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Easter bonnets

Somehow, somewhere, an Easter bonnet must have entered my life.

Because when I read the words, "Easter Bonnet Parade" on Toby's pre-school newsletter, I immediately had a few mental associations.  Home-made.  Spring flowers.  Easter eggs. 

I am sure I've never worn one.  I've definitely never made one.  But some kind of folk memory told me what I had to do.

That, and Google, of course.  A few clicks brought up this handy Netmums page, and I thought the chicken-on-a-nest idea looked pretty cute.

Now, of course, for items like this you basically have two options.  You either set your kids loose on it and encourage them to go as crazy as possible so that it is abundantly clear that it is All Their Own Work, and not that you are totally uncreative and/or forgot all about it until the night before.  Or you give in to your competitive streak, banish your children completely and go for top-notch perfection.

Well, I tried for option 2.  Next year I'm letting Toby do it.


The hardest part was getting everything to stay on.  I selected double-sided tape as my weapon of choice, but raffia and straw hats seem to be Teflon-like in their unstickiness.  And then there wasn't really anything to stick the eggs and chicks to.



Toby's initial reaction was, "I don't want to wear a silly hat."  When it came to it, though, he was really excited.  A little too excited.  The other children paraded demurely across the stage and posed neatly in the centre for their parents to take a photo.  As I stood ready, camera focused, Toby hurtled across, parting company with the hat somewhere around the middle.

I had to collar him afterwards for a photo.

Unsurprisingly, we didn't win!  But good fun and chocolate eggs were had by all.  So that's what counts, isn't it?

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