Here Comes Peter Cottontail

Easter is right around the corner. Now I don't know about y'all, but when I was growing up, all the Easter Bunny ever put in our baskets were loads of candy, peeps, the obligatory large chocolate bunny, and a few small trinkets. It was packed to the gills mind you, but it was pretty much all candy. But somehow from then to now, the Easter Bunny has become as revered as Santa Claus with the children I know (yes, including my own), and mere candy just does not suffice. The Easter Bunny is now expected to deliver toys, games, money, candy, and pretty much anything else he can fit in that basket. And the baskets? Well naturally they've become supersized as well.

So what is a mom to do? And who the hell started all this hype to begin with? I want to know who the hell is responsible for hyping up the Easter Bunny as big as Santa Claus?? I mean, I barely recover from Christmas and I have mini #1's birthday, which is then followed by Easter. I am going to need a holiday bail-out program at this rate! And while I'm on my soap box, let's just go over the long list of people I'm supposed to keep up with... Of Course there's Santa, St. Nicholas (for my fellow Catholics), the Tooth Fairy, The Leprechauns on St. Patrick's Day, & finally the Easter Bunny. WHY DO I EVEN BOTHER LOCKING THE DOOR with all these people coming in and out of my house.

Anyway, my real point of this post is that with Easter a week and a half away, I'm a bit behind on my Easter Bunny shopping. In case you haven't heard, the Easter Bunny is very busy these days trying to keep up the house since it's on the market, start her new business, and let's face it, she certainly can't miss her Young & the Restless. So I thought I'd share a few things the Easter Bunny will be including in baskets at the Monogram's house this year, in case your Easter Bunny needs a few ideas. Also? Our Easter Bunny is always looking for some cute little things for our baskets as well so please share away if you've got any suggestions of your own.

I remember watching this cartoon series in the 80's, and since my boys are obsessed with all games including Super+Mario, these inexpensive DVD's of the cartoon series will be included in their baskets this year. Santa delivered one to each of them in their stockings as well, and they LOOOOOVE THEM. You can pick them up here for the great price of $5.99 ea. and they really are hilarious.

The Easter Bunny just had to buy these and if you have to ask why, then you haven't been coming around here long enough to know we are obsessed w/ our Chocolate Lab (both current and past one). The boys will love these and as a BONUS they are on sale for a mere $11.49 at my favorite affordable kids store, Gymboree.

I have no idea what Mighty Beanz are, and I'm not entirely sure my kids do either. However, as the commercial is played constantly during Spongebob when we get home from school, the mini's are "dyiiiiing" for Mighty Beanz. At $4.99, I believe the Easter Bunny can make this happen as well.

Last year the Easter Bunny brought DS games so I believe he should keep with that and bring another DS game again (because the 10,345,857 DS games they have apparently aren't enough). At this point he is leaning towards the "I Spy" DS game for mini #1 and Lego Batman for mini #2, but it could also come down to whateversonsale.

Our Easter Bunny always brings Flip Flops. Always has, always will. I love these from Crewcuts and buy them every year, although I'm sad to see they didn't do a madras one for kids this year. Booooooo. They are $19.50 now, but I'm sure that after I buy them they'll go on sale for $12.50 like they usually do.

Much like the Flip Flops, our Easter Bunny brings new goggles every year also. Why? Because kids lose everything, especially goggles. And new goggles also get them excited about Summer and the swimming and warm weather that is right around the corner.

So those the additional items that will accompany all the candy and chocolate in the mini's baskets this year. Now, what about you? What does your Easter Bunny like to bring???

Silk Tie Dyed Easter Eggs

It’s really a shame that some holiday-type projects are shown so close to the actual holiday that you really never have a chance of doing the actual project. I mean, come on. Don’t show me a great project on Good Friday and think I’m even going to have a shot at completing it by Easter Sunday. And such was the case with these amazing eggs I saw Martha and a guest do last year on her show.

So what made these dyed Easter eggs so special was that they weren’t actually dyed at all. All they did was use some old ugly silk ties and scarves, wrap them around the eggs with some cotton squares, boil them and that’s pretty much it. And I’m sorry, but if you tell me I can dye Eater eggs with the mini’s with zero mess then you had me at hello. When you unwrap your little silk wrapped eggs, the designs left of the eggs are truly unbelievable. I must say, I was a little skeptical myself when the mini’s and I started this project this morning, but all three of us were so excited when we opened each egg and saw the surprise it held, that I was picking up the phone and calling just about everyone I knew!

