Easter in lockdown

This was the first Easter in many years that we haven’t spent with family! We were meant to be going up to my parents’ place for Easter with them, with Hayden and I sneaking off for a couple of child-free days in the Bay of Islands. We haven’t been there since our honeymoon! And the last time we had a night away from Amelie was when she was just one, for Hayden’s birthday a couple of years ago. The plan was to head up north on Thursday, then spend Friday and Saturday nights in the Bay of Islands while Amelie spent time with her doting grandparents at their place in the country…then we’d show up on Sunday in time for a family Easter egg hunt. None of that happened obviously!

We had a lovely time here at our place though. The weather was absolutely stunning. Rather famously, our wonderful PM announced that the Easter Bunny was an essential worker, and I’m pleased to confirm they made it to our house (aka the local grocery store had Easter eggs aplenty in the lead up to the weekend). After a breakfast of cereal and hot cross buns, we had a great time hunting all around the house and garden for the Easter eggs hidden around the place – a pretty hilarious endeavour because do you know how bad three year olds are at looking?! Amelie kept putting her finger up to her chin, frowning exaggeratedly and saying “hmmmm” out loud while she looked ostentatiously around (while somehow not looking at all) in some earnest parody of someone looking very, very hard for something. It was magical.

I have to tell you the story behind Amelie’s Easter basket. This was one of our craft activities in the first week or so of lockdown. We had a few egg cartons and I suggested we use them to make Easter baskets. The first couple we made were these adorable square little baskets, beautifully decorated with little handles, constructed out of four egg ‘divots’ each. The third one came about after Amelie carefully stepped back and thought for a few minutes before picking up a whole egg carton, for a dozen eggs, attaching a handle to it and announcing that would be her basket. The decorating of it was lacklustre, to be honest (she was pretty over the activity by that time) but the intention – of having the biggest Easter basket – was pretty clever, if I do say so myself! Is it wrong of me to be proud?

In the end she got ten Easter eggs in her basket which is pretty good going. They were for the whole family to share and she accepted that very well, all things considered.

There was nothing more for Easter this year other than the eggs. Usually I make up a whole basket with a book, a stuffed toy, stickers etc., but this year I didn’t buy the things I needed before the lockdown, and obviously it hasn’t been possible to get them while lockdown is happening. I was a little down about it but it’s really no big deal to miss that for one year. And Amelie had such a great time, it’s not as if she felt like she missed out on anything!

Hope you all had lovely, quiet Easter breaks in your own little bubbles, and that the Easter Bunny came for you too! x