I’ve been spoiled in the last couple of years by invitations to both an Equinox celebration and an Easter party. Both geared towards children, both organized by someone else. I try, very hard, to find ways to celebrate holidays with a mindfulness, to help shape them in a way that brings meaning to my little ones. I have to say, those few occasions where someone else has done that work for me, and all I have to do is show up with, say, a pan of roasted veggies, and enjoy the show? Well, that’s a pretty swell deal. Anything that I decide to do on top of that is just gravy.

So, as our spring festivals approached and it was becoming clear that invitations were not going to be forthcoming this year (quite, quite understandable considering the schedules of the families concerned!) I had some planning to do and some decisions to make….mainly, lay low and take it easy? Or allow Crazy Mommy to step up to the plate? Now, I have to tell you Crazy Mommy usually wins out in these kinds of debates. She’s cunning, that one. But I am pleased to tell you that serenity won out and there were no scenes of me trying to stitch tiny trousers on little fairies, at three o’clock in the morning, while simultaneously trying to memorize a moving spring soliloquy, as an extra-special-gourmet-breakfast-lunch-dinner cooks in the kitchen. Not that I’ve ever been in that situation before. Ahem. No siree, not me. (and I say *ahem* again…) hmm…moving on…

We were all pretty content with a simple day at home. For food we mostly scrounged snacks and leftovers from my parent’s visit.

Baskets were done in the morning… Lara bars and fruit leather, with a scoop of organic jelly beans for those above age 3, and an extra lara bar for the one below. A little family of knitted ducks, to be shared by all, and shy, but one wee duckling. Books all around (oh, how I love books!)….”The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe” and “Spring: March~May” (a spring themed early reader, obtained for a song, off of the Waldorf Curriculum Supplies Yahoo group) for Iain; “Big-Stamp Two-Toes the Barefoot Giant: Spring Tales of Tiptoes Lightly” and “The Little House in the Fairy Wood” (printed off of Project Gutenberg, three-hole punched and bound with brass fasteners) for Elijah; and Dieren and “Spring” (well technically “Fruhling” with an umlaut over the ‘U’. How does one type an umlaut? Anyone? Petra?? How does one even spell umlaut??? Wait, wait, I looked it up! Sometimes you have to love the internet… where else could you type in “pronunciation dots over vowel” and get the correct spelling you need? For the record, Larabar is wanting an umlaut also, but I started to look up how to make one and then saw that it was far too complecated for my current attention span, and I mean really, how often am I bound to type a word requiring an umlaut?? I am however, likely to say umlaut fairly often, because, let’s face it, umlaut is fun to say.) for Galen (now after that ordeal, can you even remember what was for Galen?? I know I can’t!) . Galen also got a new amber teething necklace. His old one didn’t survive a tug-a-war, between certain little boys, who’s names shall not be mentioned…

Later in the day we did our egg hunt, with a twist! In addition to eggs, there were some mysterious cards. They had numbers on one side and either letters or blanks on the other side. When all laid out in order, they looked something like this…

hmm…I wonder what that could mean…