It's hard enough with Santa, however I can still reason that the concept behind Santa is the giving of love and heartfelt gifts to the children, just as Jesus gave his life to all of us, his children. But the whole Easter Bunny thing, isn't setting so well with me anymore. So instead of loading up baskets, I picked up a few things from Walmart to give to the kids, A Disney princess pillow & blanket combo for each of the girls and two Disney princess pop up hampers. For Alex I'd picked up a microfiber Incredible Hulk blanket and a white bunny rabbit that I had in my Easter box stash. I then had bottles of bubbles and a container of sidewalk chalk for each of them.
I wasn't really able to give a reason for all of this, but not wanting to leave the kids out when we've done the Easter Bunny in past years and they had been talking about it all week. However we did talk as a family for the morning about why Easter was so important to our family and the significance of Jesus dying on the cross for our sins. I had also taken Alex's Angel he'd made at preschool the prior day and set it up in the midst of everything and we talked about the reason behind Easter and what the importance of it was, not the gifts that people receive.
As the kids were going over thier goodies, Katie flat out asks me, "Are you and Daddy the Easter Bunny?" I looked at her and since she has been sitting on the fence since before Christmas with the whole Santa concept, I wasn't going to flat out lie to her since she'd directly asked me. She hadn't directly asked before, but since she's been onto the concept for a while, I went ahead and simply said to her, "shh, not right now." She said ok, we can talk about it when Meaghan and Alex aren't around, as they had ran into the other room engrossed in what the Easter Bunny had brought them.
Alex and Meaghan take off to play with thier new chalk and I answer Katie truthfully, that we are indeed the Easter Bunny. She quickly asks if we were also Santa and the Tooth Fairy as well. I answer her truthfully on those as well and then follow up that while she understood who these people really were, that I asked that she didnt share this discovery with Meaghan and Alex yet, to let them enjoy a few more years of believing in these things for now. Katie happily agreed and all was good.
The goodies:
For the afternoon, we walked over to Dad and Sue's for a brunch, an Easter Egg Hunt for the kids, and general fellowship.
Mike & the kids walking ahead of Rei and I down the sidewalk to Dad's house:
After we arrived, the kids and I made this really yummy Monkey bread that Sue had the recipe for. You cut up bisquits and roll the quarters into bals, and then roll them in the cinnamon/sugar mixture and place it in the bundt pan to pour a butter, sugar, cinnamon mixture over the top and bake it for a while.
AFter completeing this, the kids were ready to head outside, but we wanted to keep them clean in thier easter dresses, until at least until the rest of the family arrived.
Katie in a spring dress blowing a bubble.
Alex dressed in his vest, shirt, and dress slacks and dipping the wand to blow some bubbles.
A close up of Meaghan looking over her bubble wand
After everyne got there, we changed the kids into thier play clothes while the adults hid the easter eggs for the kids. Each had a separate area to hunt for eggs in.
Katie kneeling down under the bench to pick up egs and put in her grocery bag.
Alex bent over picking up a hidden egg n the stones.
Meaghan bent over picking up an egg out of a flower pot.
Katie and Great Grandmother looking for eggs in the ground cover together.
Rei relaxing in the grass with the sunshine glowing off her coat.
Once all of the eggs were found, the kids gathered at the bench and were comparing and sharing each other's bags checking out what they got!
All three kids hovering together in a circle aroudn the end of the bench, bent over thier bags and peering in to see what they got.
Once all the eggs were found, everyone went inside for the kids to sit at thier kiddy card table and open up thier eggs for what they got. Grandpa helped Alex with his eggs as Daddy collected the plastic eggs to be recycled for next year. :)
After all the fun, egg hunt, and just spending time together, it was time to say our goodbyes and head home.
1 comment:
The Easter Bunny is a toughie. Every year the pastor has plastic eggs with peeps inside, and compares giving and recieving eggs to the giving and recieving of new life that Jesus gave us. I'm glad to hear God and church is so important to your family! That's wonderful!
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