I had big Pinterest-inspired
plans for Easter. My spring wreath and other Easter-y decorations were all
designed in my head… but unfortunately, that’s where they stayed.
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| We skipped the dye and breakable eggs. |
I also had huge aspirations to color Easter eggs with Quinn
just like my mom and I did when I was a kid. I loved drawing on the eggs with a
white crayon, dipping the egg into a coffee mug of dye, and then lifting the
egg out to reveal the image I drew or the family member’s name I wrote. I
couldn’t wait to do the same thing with Q this year.
Then I had visions of dye spilling everywhere and staining
everything. I recalled the noxious smells of vinegar and hard boiled eggs that
would fill the house and gross me out. I remembered my two year old brother
dying Easter eggs twenty years ago and how quickly he grew bored with the
process.
I guess after Q’s big birthday party earlier in the month, I’m DIY-ed out. My creativity
and energy are tapped. But don’t worry. Q’s Easter certainly did not suck.
Instead, I chose to not make a ton of work for myself and stay up too late creating something Pinterest-worthy, and I found fun ways to keep Easter simple and myself sane.
I skipped the vinegar-y dye and stinky eggs, and I opted for
plastic eggs and festive stickers. I invited Q’s little friends over for a
playdate so they could all decorate eggs together, but that didn’t really work
out. With all the kids around, none of them sat still long enough to put
stickers on a single egg. So I tried the project again with Quinn solo the next
morning, and he loved it! He spent almost an hour putting stickers on plastic
eggs, which is FOREVER in toddler time.
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| Stickers were a hit! Off to find more things to put stickers on! |
The Easter Bunny filled Q’s plastic eggs – some with a
couple Jelly Bellies and some with M&M’s – and hid them around the family
room. Instead of hiding dozens of eggs, we only hid eleven. (Twelve was my
goal, but Q grew tired of decorating after eleven, and I didn’t push it.) Q had
a great time hunting for them! After finding each one, he would exclaim, “Let’s
open it!” and once he realized they eggs held candy inside, he said “Let’s eat
it!”
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| First Easter egg hunt |
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| "Easter bunny put candy in the eggs, Mommy!" |
For the record, Q was not
a fan of the Jelly Bellies. He attempted to eat each one, but then spit it
out. So whenever he opened a Jelly Belly egg, I traded him for M&Ms. (Luckily,
the Easter Bunny left the rest of the bag of M&Ms in our cupboard.) Even
today when you ask him about how his Easter was, he will tell you, “I don’t
like jelly beans. I like M&Ms.”
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| Daddy's turn to catch the jelly bean as Q spits it out. |
Q was super excited to discover eggs with little cars and trucks inside in his Easter basket, and baseball is his new favorite game. He "pitches" the ball to me, I pretend to swing and strike out, and he yells, "Swing and a miss!" and giggles like crazy.
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| Next year, the Easter basket will contain more candy that Mommy and Daddy can eat. |
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| His new red "pick-on" truck (instead of pick up truck) goes everywhere with him. |
And who says only little girls can look adorable on Easter? Q’s Easter outfit rocked. Gingham shirt, mustache tie, faux Converse-style sneakers
with no laces, and he rocks his khaki’s with a “cuff and crease.” Dr. Dre, circa 1999, would be proud. (Keeping
with the whole “keeping Easter simple” theme, the mustache tie is a clip on,
and Q actually kept it on all day.)
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| Straight up gangsta |
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| Q checking out his reflection in the oven. He knows he looks good. |
The three of us still had a fabulous Easter despite my total
lack of domestic goddess-ness. I’m saving up all my creative gumption for Q’s big boy bedroom, to be
revealed sometime this summer.
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| My handsome guys |
And now that I think about it, that photo of the sticker
eggs and this post about keeping Easter simple and sane are totally Pinterest-worthy!