You Will Need
- raw eggs
-Glass or enamel pot (very impt! Can’t use a metal pot for some reason. I had to borrow one from my neighbor)

-Silk ties, blouses, or boxers, cut into pieces large enough to cover an egg (the uglier the tie, the prettier the egg it made for me)

-White sheets (or pillowcases or old tablecloths), cut into pieces to cover silk-wrapped eggs

-Twist ties

-3 tablespoons of white vinegar

-Warm water

-Vegetable oil

-Paper towels

-Tongs or spoon

Instructions

1. Cut silk into a square (or a piece) large enough to wrap around a raw egg (I used a seam ripper to rip the ties open from the backside, and was able to get about 4 good sized pieces of silk from each tie)

2. Wrap a raw egg with a piece of silk, making sure the printed side of the material is facing the egg. Silk can still be used if it doesn't fit perfectly around egg.

3. Place the silk-wrapped egg in a piece of white sheet, pillowcase, or old tablecloth and secure tightly with a twist-tie.

4. Place the egg(s) in an enamel or glass pot. Fill pot with water to cover eggs completely. Then, add three tablespoons of white vinegar.

5. Bring water to a boil, turn heat down, and simmer for 20 minutes (longer if you plan on eating the eggs).

6. Remove eggs from water with tongs or spoon and let cool.

7. Remove silk from cooled egg.

8. For shiny eggs, wipe with vegetable oil after completing step 7.

Now, I have to tell you. Light colored ties (ie. Yellow) don’t turn out all that great. The colors that turned out the best were the dark colors like navy, burgundy, dark green, etc. Don’t worry though, they don’t transfer on the egg that dark. In fact, it’s quite the opposite! The navy turns into a pretty shade of denim blue, the burgundy a pretty red, the dark green turns into a grassy green. Oh, and anything black will just turn out grey so that was an ugly egg we did but hey! Live and learn!

P.S. Yes! These are our eggs! I'm back in business with my new camera so no more "stock" photos-Yippie!

Don't Tempt Me to Run You Over! (Easter Egg Games for All)

Ya’ll may remember that while I unfortunately did not hit the Lotto South Jackpot and/or Powerball, I did somehow manage to hit the Mom Squad Jackpot at the beginning of the school year and won the highly coveted role of being room mother for both of the mini monograms. Which is fine. Really, it is! I had originally planned to trade off years just to keep peace in the land of the Monogram (by keeping it "fair" and be mini #1’s room mom one year, then mini #2’s room mom the next, and so on and so on until alas they graduated from High School whereupon College I would somehow work my way into the Fraternity House), but as I said, I hit the jackpot this year. So on top of coordinating the party’s, I typically have to stay or arrange for other mothers to stay and help, at least for Mini #1’s class because I am the ONLY room mother there and apparently, some of the other SAHM’s are just too *busy* to be bothered with something like actually participating in their kid’s school parties for all of an hour out of their day. Whatever.

So the Easter party is obviously coming up. And let me just tell you, for those of you who don’t have kids in pre-school, no one ever wants to do the craft or game. EVER. Pick a holiday party, it doesn’t matter because no mom ever wants to sign up for this. And in my vast room mom experience, if you really want to tick of Susie Sunshine (who, BTW probably showed up to pre-school late this morning and walked behind your SUV without paying any attention while you were in the process of backing out of your parking space so you nearly run her over because she's walking right in your blind spot just assuming your gonna stop for her tardy rear-end), assign her the craft for the party. Go ahead. Make her day. And equally as time consuming is the game. But realizing this, I went ahead and assigned myself the game. I thought, I’m going to make this really fun. No more M&M Bingo for these kids!

But too, many of you I know will be hosting Easter brunch, parties and Easter egg hunts of your own in the next couple weeks, even if you don’t have the refined pre-school soiree’s to attend as I do. And in my book, there is more to an Easter egg hunt than just the hunt itself. Throw some games in there to liven it up a little! Extend the fun a little (because we all know how fleeting those egg hunts are) and build up to the actual hunt by offering a few games to get your party started.

Easter Egg Rolling Find a hill, pick a colored egg, and roll them down the hill. The egg reaching the base of the hill first is the winner. This game is played on the South Lawn at the White House from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.on the first Monday after Easter.

Easter Egg Bowling *But I’m calling this Easter Egg Bocce since I’m calling the shots and all and this is a lot more Bocce than it is Bowling* Colour some boiled eggs and leave one white. Roll the white one into the centre of a room and take turns to see who can roll their egg closest to the white egg.

Egg and Spoon Races Eggs, spoons and an area to run are all you need for this game. Variations could include relays and obstacle courses. To make it easy for younger kids, place something on the spoon to make the egg stick.

Nosey Egg Roll The ideas of this is to have the kids roll the eggs using only their noses. The first one over the finish line wins a prize.

Duck Walk Race Have the kids line up at the Start Line, squat down and grasp their ankles with each hand from behind. On GO, they waddle to a designated Finish Line. They can't let go of their ankles or the are disqualified. The first child over the Finish Line wins a prize.

