Easter Parade

Both kids recently had Easter parties at school and Gymboree. This time last year we were on holidays in Perth so we hadn’t experienced a Mexican Easter before. Fiestas are always a big production here, and this was no exception.

First up was Chiq’s Easter Parade & Egg Hunt at Gymboree. The kids were all dressed up in Easter or Spring costumes, seeing as how it’s Spring here. I still find it strange celebrating different holidays in opposite seasons. Just like our Northern Hemisphere friends can never get their head around Christmas in summer, I find celebrating Easter when the weather is starting to heat up, rather than a fresh chill in the air, quite bizarre.

At least Spring gave us more costume options than just a class full of Easter bunnies - there were lots of bees, flowers and butterflies as well. There are endless stores around town with full-on costumes to buy for kids, but luckily I had picked up a pair of butterfly wings in Canada last year (from Gap for $5 - bargain!) which were the perfect easy dress-up. I quite like the low-key approach to these things; I find the lengths that some parents go to for their kids’ outfits pretty over-the-top.

Chiq happily wore her wings with a floral dress and toddled around the Gymboree equipment looking for eggs, and practicing her ever-expanding vocabulary. Her latest word is “egg” just in time for Easter and she knows what they are, particularly the plastic versions they use here, that open up to reveal a lolly inside. Sugar is such a great motivator! It amazed me how quickly she cottoned on to the whole concept of an egg hunt, pointing at the eggs she could see and saying “look!” to me. Of course, she didn’t want to put it in the basket for later, she wanted to open them right away just to see what she might find inside.

Stealing the bunny’s carrot

Next up was Guerita, and those wings got a work out again. She had a Parade, Egg Hunt & Party in the park near school and was pretty excited about finding those lolly-filled plastic eggs too. Again there were lots of bunnies, bees, butterflies and flowers and the kids paraded around the local streets holding banners they had made for their class.

Somehow, looking at these 2 little pink butterflies, there seems little chance they will turn out to be tomboys!