Apartment Blog

We want to wish you and your family a happy and safe Easter!

We are dedicated to helping the consumer during and long after the apartment hunting process is over. We strive to be a resource for apartment renters, when looking for tips and advice during the apartment search, as well as in their daily life. As you can see with our numerous campaigns, we try to offer you recipes, tips/advice for decorating or entertaining, and movie reviews to help you during the season & always. So we hope that by our efforts you recognize us as your ultimate apartment listing service!

Thank you for being our friend, visiting our profile and searching for apartments on our website. Happy Easter!

Sincerely,

ForRent.com

As everyone knows the favorite tradition of Easter is receiving Easter baskets filled with candy. You’d wake up in the morning to discover that the Easter bunny had come and dropped off the basket full of goodies for you! Before or after breakfast you started diving into the yummy treats, right? What we at For Rent want to know is what your favorite Easter treat is??

I took a quick poll at our office and found out the number 1 favorite Easter candy is Reese’s Eggs!! These yummy treats combine all the goodness of traditional peanut butter cups in an Easter egg shape! I love them! They are my weakness for sure!  The candies that followed, in order, were: Cadbury eggs, Whopper eggs, jelly beans and sweet tarts!  Surprisingly no mention of peeps! :-)  I know a good friend of mine loves Peeps, so I need to include those in this list as I’m sure many of our readers enjoy them as well!

So let us know….what’s your favorite Easter treat? The one you remember waking up to wanting to eat first? Or the one you see in the stores and can’t help but grab a bag of? We want to know!!

Most adults and older teens think that participating in an Easter egg hunt may be a little too childish. Well, we’ve come up with an Easter egg hunt for kids and adults alike to enjoy this Easter!

Hide eggs around your apartment community for kids to find. Place them in fairly obvious spots so the children can easily locate them. So what makes this hunt any different from any other? Well, here is where adults and older teens can participate. Have everyone split into teams; one adult/older teen per child. Everyone starts in one place, like the apartment community center, and the adults/older teens get a list of clues. Each clue lets the team know where to find an egg. Clues like ‘You’ll really break a sweat in here…’ (Answer: sauna/fitness center) or ‘You won’t be at FAULT if you hit it in the NET here…’ (Answer: tennis courts). Creating a thinking game for the older ones will make it fun while also allowing the children to collect the prize and candy!

Another idea I saw that I liked was having a checklist egg hunt. Have eggs that are different colors and give the adults/older teens a checklist of how many their teams need to accumulate to win. For example, 2 blue eggs, 1 orange egg, 4 yellow eggs, etc. For the younger children, they are able to collect eggs as they learn math and colors.

These are just a few ideas to help you come up with some creative Easter egg hunts in your apartment community. Do you have any you’ve done that you suggest for others? Let us know. I’m sure all our friends would like to hear!

Source: www.celebrating-easter.com

You have enough on your plate this month with Easter rolling around, pictures needing to be taken and baskets to be assembled. Why not have your little ones help you out this Easter dinner? Below are really easy and simple recipes for you and your little helpers!

Edible Easter Bunny Salad



Ingredients:
Pear halves
Raisins
Miniature marshmallows or cottage cheese
Lettuce
Apple slices or Almonds

Directions:
Place a lettuce leaf on a plate. Add the pear half on lettuce, for body. Insert raisins for the eyes and nose. The ears are made from apple slices or almonds and a miniature marshmallow or cottage cheese become the bushy tail.

Banana Pops

Ingredients:
• 2 Bananas
• Honey (or melted chocolate)
• Dessicated Coconut (or rice krispies)
• Popsicle sticks
• Plates
• A baking dish lined with baking paper
Directions:
1. Peel the bananas, then cut them in half and push Popsicle sticks into the bottom of both pieces of banana.
2. First, Roll the bananas in some honey, and then in the coconut.
3. Place the banana pops on a baking tray lined with a sheet of baking paper and then freeze.
4. Your banana pops will be ready to eat the next day

Source: dltk-kids.com & amazingmoms.com

Are you looking to add a little spring to your apartment? Bringing the outside in is a perfect way to welcome the glorious weather and of course, Easter! So to help add festive decor to your home, here are 5 tips:

Flowers
The essence of spring is that plants/flowers start to bloom. Having the outside brought inside would have to include them, don’t you think? Typical buds for this time of year would be tulips and daffodils. So whether it’s a potted plant or a vase full of beautifully arranged flowers, definitely include them in your homes decor. They’ll instantly add a little bit of brightness to your space!

Baskets/Eggs
The essential Easter gift for all ages is a basket full of goodies! So use them when decorating your home this Easter. You can have baskets in various sizes and colors, filled with eggs or chocolates. Use ribbon to spruce them up and give them a more festive look. And if you get ones that are universal, they can have multiple uses throughout the rest of the year!

Peter Rabbit
Yes having the symbol of Easter-rabbits-in your home would be a perfect way to decorate for the holiday and spring. You can have sculptures, statues, stuffed animals, pillows, etc. A rabbit would go perfectly with the basket and eggs mentioned earlier!

