Easter Baskets

While I realize today is Cinco de Mayo, I haven't caught up from Easter yet!

It has always been tradition in our family to have to find your Easter basket on Easter morning.  When I was a child the Easter Bunny always hid mine.  Here too, the Easter bunny does an excellent job of hiding Robert, Molly, Jack and Tim's baskets.  There are only two rules (there always has to be rules).  They include the fact that the basket will be hidden somewhere on the first floor of our house.  It would be just plain creepy to have an enormous bunny sneaking around in the night while we sleep!  And the other rule is that if in your search you come across a siblings basket, you need to leave it exactly where it is and not say a thing!  The Easter bunny tries "his" very, very best to hide it in a different spot every year, as difficult as that must be for him!  And he also tries to make it very challenging.  This is very much appreciated in the morning when I get to make a pot of coffee, let out the dog and focus my eyes long before anyone has discovered their basket.

Like Christmas morning, we also need to agree on an "appropriate" time to wake up on Easter Sunday.  Five in the morning is not appropriate and anything before 7 am really needs to be negotiated!!!  This year Jack whined long enough to get us to agree to 6:30 am.  Like clockwork, at 6:25 am the twins scampered into our bedroom to announce it was "time".  They rushed downstairs to begin their search.  Molly crawled out of bed closer to 7 am.  Robbie had to be woken up at 8 am!  And the only reason he didn't happily sleep until noon is because he had to work at Wegmans at 9 am.  He was a really cranky bunny on Easter morning.

Jack found his basket first.  It was very carefully tucked behind a stack of towels in the linen closet.

Timothy was next to find his basket.  It too, was hidden quite well by that sneaky rabbit.  Timmy's was in the clothes dryer UNDER a pile of clothes.  Now let me just note something I find frustratingly interesting.  My boys can never find anything, ever, especially if they have to look under a pile in order to find homework or clean socks.  Miraculously, they are able to successfully find their baskets. Hmmmmm!

Molly was last to find her basket.  Yes last, and I do know there is one more hidden, but I will get to that.  The enormous Rabbit that comes in the night was tall enough and tricky enough to hide hers behind the pirate ship on top of the toy shelf in the family room.  Thank goodness Molly, at 5'6", could see it and reach it because I was content to sit with my coffee on the couch and watch my children destroy search my house to uncover their treats.

The last basket, Robert's, was hidden in the computer cabinet behind the camera case.  In the long search one of the younger kids came across it, but because of rule number 2 they were sworn to secrecy.  However, Mr. I cannot believe I have to work all day on Easter Sunday after I worked until midnight last night, was in no mood to go looking!  I would have said just leave it then, and he can look for it when he has more time and he is less cranky.  However, I believe he bribed a sibling to find his basket, hand deliver it to him and they could  have a Peep for the effort.  How sad!  Go ahead Robert, just move to Boston already.  Oh wait, I am moving to another blog post ahead of schedule, I think.

I did notice there is another rule (although it is an unwritten rule and I think it is one of courtesy).  It seems as though, over the years, the kids have all agreed that you are not to touch anything in other people's baskets.  "You can look, but don't touch!"

If  you are wondering what the Bunny puts in the Easter baskets I will tell you that he tends to be pretty stingy with the candy! In fact, the baskets tend to have practical items like tooth brushes and bathing suits.  Although there is fun stuff too, like fake nails, Legos, and Yu-gi-oh cards.  The kids were all delighted with their baskets this year, even my grumpy bunny Robbie who had to push carts all day at work!