Tuesday, April 14, 2009

hippity, hoppity, tradition's on its way

we are not your typical easter peeps.
let me expound this thought with a picture:


i am considering sending a copy to heff,
to see if i can star in one of his episodes of "the girls next door."
i think i'd be a front runner.

but anyway.

we don't buy our kids easter outfits, and have never before laid out any baskets, giving a 6 foot bunny all the credit. i don't care if others do these traditions, it just hasn't been my thing.

and here's why:

1) we have pretty much been too poor for the majority of our married life to justify new church clothes for us all at the same time.

2) i am too lazy to get all worked up with easter baskets for a little boy who was too young to care/know what was going on in the first place.

that being said.

i've been feeling a bit like i am a bad mom.

and here's why:

1) i never decorate for the holidays. even last christmas, we didn't even put up a tree because we knew we'd be in utah for like 4 weeks & not come home until january. bah humbug.

2) i don't do the "make everything green for st. patrick's day," or "make heart shaped sugar cookies for valentine's day." it's not that i don't have intentions to do it. i'm always thinking, ooh, that would be fun. but it's the preparation that somehow gets me. i just don't prepare ahead. then, suddenly it's valentine's day eve and i've got nothin'. so what's a girl to do? that's right, pretend like she doesn't care enough to do it. (secret's out...she does care.)


this never before bothered me, until i realized that as our own little family, aside from our nightly ritual of everyone taking their multivitamins after dinner,
(FYI: i take dora, caleb takes sponge bob, and ben gets stuck with rugrats. don't feel badly for him, he deserves it.)
we have pretty much zero traditions.

and that bothered me.

so for easter ben & i decided to change things up a bit. i shopped around, and after realizing that we still can't afford new sunday clothes, got caleb a non-church shirt for $5.99, and nothing for the rest of us.

but i did raid the dollar section at target and got some stuff to fill caleb's basket (that's right, i said a basket! be amazed). because let's just put it out there, the kid doesn't like candy so much. he would be much happier with a peeled cucumber and a stick of cheese. so he got some stickers, a couple of new books and play-doh eggs.

what did leah get in her basket? some of her own diapers (unused, we're not that bad), some of her own butt cream, a little stuffed duck that we were given as a gift, and a little milky way bunny for her parents to share.

the best part of it all is caleb's newfound obsession with easter egg hunts. the eggs are no longer filled with anything...in fact, they haven't been for the last 12 hunts we've done since saturday. but he doesn't care. it's the thrill of the chase--er, the hunt.

and i must say, after seeing the happiness in caleb's eyes when he found his basket & dollar store items, it is one that will probably be happening again next year.

and a tradition is born.

though i'm sure that next year we still won't be shelling out $22 bucks for new easter clothes. so i guess that's another tradition we will keep. but the tradition of being poor isn't necessarily one that i would like to carry on throughout the rest of my life.

you thought this was the end of the post, didn't you? it would make a lovely ending. however...

after we got home from a delicious easter dinner with our friends the goldings, we realized that we have never taken the "traditional easter picture" that everyone seems to take. so here is our attempt:


fancy, isn't it? notice the close proximity to which caleb's leg is touching leah's. i am amazed he has a half-smile on his face because i can see his fingers are clenched together in fear.


and leah's little headband? yep, not something she normally wears. however she doesn't have much hair & so we thought she'd look more like a lady with it on. that is until i pulled it off at the end of the night & saw that not only had it left a huge dent in her head, it had rubbed off a patch of the little hair that she had. so we probably won't be doing that again.

a happy easter to one and all.

7 comments:

K Harker said...

Wow look at that hot bunny and I'm not talking about Caleb!

I have never done the "Easter Bunny" thing either, until this year. E has had Egg hunts since she could walk, so about 4 (one each year, she could walk) but I never say "the Easter Bunny brought you a basket and hid some eggs for you." I thought I'd never do that.
Well this year she was the one who said "mom why are you buying all the stuff for my Easter Basket? The Easter Bunny does that for me." I didn't know what to say. I never even told her about any Easter Bunny.
I didn't know what to say, I played along anyway at first. I felt weird doing it but C put it nicely. He told me to give her a year or two of that fun part and she'll grow out of it, she won't believe in the "Easter Bunny" forever. So we played along it was fun actually!

Any way I'm usually the same way. I don't make everything green on St. Patty's Day. Mainly because that is E's B-Day. I don't do valentines stuff etc. So don't feel bad you're not the only one. I'm lucky if I do Easter and Christmas!

Glad you got the traditional picture because your kids are so cute!

Francis and Fawn Becker said...

Awwww look at you being all cute and traditional....can I count on you to host the Easter Party next year??? Miss Leah is soooo pretty! Want to come over tomorrow?? Or later today??? Call me Kali wants to play with Mr. Caleb.

Marci Ward said...

so sad little leah lost some hair...and the headband was SO cute...darn!

ohmylanta said...

Lyns,

I'm a big fan of traditions...even when they are stupid. My kids need to have some positive memories to balance out the times when I yell at them for giving away the hair bow that I spent 40min. working on. You know what I mean? Tell you what though...... careful to not spoil them right off the bat - I figure Easter is not another Christmas but if you over do it one year, the kids wonder why they got ripped off the next. good for you. Caleb looked so cute in his bunny ears.

S and RA Beazer said...

This is the first year I have ever really decorated for easter. I hung a few shiny eggs on my holiday tree. I too didn't do much in the line of easter bunny stuff. I guess it's just another of those bad mother things. Besides, I think christmas is more my thing.

Clancy Pants said...

Bosom buddies... you and me. I suck at decorating for holidays. I don't even own any decor for anything except Halloween and Christmas. And I only get it out because my kids are old enough to be excited for the "getting it out" part. And I always think of all the fun things I'm going to do and then, Valentines/St. Paddy's/Easter/whatever-holiday-besides-Christmas rolls around and I got nothin'.

Bosom. Buddies. Nice to know I'm not alone in my good intentions.

Although, I don't do Easter for a different reason. My kids do get new clothes, but I usually make them myself. (not this year, but most other years) The main reason we don't do baskets/bunnies etc. is I feel we've perverted enough holidays that are supposed to be about Christ into something... else. I just leave this one alone with my thoughts.

campblondie said...

It must be done, my friend, it must be done. Sounds like a great Easter to me. I would have loved a new non church shirt myself.