This week, as was the case this time last year, spookily, Joel’s nursery finished the term with an Easter Bonnet Parade. In our house we have to refer to them as Easter Hats because Bonnets are for girls (Aunty Debbie can imagine exactly how that’s said – it’s in the same tone of voice Joel used to ask her if she was a boy or a giiiirl with the heavy implication that the factually correct answer was very much the wrong answer). The letter from nursery suggested that we sit down with our children and make a hat with them.

I just looked back into my archives (oo-er, Mrs) and realised that I don’t think I mentioned anything about last year’s  debacle here. Thinking I was being a good parent, I got an Easter Hat Kit from tesco – I think it was about a tenner – and assembled it for him, mainly because he refused to help. There was important playing & watching the telly to be done and frankly I didn’t have the time or energy to insist.

So, a hat was made and presented to him. “I’m not wearing that hat,” says Joel, “It’s for babies.” He didn’t like it.

Instead, he decided that he would wear the hat he had made at Munchkins earlier in the week. I can’t track down any photos of it on Flickr, which seems like a travesty, but here’s a recent photo of it being modelled by Benjamina…I took the shop-bought one in in case any children were sans-bonnet, and he seemed happy with that scenario.

He should have been, because at the end of the day, it turned out he had won the competition, the prize for which was a large Easter Egg. Steve speculated that the staff probably go more for the hats which look like the child has had a significant hand in preparing.

So – to this year.

I’m pressed for time at the moment, I think we’re all aware of that. We’re in the process of remodelling Joel’s bedroom (more later) and so have wallpaper samples available. I took the one that looks a bit like trees (I personally really like that one, and would like to use it at some point, but it’s not right for Joel’s room), chopped it in half and gave half each to J&L. I got out paints, glue and crafty bits & pieces, called them through, and basically said “go”.

Here is what they came up with:

NB. Joel’s is shown upside down here. Other than the feathers, I don’t think it really makes a big difference.

As an aside, there’s something I became aware of while the kids were doing this. As a parent who crafts myself there are two things I’ve had to let go of. The first is the amount of painting over the edge of the paper that occurs, and the resultant mess that comes from unconstrained pre-school crafting. It’s not clear from the photo, but Joel covered his hands up to the elbows in mud-coloured paint and then set off to walk round the house. Strategies have to be developed – one of which is to have Joel on the side of the table nearest the sink. The second is that, as a stash-hoarder, I have a voice in the back of my head at times like these which says a variety of things “they’re using stuff! they’re wasting it! look – a sequin has dropped on the floor! that’s not a pattern!” and so on. I have learnt to ignore this voice. And to separate my actual proper stash from the kid’s crafting bits & pieces. Both in real life, and in my head.

The other thing some of you may be asking, is why leave them to it? Why not sit down and craft with them? Rest assured that I do sit down and do stuff with them a lot of the time. On this occasion, however, I wanted to see what they would come up with. And I was cooking their dinner at the same time (did I mention that time management is an issue at the moment?). Other than the voice in my head trying to tell me unhelpful stuff (see above) I don’t want to be an undue influence. A couple of weeks ago we sat down and had a drawing “competition” – the theme was “volcanoes”. We all sat down & started drawing – 3 lovely drawings were in progress. Lily looked at mine, and was clearly impressed, because she immediately cast her picture aside (which was shaping up nicely, by the way) and did one which was the closest copy of mine that she could manage. While flattered, I felt a bit sad that she didn’t trust her own creativity, and I’m not sure where we go from there apart from giving her the freedom to draw without my influence some of the time. I’d add illustrations, but I can’t find them just at the moment…

Anyway – I digress. The hat was left to dry overnight, a hat band fitted at breakfast, and he wore it to go to nursery the next day. It was much admired on arrival and, sure enough, he had at the end of the day, a Flake Easter Egg to bring home. We celebrated by wearing the hat to “Old MacDonalds”

PS. Jan, the head-teacher, made a comment in the morning about how as a governor I had inside knowledge that home-made hats are more likely to win than shop-made ones. I’ve written this as an overly elaborate way of demonstrating that this is not the case. To be honest I’d kind-of forgotten that there was a prize to be won, otherwise my fiercely competitive nature would have kicked in & I would have probably ruined it for everyone. Truth is, Joel cares about what he wears each day, and after last year I knew he’d be a lot happier wearing something he’d mostly made himself. But, all the same – YA BOO SUCKERS – 2 YEARS RUNNING – OWZAT!!!