The Easter Bunny

Up to now, Easter's come and gone without much ado from my daughter. But on Friday she came home from pre-school, shrieking "Easter's on Sunday and I can't wait for the Easter Bunny and the eggs!!"

Ruh-roh.

It would have been easy -- and was tempting -- to hit the grocery store, grab a plastic basket & plastic "bedding," and a half-dozen plastic eggs to hide around the house.

But drawing inspiration from friends like Danielle of It Starts With Me and Ellen of House Behind the Other Houses, I'm trying to rethink things -- use a little less plastic. And more imagination.

So I dialed it back, remembering simpler times from my childhood. I grabbed 4 jumbo eggs; used a needle to tap a 1/4" hole in one side and a tiny hole in the other; held each egg over a bowl and blew hard through the tiny hole to push the innards out the bigger hole.* Filled each egg with a little tap water and blew it out to clean them up.

I then thought up a few hiding places and a few rhymes, and stuck a rolled-up note with a clue in each egg.

This morning came, and when Ruby opened the door to get the newspaper, she was greeted by a rolled-up note, from the Easter Bunny:

The note was met with another shriek of delight. "The Easter Bunny! And he used one of my hairbands to roll up the letter!" (It was handy.)

Of course the first clue led to her bookcase, where she found & happily destroyed the first eggshell:

This clue led her to the bathroom, where a cup on the sinktop revealed:

We have a game where you stack blocks, put Shaggy & Scooby Doo on top, and then pop out blocks Jenga-style until it all comes crashing down. After a little head-scratching, Ruby dashed off to the game, and found:

Okay, this one's a bit of a "gimme," but it was my first time being clever with a bunch of clues, forgive me. At any rate, a quick run to her rain boots revealed the last clue:

In a fit of insanity, we bought her a kids' drum set for Christmas/Hannukah last year. Which she of course loves. Sorry neighbors!

Anyway, after thinking about the clue for a minute, and ruling out lightning & thunder, she hit on the answer. And there found her prize.

All chocolate bunnies come in plastic now. I guess I could have made one from scratch. But I'm not there yet. Still, I bought one that had the least plastic I could find, and it was apparently delicious!

I am amazed at the folks who have vowed to remove plastic from their lives, and done it. It's not our reality. At least not yet. But the past two years of picking it up from places it was never meant to be reminds me that, despite our best efforts, it gets away. So any chance to cut down, get creative, and get a big smile of wonder & joy from our daughter from the result -- that's so worth it!

Happy Easter -- and Happy Passover -- to you & yours.

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* This was a win for me because it meant scrambled eggs for breakfast and then lunch too!