The other day I was talking with Clara and, just for fun, asked her a few questions. She offers up some serious opinions for a little kid. When I asked, “What do you think the Easter Bunny’s favorite colors are?” she answered without hesitation: “green and blue.” It was delivered as plain fact. Then I asked what the Easter Bunny did when it wasn’t Easter and it wasn’t busy delivering eggs—how did he spend his downtime? She said: he goes bowling.
Delightful.
That night, after tucking her in and sitting on the couch, I had an idea: what if I slipped a small homemade egg-bowling set into her Easter basket this year? Egg bowling, with pins painted green and blue. I started with little wooden eggs I found at Michael’s—99 cents each—and a few hours and ten dollars later I had this:
They don’t topple like real bowling pins—so grown-ups chasing a perfect strike might be disappointed—but for a kid who loves rolling things and watching them scatter in every direction, it’s perfect.
Here’s a quick, easy rundown of how I made the set. We keep things simple—the photos tell most of the story—so this is short and to the point:
- I bought ten wooden eggs at Michael’s for 99 cents each.
- I painted them in rows using small sample paints I already had: four with Tropical Waters, three with Mirage Lake, two with Shamrock, and one with Japanese Fern (all Behr colors).
- After two coats of paint on each egg, I let them dry and then applied two coats of spray sealer (Aileen’s Sealer in Gloss) so the finish would hold up during play.
- For the bowling ball I pulled a small round blue wooden ball from an old toddler toy Clara had around her first birthday. You could also buy a round wooden ball at a craft store to match the eggs.
The result is a playful, handmade Easter basket gift that encourages interaction and imagination—and it was inspired entirely by the bean’s creative logic. Isn’t it wonderful that she’s so certain she knows the Easter Bunny well enough to declare his favorite colors and pastimes? I absolutely love that confidence and creativity.