Easter can-[ning jars]-dy

How to do Easter baskets on the cheap?  How to minimize trash and plastic?  Canning jars, natch!

This year continues to whomp my butt with work and a few other exciting family events, so I didn't get around to dyeing eggs.  But I made it to Market as usual for my weekly milk and yogurt, and while I was there I picked up two quart-sized jars worth of candy (jelly beans and Wilbur Buds); no trash.  I transferred the candy to my cutest little 8 oz canning jars, and used those in lieu of plastic eggs.  There were no complaints.  

Other contents of the baskets:  packets of seeds, some colorful pencils, and chocolate rabbits purchased by an older child who decided her younger brothers should get bunnies.  Instead of making name tags for the baskets, I just topped each one with the child's napkin and napkin ring (already labeled with their names).   Not uber elegant, I admit.  But uber elegant wouldn't have happened in a swamped year like this one anyway, even if I'd felt like commercializing this most sacred of days by turning it into a Gimme Fest.

Werewolves show their wolf-y form during a full moon; my next door neighbor is more of a where-bunny.  After church, we came home to discover that my children were not doomed to a truly plastic-egg-deprived Easter, after all.  We had our yearly hunt through the back yard . . . a challenging hunt indeed, because our particular Easter Bunny climbs trees (in her bathrobe, even!) to hide her loot.  And the squirrels always steal some of the eggs for themselves.

J-son hunts for eggs in the tree house.

Post-hunt, the kids sock away their loot, and I collect the plastic eggs and return them to our Bunny (so she can hide them where she will next year). Then, the happy hunters always head next door with chalk in hand to write thank you notes.

N-son writes "THANK YOU" in his favorite block letters.

Our neighbor's driveway becomes almost as colorful as the baskets on our dining room table.

If you look carefully, you might have noticed an addition or two to the group in the driveway.  And this is how Y makes her entrance into the Miser Mom blog (although she's actually been in our home since December.  I might have mentioned a time or two that it's been a busy year!)

Welcome, Y, to our family traditions!