But the Easter Bunny ROCKS IT!
The night before Easter and all through the house...
Wait, wait... wrong holiday. But there was quite a bit of anticipation what with the letter writing, artwork, basket making.....
"What should we write in the letter to the Easter Bunny?"
Silence & a blank stare.
"Should we say Hello?, Hi?...."
Eyes spring open, the size of saucers, "OLA!"
So in honor of our Spanish heritage (?)... Ola, Easter Bunny!
Nick refused to sign his name to the front. He needed more space.
Adrienne's Easter egg which thoroughly impressed me!
Which was only outdone by her picture of... Mrs. Potato Head? No.... Shrek? No... why it's Sleeping Beauty, of course!!
(I think Sleeping Beauty needs to see a doctor about that double ear infection...)
The baskets were filled with carrots by care,
In hopes that the Easter Bunny soon would be there.
So I HAD to kavetch about this sooner or later. After getting 3 (yes THREE) splinters from the $1 variety wicker basket while en route to the cash register I decided to go another route. We would make our OWN, gorgeous (of course) baskets and reuse them each year. Off to Michael's, picked out 2 baskets, a ton of funky (yet coordinating) ribbon and do-hickies, home for a wonderful project to do with the kids.
Ha.
After about 30 seconds of arbitrating who got to hold which spool of ribbon, who would get to use the orange flower, who could hold their basket while I was working on the other, etc. etc. I snatched everything away, stormed off & our 'family' Easter basket project turned into me getting to do it MY way while they were napping. (but let me tell you... they came out TRES chic!!)
The next morning they wasted NO time in starting the hunt for eggs & baskets although Adrienne was CONVINCED the Easter Bunny ate her basket.
Hunting came to a dead halt when Adrienne saw the 1/2 eaten carrot in Nick's basket.... Total shock.
What riches are hidden in those plastic, pastel treasure chests!?!
There were coins, Whoppers (yum!) and stickers galore!
But what are the odds........ Adrienne got almost every..... single.... STICKER.
Nick was raking in the coinage and had his fair share of Whoppers (did I mention.... YUM!) while Adrienne opened up enough stickers to legally change her name to Lisa Frank.
Despite the onslaught of chocolate, mini-Pillow Pets, Bitty Baby outfit, Darth Vader doll, Play Doh and, of course, stickers, the main attraction was the Easter Bunny's carrot. Every few minutes she'd head back to the carrot, intent on experiencing the Easter Bunny's life by eating what he ate....
While the Easter Bunny IS aware that we're trying to cut back on the poop-toot-golo talk these ridiculously over-priced jelly bean manure makers were just TOO hysterical to pass up.
Time to make the Easter eggs!!
So in the Disney Family magazine that I'm constantly reading, getting frustrated with & whining about here on this blog, I happened to see this craft and it was just too cool not to try.
Crayon shavings + hot eggs = VERY trippy Easter eggs!!!
OK, OK... on to the REAL thing.....
Plop, plop, fizz, fizz...
SO SO SO excited!!!
Taking a break to eat an egg. Turns out she's not a fan of the yolk.
Ehhhh, who needs a curly Q of a whimpy wire dipper when their own 5-fingered version works SO much better!
Nick's pride & joy.
And Adrienne's complete disgust with it.
So despite having a few cracks, Nick put his blood, sweat & tears into dying this ONE egg. He actually put so much work into it that it turned white again. Well, except for the INSIDE which turned a lovely Shrek-green. 
The finished product!
And yes, even the brown-bag-nests were ripped from the headlines of my arch nemisis, the Disney Family magazine.... Maybe it's not evil doctrine in print after all.....
Morning isn't over yet..... no way, jose!! (hey... maybe we ARE Latino.....!??)
We're heading to Elena's this afternoon and I really wanted the kids to bring their OWN contribution to the festivities... Monkey cake it is!
(Although my favorite thing about this picture, hard to see here, is the debris field that Hurricane Easter Bunny left strewn across the family room floor...)
Monkey cake making proved to be a perfect analogy to their personalities:
Adrienne - 1 piece at a time. Then a dainty shake-shake-shake.
Nick - Shoves EVERY piece in there & slams the bag.
And what better musical accompaniment than The Wiggles 'Do the Monkey'!??!
If the Easter Bunny can eat it.... then...
SO..... CAN....... I!!!
Hunting, gift-opening, sweets-eating, egg-dying, baking, carrot-gnawing....
*phew*
Time for some hand-in-hand R&R....