Monday, April 9, 2012

The Bunny came and the Bunny went

The Chocolate Easter Weekend
Oh boy is Easter an exciting time in our home!  Just the thought of chocolate eggs and bunnies drive Tomato and Bacon wild with anticipation.  Then add in Hot Cross Buns (and the new chocolate chip ones) and you have a recipe for a sugar-induced, hyperactive weekend.



The stores have been marketing their Easter goodies since February so the girls have been counting the sleeps to when the Easter bunny would bounce through their garden depositing various yummy treats for them to find. 

The long weekend started off extremely well with Meema (Grandma pronounced by a 1 year old Tomato and the name stuck) having the 2 girls over for a sleep-over.  The girls were so excited but nobody was more excited than Hubby and me!  Hubby even got up for the 3am feed woohoo!!  We then got to shop for Easter eggs with only a baby (what are new parents on about?  One infant in a pram, One child waking up at night and One child needing breakfast (a quick bottle) and then going back to sleep!  Well it was pure bliss.  Then more bliss followed as choc chip Hot Cross Buns were hand delivered to us on the couch by Meema (probably thanking us for coming to collect our tots - hee hee).  BTW interesting security system American Swiss have going on at the Mall, when the alarm is activated smoke begins to pour out of the store, coupled with a strobe light (to induce jewelry-thief epilepsy I assume) wowee I felt like I should get down and boogie, before I realized it was a security breach!   The sign on the door does state that in the event of alarm activation a “smoke cloak” will be set in motion – ooooh a smoke cloak, exciting stuff!

Easter Saturday
On Saturday we went for lunch with fab friends at feastt in Parktown North where I just happen to know the chef (yes I am name-dropping because one day he’ll be famous and I want people to know that I know famous people – watch this space…).  Anyway the food was to die for - if you haven’t been there yet, get your butt over there and ask for my dessert (yes I have a dessert named after me – see how I surreptitiously managed to mention that too?  I truly rock :-)  Anyhoo in a similar incident (okay not really) when the builder needed paint colors for our house I couldn’t decide on an existing color so eventually I made my own color which is called…… wait for it….. Lisa (I know, how original, but I never forget it when I need more) but paint never really floated my boat but now I also have something close to my heart named after me, yes, chocolate.  When you go there ask for the Lisa Chocolate Torte – go on, don’t just stand there, go and order one!  But let me first warn you, it’s not for sissies, if you’re the type that opens up a slab of chocolate and has one block and puts the rest away for another day, this dessert is NOT for you, but order it anyway, have your one spoon, say “oh my this is so rich” and bring the rest for me – ok?   Sorted.  PS - If you ask for the Sarah Chocolate Torte you'll probably also get the same thing but just humor me ;-)

Easter Sunday
Okay, I must admit and yes, you probably guessed it already, I am the Easter bunny (shhhh don’t tell anyone).   Any parent with more than one child will understand the one and only rule of the hunt – at the end, we put all our eggs into one basket (ha ha yes this does ring a bell) and we share all findings equally amongst the egg hunters (and a few for the basket holder).

In previous years the girls were smaller and less observant so it was quite easy to manipulate the Easter egg hunt.  I would purchase a small box of marshmallow eggs and hide them around the garden with a few small bunnies.  The girls would find an egg and race to show me and put it in the communal big basket.  I quickly realized that a box of eggs didn’t go very far with 2 children rampantly looking, so to prolong the excitement, while the girls were hunting in the bushes, Dad would grab a handful of already discovered eggs out of my basket and re-hide them.  I know, very sneaky but this led to many more exciting discoveries and the shrieks of excitement were just divine for us parents and when it came to the sharing part nobody noticed that there were a lot fewer eggs in the basket than were actually retrieved.  Everyone was happy, okay well maybe not the neighbors, but maybe they don't like sleeping in on public holiday Sundays, you never know ;-)

But Tomato is getting close to 6 years old and prides herself on her counting abilities and she has also inherited some chocaholic tendencies, so this year I had to revert to the normal Easter hunt being  "what you find, you actually get".  So I nipped downstairs while the girls were distracted upstairs with the iPod and The Big iPod (the iPad) and I quickly hid the eggs.  Bacon got distracted by the pop-up chicken inside a plastic egg, so Tomato found most of the chocolate ones.  The girls were delighted that the bunny had been within their reach and eaten one of their home-grown tomatoes that they had left for him!  They smashed 3 eggs before I managed to step in and reason with them that they need to eat breakfast before resuming the chocolate buffet.  Bacon agreed and promptly ordered chocolate Pronutro for breakfast!!  Seriously I don’t know where they get this gene from!!

After the home-hunt it was lunch with Granny and Grandpa and the bunny had visited there too, so by last night Bacon and Tomato were over-sugared and shattered.

Easter Monday
Today was date-with-daddy day so Tomato was up bright and early (much to our horror) and dressed to go out to the Planetarium with Daddy (she loves planets and space and of course spending time with Daddy).  They had a wonderful day seeing planets and eating ice cream and I had a wonderful day with the 2 littlies.  It hits home when you realize that you hardly hear the little one’s voice because Tomato is always so much louder and dominates the conversation, so it was nice to just chat to Bacon with Lettuce gurgling quietly in the background - wait until he starts talking - yikes!
 
In the mall, a very kind, rather good-looking guy offered to help me as I was pushing the pram with one hand and the trolley, with Bacon in it, with the other.  I refused saying that it was easier than it looked and he looked like he didn’t believe me, but he didn’t know that this was actually a piece of cake. Seriously it was.  I wasn’t having to break up a fight between who’s leg was touching whose arm in the trolley, or trying to find “the walking/ running away from me, daughter” while doing this same trolley/ pram-maneuver so I was actually having a relaxed day, but only other 3-children parents would have the keen eye to pick up on this and realize that this was indeed, relaxation.

So Hubby got home with Tomato at about 3pm.  I had a quick chat to my brother Dorothy (I call him Dorothy because he now lives in Aus) and we were off for an early dinner to a restaurant that had a play area so Hubby and I could actually talk about our day!  We were home and the children bathed, teeth brushed, stories read and kisses deposited by 7.30pm yeeha!  That's why I've actually had some time to type this!

All-in-all a FABULOUS weekend!

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