I didn’t realise Easter was in March this year and thought I still had a week or two to get myself organised. The Cypriots celebrate their Easter in May so there were no reminders in the shops. And I’m not Christian so wouldn’t have known from church. In our family, Easter means the Easter Bunny for Goobie and Mars chocolate eggs for Matt. For me, it’s about welcoming Spring. It’s Wordsworth, Vaughan Williams and sunlight on flowers after the bleakness of winter. It fills me with optimism (even here where the winter is short). It fills the house with greens and pinks and yellows – and a lot of Easter tat from Jumbo. I’m a total sucker for it.

So what better way to celebrate than an Easter party for Goobie and a couple of his friends? Except I was already on the back foot after getting the date wrong. So I needed a party that I could put together quickly. I searched Pinterest for ideas and chose the ones that gave the greatest fun for minimal effort.

Here’s what we did:

The Bunny Door

This took less than half an hour and just involved cutting up some large pieces of card and sellotaping/blu-tacking them to the door. This was a bit too intricate for Goobie so I did it as a surprise for him.

Paper plate chick decorations.

These were so easy; bit of painting, bit of sticking and voila! I’d planned to use feathers for the wings but I loved how Goobie improvised and insisted on handprints instead. We did four and hung them up in the house, veranda and garden.

Easter-themed food

I saw so many great ideas on Pinterest, but I just didn’t have time to find the ingredients and do them. Maybe next year. Instead, I did uber-quick pitta bunnies, carrot/celery sticks, ladybird cakes, fruit, cheese balls (which I’d planned to use for a fabulous carrot party bag – but ran out of time) and popcorn. Quick and simple to put together.

The Bunny Box

So simple. I did the ears and cut out the mouth. Goobie did everything else. It was windy so we stuck in skewers behind the ears to keep them upright. The children then took turns trying to roll balls into the bunny’s mouth. They got a mini egg as a prize.

Balloon-Pop

I filled balloons with small sweets and strung them up. The children had to pop the balloons to get the sweets. Goobie doesn’t like loud bangs so he wore ear defenders.

Rubber-Ducky Bobbing

Lots of mini ducks in a washing-up bowl filled with water. The children had to see who could get the most out with their teeth. I’d originally planned to draw stars under some of the ducks and if they fished out the starred ducks they got a prize. Except none of the ducks floated upright!

Paint-filled eggs on canvas

My favourite – this was such fun! I gently bashed the top of the eggs until cracks appeared, then peeled the shell off – as little as possible to get the yolk out. I washed the shells and filled them with paint, then put tissue paper over the top of the hole. The children took turns throwing the eggs at the canvas. The canvas actually looks very striking so I may hang it in Goobie’s room when it’s dried. The children signed the back and we dated it.

Scavenger hunt

I hid mini eggs all around the garden and gave the children baskets to collect them. This also included:

The hammock, hidden under Goobie’s toy bunnies.

Goobie’s tent, which was filled with plastic balls.

His tunnel, containing paper streamers.

His trampoline, which was filled with hundreds of paper streamers, feathers and balloons. The children really enjoyed rooting around in the stuff, looking for chocolates and fluffy chicks. They then took turns chucking streamers at each other.

Note: to be organised, I checked the weather forecast for rain and, since no rain was forecast, I put the paper streamers out in advance. It takes ages to unravel them. The other night a rumble of thunder and lashing rain woke me up at 2am.

‘Matty, the paper streamers! The bunny box!’ I screamed. ‘They are going to get SOAKED!’

We raced outside in our pjs and dragged everything in. The bunny box was on the veranda and hadn’t got wet. The paper streamers and feathers were in a sodden heap, all two billion of them. We had to make an emergency trip to Jumbo the next day. Lesson learned: don’t trust the weather forecast. Not even when you’re in Cyprus and it barely rains.

Thankfully it was dry and sunny for the party. By the end, the children were covered in water, paint, feathers, streamers and chocolate. And, most importantly, big smiles.