Easter Party

He pled for my help... Instead, I took a picture.

Okay, so, it’s taken me an entire week to get the Easter Party post up on the blog…  Pathetic, I know.  It’s been one of those weeks again.  Dr. Cindita was in town for a couple of days, I had CPR training, and my busy life in general…  These are the many reasons I’ve been letting the blog slide this week.  But I find myself with a few hours this Sunday morning to catch up on things before I take off to Tampa to visit friends for a couple of days.  I’m taking this opportunity to update you on our family Easter party.

We had an awesome Easter last week!  We joined J’s parents for sunrise service at the beach at 6 AM on Easter morning.  Then we came back to our house for coffee, doughnuts and naps.  Later, we invited a bunch of friends and family over for ham sandwiches, pasta salad, deviled eggs, etc.  My mom’s sister, Mimi, brought her wonderful bunny cake.  It was adorable as ever!  The homemade icing was to die for.  So good!

I found it strange that there were all sorts of Easter pinatas in the stores this year.  I had never seen them before.  Perhaps I just never noticed them in the past or maybe this pinata deal is a new thing.  They seemed to be front-and-center on the shelves this year though.  I knew that the boys would love to go to town on one of them so I obliged them.  Here is J rigging it up on the monkey bars out back.

Nothing says “resurrection of our Lord” quite like smacking a paper Easter basket with a bat…

Cutie Pie wanted nothing to do with the pinata.  I tried to help him but he wanted none of it.

After several minutes of intense batting, the Wildman and his two cousins got to the good stuff!

After the pinata was smashed to smithereens the Easter Bunny was called.  The children were herded into the house so J and Big Red could consult with the Bunny about hiding eggs in the backyard.  Thankfully, the Easter Bunny was available to come over on such short notice and hide eggs while the kids played inside.  It did not take long for him to hide all of those eggs either!

Cutie Pie enjoyed this activity much better.

It was a fun day filled with faith, fellowship, and fun!

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The Great Candy Purge 2009

I’m a pretty lax mom when it comes to my kids eating candy.  Sweets are a part of childhood and I don’t stress over the boys having a little bit.  I know that I provide them with a balanced diet of fresh fruits and veggies, plenty of dairy and protein.  And I brush their teeth religiously.  They usually have a lollipop or some other small candy in the bath as their dessert.  I’m fine with the grandmothers giving them candy or letting them eat four cookies in one sitting (and this happens more that I’d like to admit).  They have a high level of physical activity each day so whatever crap calories they consume, they surely burn it off with their daily antics.

That being said…

I cannot allow what has been going on in this house lately.  Easter has sent Wildman over the edge.  He’s been sneaking candy, hiding a stash in his room, consuming sweets on the sly, etc.  It’s driving me nuts.  If he would just ask me, I would let him have a piece or two.  But this sneaking business I just cannot tolerate.  Despite repeated requests to stop taking and eating candy without permission he still does it.  I’ve even threatened to throw away every last piece of candy in the house if he continued to sneak candy.  My blustering did no good.

This morning was the last straw.  This morning called for swift and dramatic action- for me to make good on my threats!  Do you know what I discovered when I woke up this morning at the unusually late time of 8:30 AM?  I knew it was too quiet.  Why hadn’t the boys woken us up per normal their normal protocol?

Well, I’ll tell you.

Wildman had set up a veritable picnic of Easter candy in his room.  He had taken the cute Easter egg tissue paper out of his Nana’s gift and spread it on the floor like a blanket.  Then he proceeded to open and set out various candy courses for a feast.  There was the chocolate bunny meat course (that had already been consumed by the time I’d arrived), the open lollipop assortment (to cleanse the pallet, I imagine), the pile of open Smarties for appetizers, the Starbursts (fruit course?)…  I could go on and on.

I stared at my boys feast of sugary delights with my mouth agape in horror.  I didn’t yell at them.  I calmly walked over to the picnic spread, picked it up in a single swoop and marched it to the trash can.   I told Wildman that there would be no more of this.  The candy was going away once and for all.  I threw away close to 5 lbs. of candy this morning. I had to make the sugar addicts go cold turkey.  It had gotten out of control!

Then I asked Wildman to go through the remaining plastic eggs in his basket and throw away any candy that he found.  He thought it was some sort of game and was more than willing to help.  There were no tears or protests, thankfully.  I’m sure he saw this day coming.

Just between you and I there is a secret hidden Ziploc bag of the “good” stuff that I reserved.  But everything else bit the dust.  I couldn’t throw out everything… like the chocolate…  The boys don’t have to know that though.

Has this kind of thing ever happened in your family?  What did you do?

Affirmation

Every once in a while it’s nice to hear that you are doing a good job as a parent.  Today, I got such a compliment from a mom friend of mine.  It really made my day.

Today was Breakfast with the Easter Bunny.  I bought tickets for myself, Ya-ya and the boys.  Since J had to work today he could not join us.

We began the party with the Breakfast of Champions: Hawaiian Punch and doughnuts.  The boys and I are sugar junkies.  We inhaled our doughnuts.  I didn’t get this trait from my mom, apparently.  She can’t stand doughnuts but managed to eat half of one for the sake of the kids.  Thanks for taking one for the team, Mom.

After the doughnuts and punch the kids headed outside to hunt eggs.  I use the word “hunt” loosely.  The eggs were merely scattered on the lawn.  The kids just picked them up.  They had a blast though!  Wildman collected so many eggs.  He was an egg grabbing machine.

Wildman’s friend didn’t have such a great experience though.  He got frustrated because other kids kept snagging the eggs he had his eye on.  So, he didn’t end up with many Easter eggs in his bucket.  Wildman went over to him, told him it was okay and shared his eggs with his friend.  I was so proud of him for making that kind gesture.

The little boy’s mom came up to me later and said that she wanted me to know that I was raising such a good person.  Wow.  It’s not too often that you hear something like that.  It made my day, my week, my month…  Like most moms, I never really know if I’m doing things right.  I feel like a screw up all the time.  And I’m sure I do.  Winging it in this mom gig is hard work.  But it’s so nice to hear that someone thinks I’m doing a good job.