Easter Bunny Tag Played in the same fashion as tag except that everyone must hop (if you do anything but hop then you're automatically it.

Easter Guess the Number Game Take a jar and fill it with Easter eggs, jelly beans, etc. Count the different candies as you put them in the jar. Leave a piece of paper and a pencil next to the jar and have all the children guess how many candies are in the jar. Be sure they write their name on the paper beside their guess. The child who is the closest without going over wins the jar (and maybe a chocolate easter bunny).

Easter Egg Match-Up Get a bunch of different colored plastic eggs. Separate the eggs and hide each half in a different places. The kids must match up the eggs to win prizes.

Thread Eggs

So I’m perhaps a day late (but most definitely not a dollar short) regarding Monday’s craft. And as I mentioned last week, I am all about these springtime Eastery crafts and projects. But let me warn you that while I initially thought this was do-able with young kids, I would really only recommend that if you have a few G&T’s under your belt or are in some sadistic mood of pulling your hair out. Mini #1 (who just turned 5, remember) was actually okay for the project, but became sidetracked. So really, I have to recommend this project for adults only or for kids 7+.

You Will Need
-Small oval balloons
-Scissors
-Embroidery floss or sewing thread
-Liquid starch or fabric stiffener

Instructions
1. Inflate small oval balloons and tie the necks tightly.

2. Soak 12- to 24-inch lengths of embroidery floss or regular sewing thread (use one color or a variety of colors) in liquid starch or fabric stiffener. Soak each piece of floss separately and pull the wet thread between your thumb and forefinger to remove excess liquid.

3. Wrap the wet threads around the balloon one at a time. The thread will stick to the balloon without any additional glue or fastener. Cover the balloon by crisscrossing the threads any way you choose. Use less thread for an open, lacy egg, or wrap additional thread for an egg that looks more solid.

4. Tie a piece of dry thread around the neck of the thread-wrapped balloon and hang it until the thread is dry and hard to the touch. Burst the balloon with a pin and pull the balloon out of the top of the Thread Egg. Place Thread Eggs in a basket or bowl, or attach loops of floss so you can hang several on a tree branch to create an egg tree.

So here’s our bowl of “eggs.” I am using this term loosely of course since only 3 out of 7 actually resemble something of an egg-like shape, and I feel quite certain that the great Martha’s thread eggs would have turned out much better (and she would probably have figured out a less messy way to do this too). But not me. I will say, mine turned out pretty cute and I do intend to hang them from a cute little tree as demonstrated above. But let’s get real because that just isn’t going to happen today.

What's For Dinner?

Speaking of eggs, hopefully you picked up a few (dozen!) extra while you were out yesterday getting what you needed for the Easter egg wreath. In a perfect scenario, you would have stopped at the refrigerated egg aisle and thought to yourself “let’s just pick up a few extra cartons of eggs…just in case.” What?! It could happen you know! But that’s okay if you didn’t because, let’s get real. Very seldom do our days function by a perfect scenario. But while I was in the egg wreath/egg crafting mood yesterday, I started doing a little more digging for some additional ideas.

And remembering how much you guys loved the Christmas garland post, I thought you might like to do an Easter egg garland post. What I love about this is A) you’ve already got your headache pain reliever from blowing out all those eggs yesterday so you should be set there, and B) you can dye or lave the eggs alone to accommodate your Easter décor (since I'm going to go out on a ledge here and assume that we don't all have those fancy chicken, geese, quail, etc.. in our backyard as Martha does). Admittedly, I am typically not that good about decorating for Easter. The reason being, that we go home to Atlanta for Easter every year. But remembering to my own childhood, my mom always had bunnies and eggs and Eastery things all over the place. So I’m making a real effort to step it up this year.

You Will Need
-Flexible tape measure
-Eggs
-Pad of paper and pencil
-Pin
-Scissors
-Waxed twine
-Embroidery needle (the length of your largest egg)
-Hot-glue gun

1. Using the tape measure, determine the garland’s desired length, allowing some slack to hang below the mantel or window frame. If you are planning to use the garland on a table, add extra length to snake around platters or centerpieces.

2. Measure one of each type egg you have chosen; add these measurements together. (Martha’s Araucana eggs are 2 inches long, and the quail eggs are about 1 1/2 inches; together, they are 3 1/2 inches.) With pad and pencil, divide the length of your garland by the combined length of the eggs to calculate how many eggs you will need.

3. Blow out the eggs: Make a pinhole in each end of a raw egg, making sure the pin breaks the yolk; gently expel the contents with an egg blower or by blowing with your mouth. Rinse well with water, and let dry. If using quail eggs, be careful not to crack them, as their shells are particularly delicate.

