Some ideas for fun at home during Easter

Many people go away for the Easter long weekend, but if you'll be taking a "staycation", there are plenty of things you can do at home to make the holiday fun for you and the family.

One of the easiest is to dye some hard boiled eggs in beautiful colours and then decorate them with paint, material and ribbon scraps, craft supplies or even icing to turn them into gifts or giveaways. Here's the recipe for a quick dye after you have boiled the eggs and let them cool:

• In a small bowl, mix a teaspoon of vinegar and 10 to 20 drops of food colouring with half a cup of boiling water. Repeat for each colour. Dip the eggs in dyes for about five minutes and then place on a rack to dry before decorating.
• If you have family coming over for Easter brunch or lunch, you might also want to add some colour to your table by dying your deviled eggs (see how here https://www.realmomkitchen.com/easter-deviled-eggs/) or whipping up some Easter muffins decorated with sweets like Speckled Eggs or Smarties.
• The ingredients are 1 can condensed milk, 100g margarine, 500ml castor sugar and 5ml vanilla essence. To make, you will first need to combine the condensed milk, marge and sugar in a deep bowl and microwave on high for 2,5mins then take out and stir well. Then microwave on high for 10 minutes, stirring frequently. When mixture becomes a caramel colour, stir in the vanilla essence and pour all into a greased baking tray to set. Wait until cooled before cutting into squares.
• Another fun thing to do with children is to round up all the old and odd socks in your home and turn them into cute sock-bunny toys (see how here https://apumpkinandaprincess.com/sock-bunny-easter-crafts-for-kids/).There are also dozens of other ideas on the internet for kid-friendly Easter crafts with simple materials like paper plates, pipe cleaners, empty cans and jars, egg cartons, wooden spoons, sosatie sticks and scraps of string, wool and ribbon (see https://kidfriendlythingstodo.com/33-easter-craft-ideas-kids-make/).
• And then of course, what would Easter be without chocolate and other sweet treats? Home-made biscuits, fudge and coconut ice are favourites in SA, and much appreciated as gifts, so here's our a recipe for never-fail microwave fudge:

Then for those who don't have such a sweet tooth, one can make Cape Town's favourite Easter dish of pickled fish (see https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/104444/cape-malay-pickled-fish/) to serve with hot cross buns. Or for a really relaxed day after all that crafting, just pop the traditional Easter lamb roast on the braai with some veggies and sit back with a glass of something delicious while the children enjoy their Easter-egg hunt in the gardendealing with their concerns about urgent repair, noise or security issues.