My secret life as the Easter Bunny

We don't celebrate Easter as such, we're not Christians so it isn't a religous thing for us at all. However, it does often coincide with the Sikh celebration of Vasaikhi which marks the formation of the Sikh faith. So in that sense we do make a big deal of it.

On the last day of term I organised an Easter egg hunt for all the children in Brown Bear's class with all the mums kindly donating chocolate for the goody bags and controlled chaos while the kids searched for the plastic eggs that were hidden all over the pub garden. It was great fun and they all enjoyed it very much.

Last week I took the bears to Bromley and we went for a nice lunch, played in a fantastic playground in the sunshine and took part in an Easter hunt to find the bunnies hidden in shop windows. It was quite a walk to find them all, but the boys loved it and at the end they got a chocolate egg for their trouble. "Can we eat it now ?" asked Brown Bear, and I said they could as they'd been so good.

Finding a bunny in a shop window 

The next day I took them to Ikea for yet another egg hunt which again was a bit of a trek, with Brown Bear writing down all the answers on his sheet and at the end the boys both got an ice cream cone.

Tonight I've been sorting all the eggs and gifts the boys have been given into separate bags and am astonished at how much they have been given. Our lovely generous families and neighbours have all given them Easter gifts in addition to our own presents for them. Every year we have an egg hunt at home and I hide lots of small eggs around the garden with a big egg at the end. This year they will already have got so much chocolate I'm not sure they can handle any more.

Tomorrow we're surprising the boys and going to a steam railway with another Easter egg hunt. It's the perfect combination of steam trains and chocolate, I can't imagine anything my boys would love more.

Ok, so none of these are especially traditional activities, but they all involve an element of searching for clues, writing things down and a treat at the end. I mention this because rather than just handing them a chocolate or an ice cream - which of course I could do - they are doing something to 'earn' it, working something out or finding things. They get a sense of achievement from taking part and are rewarded with a treat at the end.

A few sweeties for Easter 

Do I spoil my children ? Yes of course I do. It makes up for all the times that I feel incompetent, useless or think I've been overly hard on them.  It's my job to raise my children to be kind, thoughtful, helpful people. It's also my pleasure to make them smile and laugh. To give them the pure joy of having a chocolate or a sweet just because and for them to enjoy it guilt free. I write them notes from the Tooth Fairy, leave them little traces to indicate that Father Christmas has been and pop little secret notes where they can find them from me just to tell them I love them.

Now I have to hide chocolate in the garden and leave clues from the Easter Bunny - shh don't tell anyone. 

An egg hunt, some tree climbing and an offer we can't refuse :)

Over the Easter weekend we had hoped for warm weather - but not too warm - so that we could do our annual Easter Egg Hunt in the garden. With two boys taking part this year I bought new collecting buckets in fetching yellow and we made an early start to ensure there was plenty of time to eat the finds and to prevent any animal pilferage. As it was a little damp underfoot they put on outdoor shoes and matching hoodies to seek out the tiny chocolate bunnies, the beanie filled eggs and finally the big eggs they all got - yes even Daddy.

In the afternoon the weather was so nice that we decided to take a trip to a local park so with one boy on his scooter and another in the buggy we trotted off down the hill and saw that a lot of other families with children were doing the same - probably also trying to wear off the effects of chocolate overload I imagine ! You may recall my big boy has a thing about climbing trees at the moment so he was delighted when we spotted this massive tree with enormous exposed roots and lovely, crunchy pods underfoot.

The next morning was a lot sunnier so Hubbie kindly took the boys outside to kick around a football so I had the house to myself for a little while. I did nothing more exciting than a bit of washing up and sorting out, but it was much easier - and faster - without the small persons around.

While the boys were outside I heard a jangling sound and I was puzzled what it was. I did wonder if it was a rag and bone call or something similar so I went out the front of the house to look and imagine my surprise when I saw a fire engine a few doors down from us ! My boys love fire engines and I called them to come and see the real life one that was in their road. I have never seen my big boy move as fast as this when I've asked him to do something.

The kind chaps on the engine were checking fire hydrants in our road and they were more than happy to show my boys all the equipment on the fire truck. As a devotee of Fireman Sam my boy asked to see all the axes, tried out a hose and even checked out the ladders. We were invited to pop over to the fire station any time to see more engines so with a few more days of school hols I think we might just take them up on that :)

This post is being shared with the #countrykids linky hosted by the lovely Fiona of Coombe Mill