Get your tickets for the Mad Hatter's Spring Tea Party at San Rafael's Falkirk Cultural Center on Saturday and Sunday, April 27 and 28, 2013. There will be two tea party sittings, at noon and 3 pm each day.

Join Alice, the Mad Hatter, the March Hare, and the Dormouse for this Wonderland tea party, complete with tea sandwiches, beverages, and dessert. The company of characters in original costumes, from the Stark Ravens Historical Players, will entertain and make the little ones giggle and dream as they sip their “tea”. Falkirk’s beautiful and elegant Victorian setting is the perfect place for this spring tea party.

The cost is $27.50 for adults and $22.50 for children, which includes all the food you can eat and a goodie bag for each child. Bring your camera for great photos! Reservations are required; call (800) 838-3006 or visit www.brownpapertickets.com.

Marin Mommies presents this week's guest recipe from Nicole Cibellis, Marin mom and author of the blog A Family that Eats Together, where she shares meal plans and recipes that will please foodies and children alike. Nicole is also the creator of the new Little Froglet line of children's activewear. Here's Nicole's meal plan for this week.

Are you looking for a quick and easy recipe for spring that will impress your family and friends? Not only is this recipe healthy but your whole family will love it. The result is tender lamb with a savory and fragrant rosemary-garlic oil. This recipe can easily be doubled for larger groups of people. Serve with your favorite couscous.

Servings: 4
Prep time: 10 minutes
Inactive time: 18 minutes
Cook time: 12 minutes

Ingredients

• 6 lamb loin chops, trimmed of fat
• 1 bunch of medium-thin asparagus
• sea salt

Spring in California is spectacular, with an abundance of wildflowers, waterfalls (provided it rains), and wildlife. Before the summer heat bakes the hillside grass brown, get the family out on the trail at one of these great Marin hiking spots. These hikes are perfect for a family outing at almost any time of year, but are especially nice during the spring. These trails are easy enough for everyone in the family to tackle.

Ring Mountain Open Space Preserve near Tiburon is home to spring wildflowers and spectacular views of San Francisco Bay and Mt. Tam. The trails here are great for kids of all ages and even offroad strollers. Best of all, it's located right near Tiburon and Corte Madera.

Martin Griffin Preserve at Audubon Canyon Ranch near Stinson Beach offers miles of easy hiking trails for families, as well as fun and fascinating educational opportunities. This preserve, a nesting site for Great Herons, is only open on weekends from mid-March through mid-July.

Easter is just days away, and my kids and I have been busy creating festive holiday crafts to decorate the house for our big family celebration. My daughter insisted on making a cute and decorative wreath for the front door, so we came up with this fun and easy Easter egg wreath paper craft.

If you don't want to create your egg shapes freehand, I made a basic egg template that you can download and print onto colored paper. Get it here.

To make this craft you'll need:

• Paper plates
• Paper Easter grass, multicolored
• Pastel colored paper for the eggs
• Glue

Old fashioned coconut cake is an Easter favorite. We decided to give this classic treat a kid-sized spin and made a fun mini cupcake version.

These light and sweet little cakes with a marshmallow-like frosting are great for parties, playdates, and get-togethers, and of course as dessert on Easter! Sure, you can use fresh toasted coconut on the outside, but we love the old-school white flaked sweetened coconut from the grocery store's baking aisle.

This recipe makes about three dozen mini cupcakes. You can use it to make regular-size cupcakes, too, but of course you'll need to increase the baking time by a few minutes.

Easter is only a week away, so it's time to start planning for egg hunts, breakfast with bunny and other special events. My children love this time of year when the flowers bloom, and the Easter Bunny hops into town. Part of the fun is celebrating spring and the Easter season with a traditional egg hunt, and there are Easter egg hunts scheduled at communities throughout Marin County. Here's our list of fun Easter egg hunts and events taking place in Marin and other locations in the Bay Area. We'll update this list as we find out about additional events. If we've left out your favorite Marin Easter egg hunt, please let us know and we'll add it to the roster.

Easter Bunny Photos

While your kids are waiting for the big day, they can visit the Easter Bunny and have their picture taken with him at his whimsical spring house at Northgate in Terra Linda. He'll be at the Macy's wing starting on March 15-30, 2013, Monday–Saturday from 11 am–7 pm and Sunday 11 am–6 pm. The Easter Bunny takes the following breaks: Monday–Saturday 1–1:45 pm and 4:30–5:15 pm and Sunday 2:15–2:45 pm. For more info, visit their website.

Belvedere

• Easter Bunny Brunch
  Belvedere Community Center
  Saturday, March 30 from 10 am–noon
  There will be a brunch, Easter crafts, music, face painting, carnival games, and an Easter egg hunt. Easter egg hunt will take place in the playground after the brunch and the children will be grouped by ages. To purchase tickets, call the recreation office at (415) 435-4355. For more info, visit their website.

This spring and summer, experience some of Marin's natural wonders at the spectacular Martin Griffin Preserve. Run by Audubon Canyon Ranch, Martin Griffin Preserve is a 1,000-acre preserve near Stinson Beach and Bolinas that's home to one of the West Coast's most important nesting sites for Great Egrets. These large and majestic wading birds nest in the redwood trees that surround the preserve, and can be observed every year from mid-March through mid-July.

While on our last visit the birds still hadn't arrived yet (they're due there any day now), there's still plenty for families to do. It's a fun place to spend a Saturday or Sunday, and you'll find hiking trails, scenic overlooks and observation points, ponds, a display hall, a bird hide, a picnic area, and plenty of enthusiastic and knowledgable volunteers who are happy to help children and parents and answer questions.

On Tuesday, March 26, Cascade Canyon School opens its doors to the whole family with a K-8 open house event from 6:30–8 pm. Marin's "intentionally small school" will be expanding a little, from 60 students to 70, with the fall 2013 addition of an innovative new green classroom and lab for science and math. The open house includes a student-led tour, demonstration lessons, a teacher-led question-and-answer session, and an opportunity to meet the head of school. If possible, families should plan to attend for the full program.

Cascade Canyon hosts its next parent tour on Thursday, March 28, at 9 am. Tours provide parents an intimate opportunity to see our school in session. Prospective families are urged to attend both a tour and an Open House event, if possible.

Cascade Canyon is an intentionally small, independent, progressive, and non-profit school that offers individualized attention, a program is based on critical thinking, a rich academic core, and an inspirational science, math, arts and language program.

Marin Mommies presents this week's guest recipe from Nicole Cibellis, Marin mom and author of the blog A Family that Eats Together, where she shares meal plans and recipes that will please foodies and children alike. Nicole is also the creator of the new Little Froglet line of children's activewear. Here's Nicole's meal plan for this week.

Mexican food is a favorite around our house so much so that I am constantly looking for new ways to reinvent it for dinner. This is not only a quick and easy recipe for a weeknight dinner, but can be adapted to fit everyone in the family by offering them their favorite taco toppings. The use of marinated chicken thighs, gives the meal a juicy and intensely flavorful touch. I even made extra chicken thighs to use the following day for sandwiches and to top my salad. Quick, Easy and Delicious!