BYE BYE Easter Bunny!

This is Alex. He is just over a year old and belongs to my cousin Chris and his girlfriend Julia. CUTIE PIE! Just love the red hair. His first Easter egg hunt and it was in my back yard. He just LOVED it! The older kids were helping him out and Joe made bunny ears and followed Alex around like he was the Easter bunny pointing out eggs. Seriously cute stuff.

Here is Joe getting ready to be the bunny.

Along with the backyard egg hunt we went down to the big community egg hunt. We arrived early to get our spots and waited for over 30 minutes for it to start. By the time it started the bigger more aggressive kids had budged in front of my kids and they all just looked at me and said "I don't want to do this anymore." HUH? It didn't look fun anymore. It looked like chaos and survival of the fittest and I can't blame them. My Dad is one of the people that organizes it every year and it just gets bigger with fewer volunteers. One volunteer was manning the french fries in the trailer for hours and suffered a minor stroke. (Happy to report he will be okay) Add that it is a free event and you get all sorts of people out looking to score big. Kind of NOT the point of the egg hunt. Supposed to be fun and for the kids but you always get the parents and kids that think for themselves and push and shove to get more eggs. Some walk away with a basket overflowing and some with nothing. It's a real show for sure. And one that we will no longer go to. One that my Dad is mortified has turned into a battle instead of fun for the kids.

See for yourself!



CRAZY!

In keeping with my anti-consumerism quest I did not give the kids gifts Easter morning. We had the egg hunt the day before which was organized by my sister-in-law Nikki and my Aunt Val. I used to have the Easter Bunny come on Easter Sunday and the kids would wake up to baskets with chocolates, toys, clothes etc...But this year there was no bunny. And you know what? None of the them noticed except Ben! My oldest missed his basket but all the others didn't even expect a thing. Ben remembered though..lol....So I reminded him of our quest for the year. That I was not going to buy into yet another commercialized holiday. He looked all disappointed. So I reminded him that the day before we had an egg hunt which he got to set up and participate in. And that Mom had hired a photographer to capture family memories...much more important than garbage toys in a basket. He agreed. He said he had fun and it was okay.

So I asked around. What did you get your kids for Easter? Some said just some chocolate and an egg hunt. Some got more elaborate and gave their kids Ipods and expensive clothes. I get Christmas but Easter? Growing up my Mom always gave us chocolate and an outfit. It was months after Christmas and we generally needed new clothes for Spring. My kids don't have to wait. I go get them what they need at the time. And have a wonderful circle of friends giving me hand me downs. Woohoo! So....do I feel guilty there was no bunny surprise Sunday morning? NO! Not at all. And am not going to ever do it again. Easter egg hunts are fun though. The plastic containers came from the Salvation army and will be reused next year. My Aunt put them in hot bleached water and they came out new again. I have them put away for now.

Which brings me to the point of this post. Easter is for family. Nothing proved that more to me than having Tammy take all those photos and the joy on my family's face to have those memories on film forever. Even Ben got it. Hoping to have family photos done every Easter. The heck with the Easter Bunny. Come on over and lets enjoy a home cooked meal and some face time. Of course there will be chocolate..lol...but that is all I will buy. And it may be in cake form...lol....

Here is a pic of my brother and Grandma and Dad and I. Money better spent by far!

I know there will some of you that think I've gone too far...How can she ban the Easter Bunny? LOL! Well, I did it and feel good about it. I had every intention of doing the baskets and had bought some stuff last week. Going to keep it in the closet and bring it out when a rainy day gets out of control...and we all know about those..lol...

Still have to declare one more retail shop. Hubby went to get T-shirts at Jeans Warehouse and bought a pressure washer. So we are 104/115 days without retail therapy. It's getting harder though. Want to buy some clothes for me! Something spring like would be nice. Will look around a bit at the thrift stores.

Hope you had a fabulous Easter weekend. So nice to get 4 days together as a family.

Anti-Easter bunny Big Momma love to you all! XXOO

PS/ Read an article about the Seattle School District no longer calling Easter eggs by that name...kids and staff now have to refer to them as Spring Spheres...YEP! Spring Spheres! Say that really fast 10 times. LMAO!