The Girls' Easter Baskets

 When it came time to start thinking Easter baskets this year, I was so glad for this post I wrote last year.  First, it told me whose basket is whose!  This is the first time I've used the same baskets as the last year, and I guess it matters.  It also helped me remember how much it takes to fill them, and what they got last year so I can do some things the same and some different. 

The girls are on spring break this week, which means I didn't know when I could get it all out and take pictures and everything, but the older two are on a Grandma sleepover today so as soon as Poppy went down, the Easter baskets - and camera - came out.

The baskets are not so equal this year, and therefore not so easy to write out.  But here we go anyway.

• All three girls are getting a DVD.  Max & Ruby for Poppy (a steal on the Easter shelf at UNIQUE), Princess Sing-Alongs for the other two.  We borrowed volume 1 from a friend for our Vermont trip, and they loooved it, so we will indulge them.  Truth be told, I kinda like the songs myself, or at least most of them, and I like listening to them in the car better than dialog when I can't see the video.  So we kinda all win.

• All three will also get an Elephant & Piggie book.  Ginger's preschool class has been reading these, so we got some from the library and our family became instant fans.  We love Mo Willems' Knuffle Bunny series, though the pigeon books aren't our thing.  But Gerald & Piggie are the BEST, with hilarious illustrations and truly early reader text, the simple but clever situations these friends get themselves in - and out of - are a delight over and over.

• Got Milk? Flavoring straws - these used to be hard to find but now they're at both Whole Foods and Target - yay for fun straws and drinking more milk!

Now things break down a bit.

• Hazel and Ginger are both getting a Calef Brown poetry book - silly, kinda nonsensical poetry, stories and art.  Our very cultured cousins recommend them highly.

• The older girls are also both getting an eeBoo activity book, while Poppy Maude is getting my new favorite board book, "What's Wrong, Little Pookie?" by Sandra Boynton.  We have a lot of Boynton books; I don't know how this one escaped my awareness before, but it is so adorable and so perfect for a 2-to-4-year old, at least in our family.  Pookie is crying, and Mom asks, "What's wrong?"  Pookie won't answer.  So Mom guesses a variety of things that could be wrong - silly things that distract and amuse Pookie, until at the end Mom asks again, "If it's none of those things, then what's wrong?"  And Pookie just hugs her and whispers, "I forget."  Love it.

• The older girls each get a necklace, taken off the card and placed in a plastic egg.

• Ring Pops, tic tacs, and 4-color pens for Hazel and Ginger

• Ginger and Poppy both get new thermos funtainer water bottles - they are our favorite for summer and lunch boxes, but Ginger's is old and falling apart; Poppy is old enough to have her own.

•  Poppy loves Strawberry Shortcake.  We have a few DVD's, and she has two figurines like these from McDonald's a year or two ago.  She treasures them, so I went on ebay and got her a complete set from 2010 happy meals.  Clever seller; I never would have thought of keeping happy meal toys, but you never know what suckers like me will buy.

 And of course, a little candy.  I ordered my Easter chocolate from See's this year, and probably will every year from now on.  See's is just so good, why get anything else?  I put a couple of these filled eggs in plastic eggs in their baskets. 

 Also everyone got a Scotchmallow Egg, my personal favorite. 

 And one last plastic egg filled with each girl's other favorite candy - jelly beans for Poppy, Skittles for Ginger, pretzel M&M's for Hazel. 

And that's it, there's the baskets for 2012!  I just didn't want more junk around the house, so with the exception of Poppy's dolls, stuck with useful media, some treats, and just a few extras.  Happy Easter to us all!

*Wondering about Ed's basket?  Well, I waffle, but this year he's not getting one, and he won't care one bit.  I'll make a good Easter dinner, and maybe fold his laundry or schedule his dentist appointment, something thoughtful and useful that means more to him than candy that just sits around.  After 10 1/2 years, I'm learning.