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Not Your Average Mom

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A tisket, a tasket, we make our Easter baskets.

March 31, 2013 by not your average mom 6 Comments

I was 35 when my husband and I got married.

I had been living in my cute little condo before that.

All alone.

It was really nicely decorated.

Almost magazine-worthy.

In my spare time on the weekends I did things like paint furniture.

You know, Martha Stewart-y kind of shit.

So when we got married I still had those Better Homes & Gardens visions in my head.

Number 1 and 2 would mess up the house and it would send me into a frenzy.

Maintaining the magazine-esque house was proving to be very difficult.

It took about a year into Number 4 when I realized it was impossible.

And, as far as I was concerned, not that important…

We never found out the sex of any of the kids before they were born.

So when Number 4 was born and we actually had a girl, I went out and bought a shitload of dresses.

And tights.

And shoes.

I had visions of the perfectly dressed and accessorized little girl.

Too bad she refused to wear any of the dresses.

Or the hair accessories.

I never even took the tags off half of the shit.

I finally gave up on the picture perfect family and home and switched my focus to just keeping the children alive and the house standing.

Which brings me to my point…

Easter baskets.

I used to buy nice baskets for the kids.

And all the grass and junk to put inside them.

Plus enough candy and junk to guarantee my dentist and his entire family could take a really nice vacation.

Then there were presents.

Because somewhere along the way, Easter had turned into a Christmas-like extravaganza.

Those baskets definitely looked magazine-worthy.

But by the time I was done, I had spent well over $200 on Easter junk. And most of it was actually junk.

Half of it was going to go directly into the garbage about an hour after the kids ripped through their baskets.

Then the kids would want to use their baskets forever.

Until, like, the 4th of July.

So they would get destroyed.

And every year I would need to get new ones.

About 3 years ago, it was the day before Easter, and I realized I had forgotten to get Easter baskets.

So we got creative.

And we made some.

And that has become our new tradition.

The kids look forward to it every year.

Yesterday at Costco I got some boxes.

easter 2013 052

I printed out a few pictures online.

easter 2013 053

And then the kids did their thing.

easter 2013 054

easter 2013 055

We cut up one box to make strips of cardboard to make handles.

easter 2013 056

Would Martha Stewart approve?

Probably not.

Would I have approved 10 years ago?

No way.

Are these going to be featured on the cover of a magazine?

Doubtful.
easter 2013 027

But are the kids happy?

And proud of their creations?

easter 2013 057

Absolutely.

And they don’t really care if there is a bunch of fake plastic grass in the bottom of their basket.

The only ones who really care about that stuff are the adults.

So our Easter baskets look like this.

easter 2013 051

They were free.

And green.

And when they start to fall apart, we’ll put them right into the recycling bin.

And next year on Easter, we’ll do it all over again.

Happy Easter 🙂

Please vote!

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Filed Under: Kids' Corner, Moneysavers Tagged With: candy, Easter, easter baskets, Easter Bunny, Easter crafts

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Comments

  1. Lisa says

    March 31, 2013 at 12:38 pm

    Those baskets look awesome! And how fun for your kids to ctreate them! And every sane parent I know HATES Easter grass! This year I made some small Easter baskets because we are traveling and I needed to hide the stuff in my bag and I used some tissue paper. I have been avoiding the Easter grass for years now! When my daughter was little, she actually used to SAVE it! Ugh!!

    Reply
  2. Lynda says

    March 31, 2013 at 12:49 pm

    Very impressive. Just remember, it might take time, but when your daughter/son calls you when they are 26 and tell you they wish you could come live with them and be their nanny/assistant/ organizer or whatever….. you know you did something right. Even thought you know if you did go live with them they would find you annoying LOL. You are making such great memories. Happy Easter!

    Reply
  3. Elisa says

    March 31, 2013 at 1:32 pm

    Love your original, “green” baskets….but you should buy your boxes…full…from the state store…two birds one stone kind of thing.

    Reply
  4. Lori says

    April 1, 2013 at 12:08 pm

    What a fabulous idea!

    Reply
  5. Tasha says

    April 1, 2013 at 12:55 pm

    Oh ya, totally love this idea!! I can’t wait until my kid is old enough to use scissors properly! We are sooo making Easter Baskets next year!

    Reply
  6. mollytopia says

    April 1, 2013 at 3:51 pm

    Fantastic idea, beautiful baskets, happy kids – well done!!!

    Reply

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