Luuux

I take Easter very seriously, that is now that my niece can enjoy Easter! For the past two years I have made her an Easter basket – and last year I made her basket and put my mothers together for her.. My niece is seriously spoiled rotten (she’s already got a basket from my dad, my mother and I gave her mine this morning). But that is the “price you pay” for being the first niece & grandchild in the family! I remember getting baskets from all my family members when I was little and I had 2 older brothers, so it’s kind of a tradition if you will.

This year I made two baskets because, the middle of last year my aunt and uncle adopted a little girl, who happens to be my aunt’s niece’s daughter, so I made her a basket for Easter. She’s going to be 2 years old in a few weeks so I tried to get her age appropriate items and things that she could use and/or learn from. I admit I went a little crazy. I got a ton of stuff at Target earlier in the year on clearance so I got a ton of princess stuff (books, stickers, bracelets, etc.) and in my general shopping trips picked other things up. I didn’t realize HOW much I had until I dumped it all out on the table and was like “Rut-Roh…” I went overboard. I stuffed all that I could in the baskets, even filling the little plastic Easter eggs with Hershey kisses. A few items originally pictured didn’t make it into the baskets, so I’ll be putting them away in the closet and incorporating them into birthday gifts (my little cousins is in a few weeks and my nieces is in July).

As with any gift basket, I incorporated food items into it – cookies, chocolate, fruit chews, and lollipops. I then found other Easter themed items at stores like Dollar Tree (hello! Duck Quaker whistles!? Duck bubbles Note: the Duck Quacker whistle was my nieces FAVORITE she was so excited and played with it ALL day long – who knew the $1 item would be the hit?!) then completely raided Targets Dollar Bodega on a number of occasions. I also like to put clothing in my baskets, so I got each of the girls’ two outfits. I got them both the same Minnie mouse t-shirt (on coincidence actually, I found the shirts at 2 different Targets), white tops, and bottoms (jeans, shorts, and stretchy pants). I also included books, flash cards, sidewalk chalk, etc.

Next year I’ll have FOUR children to get things for, my sister-in-law had my nephew this morning (he’s so cute!!) and my other brother’s fiancé is pregnant and due in October. Sure the new little ones may not be getting baskets, but they’ll get an outfit or two. But auntie & cousin (yes, I’m referring to myself in 3rd person LOL) needs to start watching the bank because I can easily go from a cute idea to wayyyyyyy overboard in a matter of seconds and/or blinks haha. I blame that on my shopping addiction.

I love making baskets; I always say I should go into the basket making business. There are a few women in my area who take orders and make Easter and Birthday baskets for cliental and base the size off the pricing structure and the sex of the child. I could totally do that. Now I’ll add gift basket maker onto my list of potential jobs at some point in my life – which also includes pastry chef ;).

QUESTION:
Do you like making baskets for children and/or special occasion parties (birthdays, etc.)?

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