Easter “fun”

With the school holidays almost over I was determined to make Easter weekend fun, particularly for Nic who has spent part of his break at Easter school in preparation for his SATS.  Mr H is desperately trying to get the garden finished in time for Millie’s birthday party so on Friday I thought I’d take the kids out so he could get on without any interruptions.

An Easter egg hunt would be a great little treat for them I thought and would burn off some energy. So I bought lots of little plastic eggs and got on with filling them with treats for both children. I decided the local bluebell woods would make the perfect setting too.

So Friday morning came and I was really looking forward to our little bit of Easter fun. In my imaginary world of perfect mummy moments here’s how I thought our morning would go:

– both children would rush around excitedly in the woods hunting out my well hidden eggs, Nic being the proud big brother helping Millie find hers.

– I’d take hundreds of beautiful pictures of them both gliding through the bluebells smiling from ear to ear as the sun beams through the trees.

– tired from all the fresh air and excitement Nic would quietly munch away on his treats while Millie slept all the way home.

– Nic would excitedly rush indoors as we arrive home to tell Mr H all about it and share a few of his goodies with me as a thank you for making him have such a fun morning.

Fast forward to Friday and here is what actually happened:

– Nic refused to come on the egg hunt because he is suddenly far too grown up for such childish things and would rather stay home helping Mr H in the garden. Even the bribe of loads of chocolate didn’t work “nah it’s ok I already have 7 Easter eggs I don’t need anymore”!!

– Millie refused point blank to walk both up the huge hill to the woods and also while we were there supposedly doing the egg hunt. I had to struggle on my own carrying her, the bag full of eggs, my bag, the camera bag and myself and was a fraught, sweaty mess by the time we got to the top of the hill!

– obviously Nic wasn’t there to keep an eye on Millie whilst I hid the eggs so had to try and hide a few with Millie propped on one hip (still refusing to walk). Inevitably as I gently put the plastic eggs in their hiding place the damn things burst open spilling out treats which Millie caught sight of and went beserk wanting to eat them immediately!

– not only did Millie refuse to walk but on entering the bluebell patches she decided she didn’t want to stand either so kept sitting down on the soaking wet grass.

– Apparenyly bluebells are just as tempting to eat as Easter egg treats so I spent most of the time snatching petals out of Millie’s mouth!

– it started chucking it down with rain!

When leaving the woods I bumped into another Mummy on her own with her two children, one of which was in the process of throwing himself on the floor having the mother of all tantrums  because his brother had more eggs than he did, while his brother stood kicking the crap out of his bike! The other mummy looked at me, rolled her eyes and said “it seemed like a great idea didn’t it….”

So there you go that is the story behind those beautiful, idyllic pictures of our super fun family day….. I wonder how many other Mummies have posted “perfect” pictures on facebook of their family days out this weekend.