Here comes Peter Cottontail.....

hopping down the bunny trail......well he would be, if he could find it! Preparing for hundreds of children and their parents to come visit us on Saturdays mean we are currently up to our bunny ears in stuff! Volunteers are working diligently to prepare - at this moment packing all the bags that the kids get to carry their crafts home in with a pencil, a few stickers, 2 handouts (one for younger kids - find the item in the picture in the museum; for older kids - find the answers to clues and enter them on a Discovery Kids website to play a game), and more.

We are very excited this year to have a wonderful partner, Milestone Homes. This company has been so easy to work with and I have thoroughly enjoyed getting to know all of their staff - they are creative and fun and very community-minded, making a wonderful fit for this event. We have had a great time coming up with ideas and we surprised 200 or so children at the Children's Festival last weekend with nutty putty eggs from Milestone Homes, and the first 300 children this weekend will also receive one. The children will then be able to use their nutty putty to build their own creation. And for those children who love them, they will have helium balloons on hand, too!

We are also fortunate to be having popcorn on site, courtesy of Servus Credit Union; face painting by the Canadian Parents for French; kite flying demonstrations (if the weather is right) by the Windy City Kite Flyers; and people can purchase a wonderful necklace with a grain of rice with their child/grandchild's name on it as a special Easter gift with a portion of sales being donated back to the museum!

And of course we have many many crafts; egg dying; the Easter Bunny (bring your camera) who will be handing out Cadbury Twisted bars; draws for prize baskets including one donated by Bert and Mac's for the sports fans; and if the weather is nice, some spring activities that children might have participated in, during the last century.

We hope you can come out - doors open at 10 am and we start clean up at 2 pm. Parents and grandparents and babes under 1 are free so its a bit of a reversal of the way things usually are - cost is per child and thanks to our great sponsors, we have been able to keep the cost the same as the last 5 years - $4/child (or $3/child if you are a museum passholder).

I promise that by Saturday morning Peter Cottontail WILL be able to find the trail.....thanks to dozens of dedicated and wonderful volunteers!