross stitch, and if it were small enough, could be added to these designs to decorate a spring themed baby quilt, a small sampler to hang in a nursery or to hand stitch a few decorative pillows for a rocker located in the cozy corner of the baby's nursery.

cross stitch of bunny, flowers, pigs

Color these fancy "egg heads" for Easter!

Fancy "egg heads"

Description of Coloring Page: Egg heads include a traditional Dutch girl in costume, a pirate, a mysterious magician and an egg decorated with springtime flowers. 

• Color people waving palms and shouting "Hosanna!"
  

Don't forget to drag the png. or jpg into a Word Document and enlarge the image as much as possible before printing it folks. If you have a question about this coloring page, just type into the comment box located directly below this post and I'll try to get back to you as soon as I can.

Easter Games by Lina Beard, 1905

Prize winner with his Easter basket
on the White House lawn, 1923.

       In the game they play at Washington, on the hills sloping from the White House, the child whose egg reaches the foot of the hill in an unbroken condition takes the one worsted in the journey down. Another game for two is played by knocking the eggs together ; each child holds an egg firmly in his hand so that only the small end is visible, and then the two eggs are struck against each other until one is cracked, when the victorious player adds it to his stock, or devours it on the spot. I would not like to state the number of eggs eaten on these occasions, but there is a boy (not a girl) who once consumed fourteen and lived to tell the tale.

       Sometimes the egg which breaks another is called "the cock of one," and when it has broken two it is " cock of two," and so on. When an egg which is cock of one or more is broken, the number of trophies won by the victim is added to the score of the conquering egg and it becomes " cock of three " or more. Here is a game which comes from Germany, and al- though in that country it is played exclusively by boys, there is no reason why the girls should not participate in it as well. Two baskets are necessary for this game, one large and shallow filled with soft shavings, the other shallow also, but smaller, and filled with eggs. The plan of the game is that one player is to run a given distance, while another safely throws the eggs from one basket to the other, she who completes her task first being the winner. When the baskets are prepared, and the distance the eggs are to be thrown decided upon, the two contestants draw lots to determine who shall run and who shall throw. This settled, the player who throws takes the basket of eggs, and one after another quickly tosses them the length of the course and into the basket of shavings, which is placed on the ground at the end of the course opposite the thrower. In Germany this basket is held by an assistant, but anyone occupying that position might receive some severe blows from the hard eggs thrown by unpracticed hands, and it answers the purpose just as well to place the basket on the ground. Meantime the other player runs the distance (decided beforehand) to an appointed goal, marks it as a proof of having touched it, and should she succeed in returning before all the eggs are thrown, the victory and prize are her reward; otherwise they belong to the thrower.

       The game finished, a prize is presented to the successful contestant. Should any of the eggs pitched by the thrower fail to light in the basket, they must be gathered up and thrown again before the runner returns, as the eggs must all be in the basket before the thrower wins the game.

       "Bunching eggs " comes from Ireland, and is played in very much the same manner as the game played with a slate and pencil, and known to all children as " tit, tat, toe, three in a row." A pan or large dish filled with sand or sawdust is set upon a table, around which the children stand, each supplied with eggs; the eggs of each player must be all of one color, and unlike those of any other player. The object of the game is for each player to so place her eggs, standing them upright in the sand, or sawdust, as to bring five in a row touching each other.

       In turn each player puts down an egg, sometimes filling out a row for herself, at others cutting off the line of an opponent; and the one who first succeeds in obtaining the desired row sings out--

"The raven, chough, and crow,

Say five in a row."

       Another pretty game from Ireland called " Touch " is played in the following manner:

       Six eggs of the different colors green, red, black, blue, white, and gold are placed in a row in the sand used for the other game. One of the players is blindfolded and given alight wand or stick, with which she must touch one of the eggs, while at the same time she recites these lines:

Peggy, Patrick, Mike, and Meg,

See me touch my Easter egg ;

Green, and red, and black, and blue,

Count for six, five, four, and two.

If I touch an egg of white,

A forfeit then will be your right ;

If I touch an egg of gold,

It is mine to have and hold.

       As is told in the rhyme, the eggs each have a different value. Green counts six ; red, five ; black, four; and blue, two ; and the gold egg is worth more than all put together, for when a player touches that, she wins the game and a forfeit of. an egg from each of the other players. The white egg is worth less than nothing, since it not only has no value but whoever touches it with the wand must pay a forfeit.

       Each player is in turn blindfolded and makes her trial, keeping account of the value of the eggs she has touched. When the sum of twenty has been reached by anyone the game is ended, without the aid of the gold egg. The position of the eggs are changed after each trial, that the person about to touch them may not know where it is best to place her wand.

Our Egg Tree in 2016

In 2016, the branches of an old fire bush were all that I had to work with.

I used some heavy stones to support these branches and also added a few bird's nests.

Here is the finished display, but it was never entirely finished. Apparently old fire bush limbs are not
 particularly strong! So the egg tree kept wilting over and eggs dropped daily.

Here is a good shot of the tree prior to any catastrophes!

This bunny was doomed and he didn't even know it. But such is the way with bunnies.

The White Easter

I remember this particular Easter as "White Easter" because it was the year that all of the flowers used to decorate the house were white. There were white lilies, white hydrangea, and even white iris had blossomed very early in the garden.

My husband and children had purchased the flowers earlier than usual, so, by the time
Easter rolled around, some of the petals were not as crisp.

Above is the Holy Week Devotional from that year.

I displayed a few of my older porcelain pieces that are white.

These white lilies bloomed early that Easter.

Here are the gorgeous hydrangea that I received a week prior to Easter that year.

close-up of the hydrangea in a polka-dot pitcher.