Shout out to Mah' Peeps!

As usual, I planned out the holiday WAY in advance and was out shopping for Easter Basket 'goodies' two days before the holiday!  Whew - glad I didn't wait until the last minute.  So I had no problems finding Peeps in exactly four colors (a different one for each kiddo) but when it came to selection of cute stuffed rabbits to add to the baskets, the selection was abysmally limited.

I even called Mark from the store to ask if it was fair for Dean (obviously) and probably Paige to get stuffed animals in their baskets but not Blake.  He's not that into 'stuffies' anymore AND there was just nothing at "Tarjay" that suited him.  He's out of the Webkinz-phase and the rest there were just, well, ugly.  So inspiration struck and I decided I had PLENTY of time to sew something for each of them.

Friday afternoon, I started hunting for cute tutorials and patterns out in blogland.  I found all of these cute bunnies and other Easter-y animals (and, seriously, check out these great blogs):

Oh, but then the clouds spread, light shown down and I swear I heard angels sing when I found these:

So I stopped by Hobby Lobby on my way home and conveniently found fleece in the same four colors of actual Peeps I had bought for the kids.  It was meant to be, I tell ya.  I started with the bunny and then made the chick.  She's right - even though the chick has more pieces and more seams than the bunny, it is easier to sew.  By Saturday evening, I was running out of time and even though I would have loved to make a bunny AND a chick for each of the kids, it just wasn't happening (at least, not if I wanted to sleep at some point). 

I asked Mark's opinion and he's a little old school - he preferred the chicks over the bunnies.  And (like I said, meant to be) the *real* marshmallow Peeps I had bought were the chicks as well.  The store didn't have the bunnies left in all four colors.

So here they are!  I didn't embroider the eyes - I used paint and a pencil eraser.  Shortcut City, baby!  They turned out REALLY cute - I was very pleased with them and the kids thought they were pretty neat too.  I'm glad we have four different colors so everyone knows which one is theirs.

I still have enough fleece to make the bunnies next year.  Since they seemed harder to find in stores, though (the marshmallow ones) - I may have to plan a little further ahead next year.

Hope everyone had a very Happy Easter!