Going Shopping: The Mega Easter Repost

 I finished my shopping. Now it's just time for some finishing touches.

Like assembling everything.

While I do, though, let's flip on the Way Back Machine and relive

some of Life in Rehab's strangest Easter ideas from the last couple of years...

Shameless seasonal reposts by reader request.

 

When your children are small, Easter is easy. Chocolate bunnies, dyed eggs, and plastic grass that keeps appearing under the couch for months afterward has a classic charm that we all love and treasure, wrapped in magic, myth, and the rebirth of the world. It's still a family holiday with great traditions as your children get older, but it calms down as the years pass.

 

 

Wanna keep your kids gleefully hunting for plastic eggs long after you've broken the truth about the

rabbit to them? 

Copy/paste the Following list of fillers, give them a fancy font, print them out, and then cut them into

strips. Fill plastic eggs and hide them.

 

Once all the eggs have been found, sit down and open them one at a time, announcing what you have. Notice there's a few funny ones, as well as "Swap" ones to keep it lively. Add or subtract as you wish, lower or raise the monetary amounts, and come up with a few of your own.

We howl with laughter doing this, and then the children tuck their prizes in their wallets and produce them for redemption throughout the year. It's been a good way for the Teen Minions to ask for private time with a parent without having to explain why they need to talk too. Oddly, the cat poop one has not been handed in.

An 18 year old who shyly asks, "So, we're still doing the egg hunt this year, right?"

Priceless.

Get out of one chore free, your choice

Get out of one chore free, your choice

Get out of one chore free, your choice

Get out of one chore free, your choice

$10 at Gamestop

$5 at Gamestop

1 hour on the computer

1 hour on the computer

1 hour on the computer

1 hour on the computer

1 hour on the computer

1 hour on the computer

$1

$1

$1

$1

$1

$5

$5

$5

$5

Trade one egg of your choice with a sibling

Trade one egg of your choice with a sibling

Trade one egg of your choice with a sibling

Trade one egg of your choice with a sibling

Trade one egg of your choice with a sibling

Trade one egg of your choice with a sibling

$5 at Target

$5 at Target

$5 at Target

$5 at Target

$5 at Target

$5 at Target

Date with Mom

Date with Mom

Date with Mom

Date with Mom

Date with Dad

Date with Dad

Date with Dad

Date with Dad

Smoothies!

You pick what dessert to make

Free T shirt of your choice!

You plan the day for the family (advanced notice required)

One Family Game Night, your choice

One Family Movie Night, your choice

Download 1 song

Download 1 song

Download 1 song

1 custom ring tone

1 custom ring tone

1 custom ring tone

$5 at Target

$5 at Target

$5 at Target

$5 at Target

$5 at Target

Trip to the Pediatrician!

One Ziploc Bag of Fresh Cat Poop

Strap a Used Sock to Your Face

Put Marbles in Your Underwear

Kiss the Dog on the Lips

Trade one egg of your choice with a sibling

Trade one egg of your choice with a sibling

Trade one egg of your choice with a sibling

Trade one egg of your choice with a sibling

Trade one egg of your choice with a sibling

Trade one egg of your choice with a sibling

Now have a little fun, and keep childhood alive. 

This part will cover both the question:

1. What's a truly terrifying dessert I can make with the kids? and

2. How can I enjoy being a pyromaniac in plain sight with no one the wiser?

 

Southern Living showed up in my mailbox last week with these guys. I know. You're in love. I was too. And I thought I could pull this off.

Not.

But get the following together:

1. Mini marshmallows

2. White chocolate

3. Milano Black and White Cookies from Pepperidge Farms

4. Peanut M&M's

5. Um, zombie eye sprinkles. You don't have those? We do. The recipe actually says to put a mini chocolate chip on the end of a mini marshmallow.  If you don't have zombie eye sprinkles on hand, my God, what do YOUR gingerbread men look like??? 

By the way, do NOT expect the end result to look like this. Ours is sorta post apocalyptic. 

 

Be hopeful.

 

 Anyway, melt the white chocolate in the microwave for 30 to 45 seconds at a shot. Remember, chocolate holds its shape, so check and stir it often.

 

 

 Spread some of the melted chocolate on a cookie and use mini marshmallows as fleece.

 

 

This isn't going well.

  

 Set the marshmallow covered cookie on four M&M's covered in white chocolate as hooves.

 Have some more wine, your sheep will start to look better.

To you.

And using more melted chocolate as the glue, make the face, and stick it to the body. Repeat. Chill.

 Zombie undead sheep.

Zombie eyes in a tube.

 

 That one's looking at me funny...

 Ack!!! RUN!!!

  

We used some sprinkles for the grass, laughed our butts off, licked our fingers a lot, and now have a strange craving for Serta mattresses...

Chef's Comments: 

I had fun creating these, It's also fun to make fun of the other people's sheep and how they are losing limbs, how they are being decapitated, and how they are shedding.  Mostly, summarizing our construction problems, but we got it right at the end.

Scroll down for your bonus treat, Mutton S'mores! 

My best friend and I touching base after Easter on Yahoo:

Me: Did you see what we had for dessert?
Michael: The marshmallow thingies?
Me: LOL, yes. They were really good, but they didn't quite turn out right.

Michael: Nice project.

Me: Although Savannah likes her marshmallows toasted. If she lights up a sheep,
 I'm not blogging it.

Michael: Could be cool. Show it on fire.

Me: Could be horrifying.

Michael: People would remember it.

Me: Like the Hindenburg?

NEXT!

Welcome to another really yummy trip to the kitchen! For Easter, we're making Sam’s favorite- Carrot Cake! This is my version of it, with enough carrots and pineapple in it to call a slice one of your five servings of fruit and veggies, plus I use a whole wheat blend of flour to give it a little OOMPH!

 

Ingredients

• 4 eggs
• 1 1/4 cups vegetable oil
• 2 cups white sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 cups whole wheat flour mix (we mix ours half whole wheat and half white for baking
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 4 cups grated carrots
• 12 oz crushed pineapple
• 1 cup chopped walnuts

• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 8 ounces cream cheese, softened
• 4 cups confectioners' sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour 2 round or 

heart shaped cake pans.

In a large bowl, beat together eggs, oil, white sugar and 2 teaspoons vanilla

Mix in flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Stir in carrots and pineapple.

Have your daughter storm from the room in a huff when you question her mad photog skillz.

Coax her back and fold in 1 cup of walnuts.

Pour into prepared pan.

 If you're using silicone pans, set them on a cookie sheet.

Bake in the preheated oven for 40 to 50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Let cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and cool completely.

To Make Frosting: In a medium bowl, combine butter, cream cheese, confectioners' sugar and 1 teaspoon vanilla.

Beat until the mixture is smooth and creamy.

Frost the cooled cake and sprinkle with walnuts. Toffee chips are also excellent on this.

 

Have a little "chat" with your artsy photographer about why the finished product pictures are all upside down.

You made it all the way through?

I'm impressed!

That was one God-awful long post.

Now, let's all go be with our families, no matter what it is you're celebrating.

Even if that happens to just be Saturday.