Girl's Night and Easter Crafts

My only gripe about Easter? Baskets. I know this is an important tradition for the holiday but baskets for adults are only bought to be thrown away. When you're young with a baby and living on a budget, the thought of basically tossing money in the garbage--even if it is only a few bucks--is too much to bear. Don't start thinking I'm the Easter Grinch, I have caved many a year but now that Mila is here, I want to save the baskets for her. 

Playing the role of the Easter Bunny for my college roommates and the boyfriends,

Easter 2011

This year I splurged on a nice basket for Mila, figuring she could use it for years to come, and got Jonah a bucket that would double as a much needed dog toy bin, but fully intended to skip the baskets for Ryan and me--that is, until the girls came over. 

Every week my St. Pete girlfriends and I have Girl's Night. Sometimes it's just Evan and me watching Gossip Girl reruns, other times we gather a big group and head out for margaritas; regardless, we always try to do something. Last Thursday, when the girls came over with boxes of craft supplies and two huge bottles of wine, I knew they were on a serious mission. Vanessa, a fellow J. Garvin fan, came carrying a 6-pack of beer that she intended to turn into a basket for her fiancé, Aaron (see this tutorial on the Little Baby Garvin blog here). Evan and I gushed, and thought, why not?! I left the girls to keep an eye on the lasagna in the oven and ran around the corner to ABC to pick up a couple 6-packs for Evan and me. 

A few glasses of wine, an entire Italian feast, and tons of construction paper later, this is what we were left with.

Why, yes, that is a kite boarding bunny. Isn't Vanessa disgustingly creative?

I am the only one of my St. Pete friends with a human child but Evan and Vanessa both have furry babies with their men. Here is the finished product of our Girl's Night basket-making efforts in action on Easter Sunday.

Our Easter

Evan's Easter

Vanessa's Easter

On another note, I hope you're all doing better on your March Madness brackets than me. I knew picking Wisconsin for the win was a passion pick, but I was really relying on Kansas to keep me in the lead. As you can imagine, their loss on Friday night totally bummed me out, anyone else? We gathered at Vanessa's house to watch it (shes a KU alumni), great game but a heartbreaking loss!

♥A