4. Cut the waxed twine to the desired length, adding 2 inches for the ends. Thread the embroidery needle with twine.

5. Carefully direct the needle through the holes in each end of the first egg. After pulling the twine through, remove the needle, and knot the twine. Carefully secure the knot to the end of the egg with hot glue.

6. Thread the needle with the other end of the twine, and string the rest of the eggs, making sure that all eggs face the same direction and alternating among types and sizes, if you’re using more than one type or size.

7. When finished, knot the end. Carefully hot-glue the knot to the egg.

You know the other thing that occurred to me is that you can hang this over windows, or drape your Easter table with the egg garland. How about draping a small garland over a mirror in the dining room for Easter, or using them to decorate for an Eastery baby shower? Not only are the eggs Eastery, but symbolic and très appropriate for a baby shower I think. Just something to think about. Now I know that we don’t all have quail eggs at our disposal (anyone???), so in trying to think of something else to put in between the larger eggs, I thought you could use knotted ribbon (grosgrain, gossamer, even a pretty toile) or large beads as substitutes. Does anyone else have any good ideas?

I know one thing for sure, and that’s what’s for dinner tonight. Eggs, eggs, and more eggs! ;-)

What Came First...? The Chicken or the Egg?

There’s something so Springy and happy about an Easter egg wreath isn’t there? I don’t know what it is, but I have to believe I’m not alone in my fondness for these simplistic little wreaths because I have been eyeing them in every store I peruse as of late. Though I must admit, some of them are a bit obnoxious for my taste, so I started digging around to see how difficult this would be to make. Seriously, I was just thinking a grapevine wreath and some eggs and ribbon would pretty much do the trick, and leave it to Martha to have exactly what I was looking for. So here you go, with plenty of time for your springtime decorating.

Let’s start by hollowing out the eggs. Make sure you’ve got plenty of Aleve on hand because lordy does that ever cause a bad headache or what? To hollow out the eggs, working over a bowl, pierce one end of a raw egg with a pin. Then pierce the other end. Now, Martha recommends using the pin to slightly enlarge the hole, which I agree with, but I also recommend having a long wooden skewer on hand to put in the hole and swirl around to break up the yolk inside really well. This will make hollowing process go much faster with much less of a headache (and I do mean that literally). Blow out the insides forcing contents of the egg out through the larger hole into a bowl. Important! Don’t let the liquid touch the shell because it will make the egg ugly (and we are not going to all this trouble for ugly eggs). Now that the eggs are all hollowed out and drying out, you’re ready to get started on putting your project together. Let’s get started, shall we?

You Will Need
-Scissors
-16-gauge black annealed steel wire
-Masking tape
-12 eggs, brown and Araucana, or dyed white eggs, hollow
-Crepe paper
-24-gauge fine wire
-Craft glue

1. Cut a 40-inch length of 16-gauge wire, and shape it into a hoop. Cut a 2-inch piece of masking tape, and make a tab with the tape 1 inch in from one end of the wire. Thread eggs onto the wire hoop, alternating colors.

2. Cut pieces of crepe paper measuring 3 by 4 inches. Fold the crepe paper in half lengthwise, going with the grain of the paper. Use the scissors to cut out half of a leaf shape. Cut a piece of 24-gauge wire measuring 3 inches. Dip it in craft glue, set half of it into the crease of the leaf to make a stem, fold the leaf in half over the wire, and glue another leaf onto the other end of the wire.

3. Take a pair of leaves, and twist them onto the wire hoop so they are snug against an egg. Attach a pair of leaves between every egg. Once they’re in place, you can “fluff” them by pulling the crepe paper and stretching the grain. Cut off the ends of the wire hoop so only an inch remains. Wrap the tape around both ends of the wire to close the wreath.

Now this is all fine and dandy, but you know me, so I need to step this up a notch. If you like this simplistic look, then stick with these instructions. And really, you will stick with these instructions even if you chose to modify this wreath.

For instance, instead of the wire form for the actual wreath part, you can hit your local craft store and pick up an inexpensive (but always pretty) grapevine wreath. And instead of wrapping floral tape around your steel wire form, what about a simple ribbon? Or gluing dried moss on the form? And you know you can always substitute the crepe paper leaves Martha has here with little pieces of ribbon tied on instead. Oh! And instead of alternating brown and white eggs, what about dying the white eggs an uber preppy pale blue, so your wreath has alternating brown and blue eggs (a very popular color combo as of late, but I don’t have to tell you that)? That would make quite a lovely addition to an Easter-ish baby shower too, don’t you think? Attach a wide gossamer ribbon to the wreath and hang it over the mantle in the main entertaining area you’re going to use at the baby shower, or lay the Easter egg wreath flat on the buffet table and use it to frame out your centerpiece. Heck, you can do a few smaller ones and have bowls and dishes inside the wreath on the table as well. Fresh, springy and creative. Now THIS is a good thing if I do say so myself!