We talk a lot about saving the Earth hear at Momster Central, so Earth Day feels like having too many birthdays. But I want to support the mission of Earth Day Network, started in 1970, to promote “environmental citizenship and year round progressive action worldwide” and also have an excuse to have a little celebration in honor of the Earth! The Earth Day Network suggestions for kids seemed overwhelming, and aimed at older kids. So I have gathered up a few ideas to share with you for an Earth Day celebration, and please feel free to share some of your ideas here too!

Cupcakes! We think all celebrations should have cupcakes. You can use no sugar, lotsa sugar, white or wheat flour, but the key is to talk about the ingredients, where they come from, and what it takes to get it there in the bowl. It can be simple, but just get your kids thinking about the Earth/food connection.

Green Music. We also think celebrations should have music! In one of my other lives, I am a co-host of a radio show for kids. We get lots of music that doesn’t always fit on our show, but that we’d like people to know about. And these are particularly great for Earth Day: Hayes Greenfield’s Music for a Green Planet is some awesome, hot and cool, swinging, rapping true-to-the-soul jazz that has some very sweet, heartfelt lyrics perfect for an Earth Day groove. And The Harmonica Pocket went off the grid to record their new Ladybug One CD, using solar energy for their mix of funky, world inspired originals and cleverly twisted classics.

Decorate Earth Day Bags. I like this idea from the Earth Day Network: borrow some paper bags from your local grocery store, have kids decorate them with Earth Day themes and return them for the stores to use and give out. But somehow, it seemed a little daunting and unlikely that the stores would reuse them. So I’ve revised it a little to decorate bags to give to our friends and family to reuse. Which means we’ll have to stop taking our reusable bags into the stores for awhile, but it will be a fun way for Georgia to spread a nice message: reuse your grocery bags!

Give the Earth a Rest! In my newspaper’s Letters section I read about a family instituting a weekly day of rest for the Earth, an Earth Sabbath. Kind of like Earth Hour (which Georgia loved), but a regularly scheduled evening dedicated to living unplugged to rest their use of Earth’s resources, and to reflect on what they consume. Benefits included having candlelit dinners (of stuff that doesn’t need to be cooked), and playing board games together by the flashlight’s glow. Even if we just do this on Earth Day it will be fun, but I can imagine it turning into a weekly special event!

Plant Something in a Reused Container. This idea comes from Georgia’s pre-school. The teacher asked parents to bring reusable things in for the Creation Station, and there is always a jumble of cut open cracker boxes (to create stand-up scenes, spacecraft or houses, for instance), corks (people, animals), egg crates (towers, sculptures, or separators for stuff to be glued onto other stuff), and plastic berry, tomato and salad containers. These are perfect to fill with potting soil and plant fast growing seeds in (pole beans, or sweet peas). It’s exciting to see the roots below as the seedlings pop up from the soil, and Georgia’s pole beans grew an inch a day! I was so inspired by this, and excited to have a use for our pile of old spinach containers, that we planted some grass for the cats. They can’t tip it over, and the roots can go deep enough that they don’t just pull the grass out roots and all. You might even want to plant something now, so that by Earth Day you’ve got some sprouts!

Above all, let’s try to keep our celebrations joyful! There’s a lot of scary stuff out there, and little kids get it, so sometimes it feels good to appreciate what we have, and have faith that — with help and care — the Earth can heal. If you’re an adult looking for simple Earth Day activities, check out these Climate Change Solutions, and don’t forget the most important thing you can do: Register to vote.