A few notes from our Easter celebration.

M., who it should be noted is getting smarter by the minute, had an interesting observation last week. She suggested that the Easter Bunny exists simply so Easter is exciting for kids. She’s received a healthy dose of why Easter is significant, going to a Catholic school and all, but apparently she was unimpressed. She said she knows all about how Jesus died and they put him behind the rock then he came back to life and moved the rock. But, she said, “That’s not fun for kids.” Thus, the Easter Bunny.

OK, then.

A couple days later she told us that both Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny are really parents putting out presents and candy for kids. So many myths shot down at once! They grow up so fast!

Despite all that, she charged into our room at 6:00 am Sunday, with C. right behind her, begging to go downstairs. Once again, I benefitted from sleeping on the side of our bed that is opposite the door. Every 10 or 15 minutes I would hear one of them creep over to S.’s side and then hear her yell, “It’s not time yet!” and send them back into the bonus room to watch TV.

When we did finally unleash the hounds, they were thrilled at what the Easter Bunny brought them. Some candy, of course. Water guns. Coloring books. Pens. But the big thing was M. got a Nintendo DS and C. and L. both received Leapster 2’s. We bought them for our trip to South Carolina next month and figured we should go ahead and let the girls have them now so they have a month to learn how to operate them. So, as S. said, “I’m not sitting in the back of the van with them trying to read the instructions.” Smart lady.

And so the girls were engrossed with their games for the next, oh, 13 hours or so. S. had to go to work for a few hours and the games gave me the perfect distraction to get my treadmill time in. They played while I ran, they played while I showered, they played while I cleaned the kitchen, they played while I did prep for Easter dinner, they played in the van on the way to my in-laws’, they played before dinner, they played after dinner, they played on the way home, they played until bedtime. It wasn’t quite that bad. We did rip them out of their hands for a few hours in the morning and afternoon. But they played the shit out of those things when they had them. It was a rainy day. It was either that or watch TV, and they didn’t make much noise when they were playing so the choice was pretty easy for us.

I sensed we may have a problem when M. was kneeling in front of her game, bowing down in the “I’m not worthy” pose and chanting, “DS! DS!” Not even a day into her video game career and she already needs an intervention.

Otherwise we had a fine Easter celebration with our local family.