When I was a kid, I fondly recall the anticipation of Easter, mainly because it meant a four-day weekend full of chocolate and turkey. It was one of the few times my father would actually go out and buy us a gift instead of my mother. It was often a chocolate Easter bunny for each of us and with the great big smiles that resulted, no wonder my dad would take on the dreaded chore of heading out to a busy store. Ahhh, chocolate!

As a family, we pretty much made it a point to sit in front of the t.v. with our parents to watch The Ten Commandments together. It was a long movie but that was kind of our little tradition. Now, with little kids, I find we are avoiding the chocolate as much as we can and trying not to get too wrapped up in the Easter bunny. But spring is all about animals, rebirth and a renewal in energy. I would much rather embrace the symbolism of renaissance that lies in nature during this time of year. And oddly enough, today happens to be Earth Day. I'd like to think of it as the Earth's ReBirthday. It's a time of year that serves as a reminder that the Earth sustains much throughout the year. Our gift should be to show thanks and give back to Mother Earth. We all know the importance of reducing, reusing and recycling. And we also put food waste and the like into our green bin, too. When we first bought our house, we replaced all of our major appliances with the latest High Efficiency models and also had our water tank replaced a couple of years ago with an HE model as well. I usually buy environmentally friendly detergent with the HE front-loading symbol on the front. Little did I know that I was putting too much detergent in it. We had a service guy come in check out a little problem we had with our washer only to discover that I was putting close to 3 times as much detergent than was needed! So, my Earth Day tip to you would be to check your washer's manual to find out exactly how much detergent it requires.

I also have another tip for you, too. This afternoon, at 4:00 p.m., tune into Playhouse Disney for a marathon of treasure-themed episodes AND included in the lineup is a sneak peak of the new Disney Junior series Jake and the Never Land Pirates at 6:00pm. The Playhouse Disney Day of Treasures is in celebration of an age-old game called Hide and Seek. Who knew it was invented by pirates?

And since you're already recording that on your calendar, you might want to jot down that on Easter Sunday, at 9:00 a.m., it's Mickey's Great Clubhouse Hunt. Mickey and the gang are preparing for an Easter party when Pete says the password incorrectly, blowing the clubhouse away. Now it's up to Mickey to travel far and wide to get it back. It will be hard for me to forget since I can't get the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse theme song out of my head. I have this Easter card to thank for that.

Disclosure:  I’m part of the Playhouse Disney Mom program and I receive special perks as part of my affiliation with this group. The opinions on this blog are my own.