• Recruit your kids to help you make Easter centerpieces.easter decorations image by ril from Fotolia.com
  
  Keep your children happy and your Easter dinner stress-free by offering kid-friendly dishes and activities. Encourage your kids to get involved with food preparations and décor. They will feel proud of their contributions and this will ensure a cheery dinner for guests of all ages.
  
  

Easter Meal

• Kids Cooking Activities recommends two staples for your Easter meal that kids will enjoy. Bake ham with a maple glaze. MKS Enterprises recommends 1 cup of maple syrup for every five pounds of ham. Another children's treat is sweet potatoes made with marshmallows. Disney Family Fun has a recipe that includes, marshmallows, cinnamon, brown sugar, cream and vanilla.
  
  For children not partial to ham, set up a homemade pizza decorating station. Form personal dough pieces into oval shapes to resemble Easter eggs. Cut up pepperoni, tomatoes, red, yellow and green peppers, red onions and grate cheese. Encourage children to decorate their own pizza as if they were Easter eggs.
  
  

Kids' Deserts

• Create deserts that will make children of any age excited. Encourage your kids to help with the preparations. Use your favorite cupcake recipe to create baby chick treats. Once cool, flip the cupcakes over, face down. Spread frosting all over each cupcake until they become dome-shaped. Cover the cupcakes with toasted coconut. Add two pieces of black liqorice, or other dark candy, for eyes, and an almond for the chick's beak.
  
  Decorate the top of an Easter cake with a bird's nest and eggs. Make a nest with a contrasting color of chocolate shavings or pieces of phyllo pastry. Place mini Easter eggs inside the nest.
  
  

Decorations

• Make an Easter tree centerpiece for the dinner table with your kids' assistance. Form Easter eggs out of different colors of modeling clay. Collect small tree branches or sticks outside. Stand sticks in vases or decorated containers. Secure them with stones. Poke clay Easter eggs with unfolded paper clips and hang them on the tree branches. Place Easter egg trees in the center of the dining room table.
  
  Recruit your children to make place cards for each table setting. Provide them with pieces of card stock, stickers, markers and other craft supplies. Help them spell out each guest's name.
  
  

Easter Games

• If children get restless, have some Easter games up your sleeve that you can play between dinner courses. For older kids, organize an Easter-egg treasure hunt by placing clues in plastic eggs. The last clue should lead them to a prize. For a large group of children, organize an Easter-egg hunt. Tell kids that they can only collect eggs of a specific color, so each child will collect the same number of eggs. Hard boil eggs for a relay race. Divide children into two teams. The first stage of the race involves balancing an egg on a spoon. The second stage involves children getting on their hands and knees and rolling the egg with their noses.