Centerpieces
I’m not sure what your family’s traditions are for this holiday, but my family always sits down for a nice meal. We take time to enjoy each other’s company and have a wonderful dinner. And the center of every meal, besides obviously the food, would be the centerpiece. Having a nicely decorated centerpiece would be a great conversation starter or just “icing on the cake” for your well-prepared meal. Obviously reusing the above tips would be useful here; rabbits, flowers, baskets, eggs, ribbons, etc. would all be appropriate for your dinner table.

Wreaths
Finally, while we’re bringing the outdoors in, it might still be nice to have a little decoration on the outside of your home. Putting a nice wreath on your front door would let your neighbors or passersby know that you’re excited about the holiday and spring time! Your wreath can be something simple and handmade, or it can be store bought! Either way, you already know what ideas to stick to!  For ideas on creating your own wreath this Easter, check out our blog Cheap and Easy ways to Add Holiday Spirit to Your Apartment blog.

Most of these tips are pretty easy to do during this time of year. And a lot are reusable for each year, which will make them inexpensive too! I hope you found these helpful. Let us know if you have anymore ideas! We’d love to hear them!!

St. Patrick’s Day Celebrations

In the United States there are many festivities to celebrate Saint Patrick’s Day. It goes back to the first celebration in Boston, Massachusetts in 1737 where the first Saint Patrick’s Day Parade took place on March 17th.

From the major cities like Boston or New York to your home town. Here is a brief list of some major festivals, parades and events happening in the U.S. Feel free to add your city’s celebrations to our list!

Savannah, Georgia
Savannah’s Saint Patrick’s Day parade usually takes place on March 17th, regardless if it’s during the work week. However for 2008, the parade will take place on Friday, March 14th to honor Holy week in the Catholic faith. The parade route changes each year but usually travels through Savannah’s Historic Park District and Bay Street. In additional to the parade, Savannah’s Waterfront Association has an annual celebration on Historic River Street which mimics Mardi Gras on Bourbon Street.

New York City, New York
According to Wikipedia, the New York parade has become the largest St. Patrick’s Day parade in the world with more than 150,000 marchers and close to 2 million spectators on the street! The parade marches up 5th Avenue in Manhattan and ends by the U.S. 69th Infantry Regiment.

Seattle, Washington
A unique fact I did not know is that Seattle and Galway, Ireland are sister cities given that Seattle has many Irish residents! The annual Irish Week Festival is enormous and includes activities such as Irish step dancing, food, historical and modern exhibitions and Gaelic lessons. It starts on March 14th and goes through the 17th.

Chicago, Illinois
The dyeing of the Chicago River has been a tradition for over 40 years. While many cities have tried to mimic it, none can get as true of a St. Patrick’s color as Chicago’s river can. This year the dyeing is to take place on March 15th. Chicago also has a St. Patrick’s Day parade that takes place on the same day.

San Francisco, California
On March 15th, San Francisco will have the 156th anniversary of its Saint Patrick’s Day parade. At the end of the race there will be a family festival with games, music and various other ‘green’ activities!

If you enjoy celebrating St. Patrick’s Day, there are many options to choose from! Regardless of where you are, cheers to you having a great time!

Source: Wikipedia.com

I know many people view Easter as a child’s holiday and don’t see much of a point besides giving Easter baskets with candy in them. Although Easter has become commercialized, the actually holiday & its celebrations have some historical accuracies to it!

Easter was originally a pagan festival. It was celebrated by the ancient Saxons to commemorate their goddess of offspring and of springtime, Eastre. However, when Christian missionaries met the tribes of the north they were determined to convert them to Christianity. One of the ways they decided to spread their religious beliefs on the pagans was by allowing them to continue their feasts but in a Christian manner. Just so happens that the festival of Eastre is at the same time of year as the Resurrection of Christ, therefore the two holidays were joined and eventually changed to Easter.

The symbols of modern day Easter are the bunny and eggs. The actual Easter bunny originated with the pagan festival of Eastre. The goddess, Eastre, was worshipped by the Anglo-Saxons through her earthly symbol, the rabbit. And the Easter egg comes from the earliest times when the egg was a symbol of rebirth. Hence it’s association with the Resurrection of Christ.

Easter, like many other holidays, has become increasingly commercialized, it has significant meaning and should be celebrated. If you have kids, make sure they realize the importance of this holiday, besides the yummy treats the Easter bunny brings!!

Source: wilstar.com

On Sunday we posted Single this Valentine’s Day? Here’s how to find a date, a blog about online dating and how to put your profile out on one of the sites. It seems that not only are generations x and y looking into online dating to find their special someone, but seniors are as well! In fact, seniors are the fastest growing segment of Internet users, and more and more of them are using the Internet to look for love. In fact, according to cbsnews.com, 16 percent of all those active on the top five Internet dating sites are 55 or older. A majority of the dating sites like eHarmony, Match.com and Date.com may cater to a slightly younger crowd, so there are senior specific dating sites popping up like SilverSingles.com and SeniorsCircle.com.

Whether you’re 28 or 57, everyone needs love in their life and online dating seems to be fulfilling a need for many. So why not try your hand at online dating? You never know who you may find!

Visit Find a Date on ForRent.com’s website and set up your profile today! You may even set upa date before this Valentine’s Day!

Source: cbsnews.com