How Many Times Can We Celebrate Easter?
My neighborhood has a babysitting co-op, which is wonderful for so many reasons. It's given me great built-in friends with kids about the wee ones' ages. Whenever I need a sitter, no matter whether day or night, I have someone I trust -- for free! The moms have advised me on schooling decisions and helped me through my angst. And every year, they do an Easter Egg hunt.
Last year it was at my house, but after 45 children (no joke) in my house searching for eggs, eating pizza, and decorating cookies, I quietly didn't volunteer this year. Some other sucker -- I mean MOM -- graciously did.
Today was the big day, and the wee ones were excited. I, of course, got stuck at work and so didn't get home until five minutes after the event had started, so we were a bit late, but it was fine. They had a great time hunting for their dozen "hidden" eggs.
Little Miss did get a little upset once when someone beat her to the egg. She kept exclaiming, "But that was my egg! I saw it first!" Next year, I think she'll learn to move faster.
Once everyone had the requisite dozen eggs, we moved on to the cookie decorating. Yes, even Little Miss can decorate the cookies, as I brought special non-dairy cookies for her and some non-dairy icing that three other kids also needed to use. Yep, food issues are definitely becoming more common with almost one in ten kids in this group.
Little Miss did all her decorating all by herself.
She also did all her eating all by herself. In fact, she refused to decorate her second cookie until she'd finished eating her first. And she's a slow, deliberate eater....
Mister Man decorated his cookies, too. His focus was simply on getting enough frosting on the cookie so that he could get as many sprinkles and other decorations on it as possible! Typical Mister Man, he ate about half his first cookie and then asked to save the rest for later. Sometimes I wonder if he's really my kid!
At this Easter Egg hunt, the Easter Bunny always comes, too. The wee ones were sooooo excited when they saw him. They ran up to give hugs, and then I spent the next five minutes trying to get a single normal looking picture of them with the Easter Bunny. I never really succeeded.
At least the Easter Bunny knows how to pose!
And after today? On Friday we head to the local "mall" where the Easter Bunny is hanging out. Saturday is decorating eggs, with the Easter vigil at church providing everything from the blessing of the Easter baskets to more egg decorating. And on Sunday? It's the culmination of our celebration where we get to see what the bunny brought us.
I will admit that I heard that this year he's bringing Spiderman placemats and cups and activity books and other such things instead of the traditional candy. It's an interesting concept, don't you think?
15 comments:
Wow, major Easter celebrations going on in your neighborhood! 45 kids in your house last year? How did you survive? Looks like Little Miss and Mister Man had a ton of fun. Does one of the Moms or Dads wear the Easter Bunny costume? It's nice that everyone celebrates this fun holiday together :)
We're not giving much candy this year, Hanna still has candy from last Easter, and Quinn can't eat it yet. They're getting movies, books, and stuff like that!
Aww, that looks like so much fun! I've heard about those awesome co-ops, and they sound amazing. Your is pretty big!
Have fun with allll the Easter Festivities!
So cute. We used to do all that fun stuff, but it's kinda getting sad that my "wee" ones aren't so wee anymore. Big-time drat at times like these.
Our Easter bunny has always brought more prizes than candy. This year there are coloring books and hand made crayon rolls, and bubbles and sun glasses. Stuff that won't make our dentist rich LOL
I love the co-op idea. LOVE it. That right there would be reason enough for me to move to the suburbs.
septembermom - Uhh yeah. 45. And there are times I've had more. I'm a glutton for punishment. Last year my husband was the bunny and this year one of the moms with a newborn was the bunny.
Heather - Good to know I'm not the only one bucking tradition!
RAS - This wasn't all the kids, although it was the majority of them. We have 23 families in the co-op right now, so we're just about full. There are several families with three or four children though, so it adds up quickly!
Manic - Yeah well... next year you can come hang out at the Easter Egg hunt and live vicariously ;) These definitely are times that I'll miss someday.
Megryansmom - Yeah, my parents do enough with the dentist. They have the kids in their car for childcare, etc usually four days a week and EVERY time they get in the car, they get a Lifesaver. It's really driving me nuts right now....
Karen - It totally rocks. Apparently there was one when I lived in CT, but I don't remember that.... It makes life so much easier though. I'm sure you can imagine.
Guys in the Easter Bunny suit always creep me out.
How nice of your neighborhood to form a bond. I absolutely LOVE the easter bunny!
I love that you have a babysitting co-op. I am surrounded by douchebags, so that would never happen here. I think it;s a great idea.
Weaselmomma - I'm totally with you... That was essentially the gist of my post last year on the hunt ;)
tt millers - My neighborhood rocks. The people were one of the big reasons we waited so long to buy our house. We really wanted to live HERE. With these people.
Gina - Yikes. That's no fun for you. We are really lucky here. And only two families that I won't drop my wee ones off at (because of guns in the house). So far so good!
Yikes, I almost forgot about Easter... We were kinds busy this year. But we will do the egg hunt tomorrow and I think the Easter bunny can scrounge up something for Sunday morning. SOunds like you have been very busy!
Cookie - As long as the bunny comes through, I think the boys will forgive you :) Have fun with the egg hunt!
Hey, I think something besides candy is perfectly acceptable. My mom did a lot of chocolate, which was my favorite, but she always took it "away" and then doled it back out in reasonable amounts ;-)
Yep... my problem though is that there's always a reason for a "treat" in my husband's mind and for my parents. So I rarely do anything now... and we have a bulging cannister of candy that keeps getting bigger!
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