Hoppy Easter!

Thank you, thank you, thank you all so much for the supportive comments about our pooch. Your kindness helps more than you know. Our plan is still to put her down next week. Although we're still heartbroken, we're more at peace with the decision. 

I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter. Ours was pretty simple: baskets and brunch in the morning, long naps in the afternoon and pizza with close friends at night (we decided Canadian bacon & pineapple was as close as we were going to get to cooking a ham this year). 

For the last couple of years, I've left the Easter baskets on the front porch the night before and let the girls discover them on their own in the morning. Bo gets so excited when she catches a glimpse of it in the window. She swings the door open, grabs her basket and screams "THANK YOU, EASTER BUNNY!" for the whole neighborhood to hear.

I probably mentioned this at Christmastime, but J and I have kind of a hard time with the whole Santa/Easter Bunny/Tooth Fairy stuff. We're going along with it so we don't spoil the magic of the holidays for them, but a big part of me feels terrible that we're lying to our kids. Does anyone else feel this way? That didn't stop me from searching the front yard with Bo this morning when she swore she saw the E.B. hopping by a tree.

I never did get my act together enough to make any crafty Easter projects, so let me show off the decorations at the restaurant where we ate this morning. This is the table at the entrance:

I love the Easter items, but I also am head over heels for the bird drawing on the blue wall behind the server. Can you see it? I need to learn more about it and report back with some better pictures.

A husband and wife own this restaurant (Luna) and the wife is an interior designer. Or decorator. Whatever. All I know is that I would be thrilled to live in just one of the bathrooms that she has designed. I don't know what you call her style ... French Provincial? Eclectic? Please-Please-Please come decorate my house for free?

The couple has another restaurant in town that we love. In fact we almost painted our house the colors of that restaurant's exterior.

OK, back to Easter. I love how casually mismatched these decorated eggs were:

We took the earliest reservation possible since you never know how things are going to go with young kids in a nice establishment. The girls did great and even had a chance to roam around--without too much fear of knocking over a tray of mimosas. 

I hope everyone had a lovely holiday.

UPDATE:

A couple of related sites that might be of interest. 

-The private home of Luna's owners (William and Marcia Bond) was featured in Traditional Home mag. You can see a slideshow here.

-And if you're one of my Portland peeps (as in people, not the marshmallow chicks), you probably know the restaurant Serratto on NW 21st. It is owned by a Bond family member. It's William and Marcia's son or daughter. I can't remember which. 

Comments

Um...we don't do the Easter Bunny. Or the Tooth Fairy, or Santa, and yet my kids still have awesome, incredibly fun holidays. I don't think there is any validity to the claim that if kids don't have the EB, TF and Santa they are somehow being deprived. So no, you're not alone.

[Nis]

I don't know, I don't mind the fairy tale that "is" Santa/Tooth Fairy/EB but I'm telling you that I'm going to jack it up sooner rather than later.... MK even accused me yesterday of being the EB and that was before I was caught discussing where I, I mean the EB, shops for Easter basket goodies. Ooops! :)

Also, having been to both Luna and Serratto I can vouch for yumminess on both ends. Serratto is one of our very favorite Portland restaurants and in a foodie town that's saying something!

[Bean]

hello from a lurker! http://coyotecraft.blogspot.com/2007/12/happy-buddhist-christmas-yule.html

http://coyotecraft.blogspot.com/2008/12/where-treetops-glisten.html

[Bean]

well, I'm not sure what happened to the rest of my comment, but what I said was "hello from a lurker! I don't think there's anything 'magical' about lying to kids, either - and I've written about it a couple of times on my own blog" and then I posted the links! I wasn't just spamming you, I swear! <3

[mkpoggie]

My take on it has always been that there is a difference between "lying" to your kids and encouraging the wonderment and imagination that is such a huge part of the traditions of childhood. I encourage kids to believe in candy-toting bunnies and Flying reindeer and mischievious leprechauns and singing pixies and all of the rest of it! They have the rest of their lives to be skeptics and critics, so relax and join in on the playtime :)

[Megan]

I have taken so long to respond to these comments because I'm still so lost as to how I feel about this topic. I read your blog posts on Coyote Craft, Bean, and I'm totally on board. That's a beautiful way to celebrate the "holidays" and we've always meant to do more to celebrate the changing seasons here. We talk about it with the kids a lot, but we've never truly honored it.
Then I read your comment, mkpoggie, and I'm nodding my head "yes!" This phase of their lives and mine is so brief and so magical. Why not jump into the deep end of the imagination pool? I remember reading the Wizard of Oz books as a kid and being blown away by the wonder of it all. Of course, I was an older kid at that point so I'd pretty much figured out what was real and not. I worry that the Santa stories, etc., confuse young kids because they're so driven to understand how the world works. But still, I think my reaction to those books were the first hint that I wanted to one day be a writer and they did so much to foster my creativity.
So, anyhow ... I guess every family does what's right for them. And we're still trying to figure out just what that is here.
Off to do some soul searching now ...
:)