I am constantly lying to my children. Aunt Lolo always seems to think that there is something inherently wrong with this but strangely enough, I never feel bad about it. Sometimes I just overexaggerate things. Your little fingers will burn right off if you touch that stove. All your teeth will fall out if you don't brush your teeth. You may think I'm a fan of the ol' "Scared Straight" parenting method but I tend to believe it is more a family trait than anything else. How many times have we heard the story about G-ma James saying, "It's not worth saying if you can't exaggerate." (Not enough if I got that quote wrong :) Still...those are merely exaggerations and even Lolo can look past that. But sadly enough, I don't stop there. Take Easter.We had a lovely Easter this past Sunday. Robert was around...always a plus. We dressed up and took a couple of pictures after church (A lot of effort without a great result.) We came home, cooked about 18 eggs and spent a good long time dying, coloring and accidentally cracking them. (Only 3 made it through the decorating process unscathed.) And then I told the kiddies to put all of their eggs in a basket and put it on the porch and wait for the Easter Bunny to hop by and hide them. Whooweee, were they excited. They spent about 5 minutes with their noses against the glass waiting for that giant furry creature to come by. Finally I called them back and told them that due to the very sneaky nature of our mythical bunny, we'd have to avoid looking out the window for a few minutes. So I pulled out a book to read and Robert excused himself to take out the garbage. Half way through the story all three were sneaking furtive side-glances out the window to see if they could catch a glimpse of fur. Austin, my resident nerd, uncharacteristically started asking, "How long is our book, anyways." and "Aren't we done yet?" The kids were at the door before I finished the last sentence on our last page. Screams of "He came! He loved our eggs!" came blasting back through the front door before I put the book down. And I thought...I just might do this every year.So, I may regret lying to my children one day. But not today. And if things end up going south in my kids lives, they'll need something to blame it on. If only mama never told us that Easter bunny was coming by and hiding our eggs...I wouldn't have hit up the local grocery store for cash or snatch & grabbed purses from old ladies. I can see it now.
Until then, I can tell you that we had a wonderful time finding all our magically hidden eggs & treats. After the excitement died down I made a huge batch of easter-egg salad which was a colorful and tasty dinner. Yeah for Easter.