Pre-Easter Fun

Every year the local Lions Club has a big community breakfast on the Saturday before Easter. One of my friends put a call out for volunteers to bake items for the kids' cake walk so I said I would make something. My goal was to get finished on Friday morning while I was still at home prior to going to work in the afternoon. It was a very windy, snowy and cold day so I was not in the mood to bundle up, scrape the car and go to the store before the sun came up. As the morning wore on, I found more and more excuses to put off the shopping trip. Finally, I made myself get out about 11 AM, which, of course, was already cutting it close. I also had to stop at the office supply store to get a few items for work. After running both of those errands and stopping by the hotel to check the mail, it was almost noon.

I'd found a recipe for cupcakes with coconut "grass" and candy eggs on top--meant to look like an Easter basket. It seemed easy enough! At home, I dyed the coconut with food coloring and stuck it in the oven to dry out. Meanwhile, I was going to make the cupcake batter. What? No cupcake pans? How can that be? I searched high and low, but apparently I borrowed some from Rich last time I made cupcakes. None to be found. By this time, I needed to get ready for work.

After work, Rich and I had plans to go to a friend's for wine, cheese, potluck supper and a movie. Months ago, some of us read the book King Leopold's Ghost, which led us to read Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, which led to discussion about the movie "Apocalypse Now" being loosely based on Heart of Darkness, which led us to want to see the movie. I'd seen it years ago but didn't remember a lot of it, and some of our friends had never seen it at all. We enjoyed eating and chatting and the movie was just exhausting (in more ways than one, since it was 3 hours long). I'm glad I watched it again but it wore me out. So we finally got home after 10 PM and I still had to finish the cupcakes (in case you were wondering where this was going). They turned out pretty cute, though! I am proud of them!

So I had to get up early this morning to deliver the cupcakes to the school gym by 8 AM. While there, it was mentioned that the Lions didn't have anyone to play the Easter Bunny for the kids. Someone asked if I would be willing to come back at 10 and put on the bunny suit. Okay, sure...that sounds like fun!

This brought back a memory from my girls' childhood. When I worked at West Texas Rehab, a traveling show of Alvin and the Chipmunks came to town. Alvin, Theodore and Simon showed up at the Rehab to sing and dance for our patients, much to everyone's delight. For some reason, we were told that we could borrow the suits and go around to local organizations with a cassette tape player of Chipmunk songs--I am not sure now why they would give us their suits, but they did. Two of my coworkers and I were "volunteered" for this task. We decided that we would stop in at my girls' day care center and entertain the kids there for a bit. Unfortunately, it did not go over all that well and one of my own kids was screaming and hiding under the table in fear. I had to lift up my head and say, "It's okay, see, it's Mommy!"

Here are Pipa's cute boys with the Easter Bunny. I am telling you, that suit is VERY hot. The head is huge and heavy! I was sweating like a maniac under there! But it was lots of fun to see the kids get so excited and want to talk to the bunny or hug the bunny. Some were a little scared but were willing to give me a high-five, if not a hug.

I had the most fun on the cakewalk. I suppose because the suit affords a great deal of anonymity, I didn't mind at all acting like a fool. I was dancing and spinning and shaking my booty while the kids laughed and followed me around the circle. It was so funny that even though my face could not be seen, any time someone took a photo I was smiling my biggest smile under that big head. Now I realize that the bunny's facial expression never changes. :)

The breakfast was a big success, thanks to the hard work of my friends Hilary and Debbie and all of the rest of the Lions.

From there, I went to the office and did a little bit of work. Rich is very busy with several events going on this weekend, including Easter brunch tomorrow. Tonight, there's a 'hoe-down' at the hotel, also sponsored by the Lions. We may stop in for a little while if Rich is not too tired after his long day. It's been snowing off and on. As I posted on Facebook yesterday, I'm dreaming of a white...Easter.