Young House Love

Home Decorating & DIY Tutorials

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How To Make An Easter Egg Bowling Set

The other day I was chatting with Clara and I asked her a few questions just for fun (the girl has some serious opinions). Her response to: “what do you think the Easter Bunny’s favorite colors are?” was: “green and blue.” It was a completely matter-of-fact delivery. Not a doubt in her mind. Then, just to see what she thought, I asked what she thought the Easter Bunny did when it wasn’t Easter and he wasn’t busy delivering eggs. How did he pass the time? Her answer: he goes bowling.

Awesome.

And then that night when I was sitting on the couch after I tucked her in, it gave me an idea… what if I slipped a little homemade egg-bowling set into her Easter basket this year? Yup, egg bowling. I could even make the egg pins green and blue. So I started with these little wooden eggs (scored for 99 cents a pop at Michael’s)…

Eggs1

… and ten bucks and a few hours later, I had this:

Eggs4

They don’t exactly fall over like real pins (so if you’re a grown up aiming for a strike, you might be miffed) but if you’re a kid who likes rolling things into each other and watching them all splay out and shoot in different directions, you’re golden.

Eggs8

As for the how-I-did it, you know we like to keep things short and sweet over here (we think of Young House Life like a photo album, so we mainly just slap up photos or videos over here without a ton of words) but here’s my quick & easy rundown:

  1. I picked up 10 wooden eggs for 99 cents each at Michael’s
  2. I painted each row of them with various test pots of paint that I already had on hand (4 with Tropical Waters, 3 with Mirage Lake,  2 with Shamrock, and 1 with Japanese Fern, all by Behr)
  3. I let them dry (after two coats each of paint) and then coated them with two coats of spray sealer (Aileen’s Sealer in Gloss) just so the paint would be more protected when bowling occurred
  4. I dug a round blue wooden ball out of the ottoman from an old toddler toy Clara played with around her first birthday to act as the bowling ball (but I’m sure you could find a round wood ball at a craft store like the eggs)

Eggs5

So there you have it. A funny and random Easter basket gift that’s interactive (and based on the amazing mind of the bean). Can we just talk about how awesome it is that she is completely convinced that she knows the Easter Bunny well enough to unequivocally state his favorite colors and pastimes? I love it.

Comments

    • Young House Life says

      I hope so! She asked Santa to get her eggs for Christmas and then when she saw them on Christmas she was like “Santa brought me eggs!!!!” – she totally remembered. It was so cute.

      xo
      s

  7. Ali Miller says

    Ooh! Sorry for the double post but…maybe after Easter, Clara could use them in her kitchen as emu eggs. :)

    Reply

  9. MissPinkKate says

    we think of Young House Life like a photo album, so we mainly just slap up photos or videos over here without a ton of words

    Really? I browsed the archives in RSS and I wouldn’t exactly describe them as wordless. Why the need to think of Young House Life as a “photo album”?

    Reply

    • Young House Life says

      In our heads Young House Life is for “slivers of life.” I think the average post over here us under 100 words, whereas our average on Young House Love is probably 800-1000. So it’s more like photos and captions here (or videos and captions, just like Flickr) while all of the big write-ups (even kid-focused ones like a post about breastfeeding, Clara’s birth story, etc) live on Young House Love. It keeps us sane to separate things that way in our mind, especially since maintaining two sites full of lots o’ words & tutorials might overwhelm us a bit :)

      xo
      s

    • Reem says

      Holy batman, let them describe it as they please. It is nice of them to even share this much more of their lives with us!

    • Mish says

      Lol @ reem’s holy batman!

      :) love your work John & sherry :) incidentally, blues & greens are the colour scheme I’m switching out our living & dining area to at the moment, so I was pumped to see this scheme put to life in such a cute project :)

    • Brandy says

      I’ve always thought of Young House Life like John and Sherry’s online scrapbook. Mostly pics and videos with little snippets of captions to help them remember the small things they might otherwise forget. Maybe that’s what Sherry meant by photo album. I know sometimes I take photos and look back at them and wonder when I took it or what I was doing and wish I would have taken the time to upload them to a website or paste them in an album and write a sentence or two about it.

    • Young House Life says

      Yes! Perfect description! Scrapbook with photos and videos and little captions. Exactly!

      xo
      s

  10. Natalie says

    Too cute! My girl is convinced that the Easter Bunny’s favorite candy is jelly beans… just like her! Imaginations are a wonderful thing! :-) Hoppy Easter!

    Reply

  11. Mel says

    You are just too creative! They remind me of the adorable pink and yellow wooden eggs that Clara loved when she was smaller. =)

    Reply

  12. Kate says

    Of course the Easter Bunny bowls! This is an awesome idea for an Easter basket- and she will probably be thinking, “I told you so!” :)

    Reply

    • Young House Life says

      Haha oh yes, she’ll be like “of course, mom, that’s what I said”

      xo
      s

  14. Kristen says

    Woah. I actually said that outloud when I looked at this. I am continually amazed with your creativity (and hers!) and your willingness to just run (bowl?) with the idea. Bravo! :D

    Reply

  15. alexis says

    Just got two of those same eggs at Hobby Lobby (also $0.99) for my daughter to paint. I’m going to have her paint one every year so that we have a collection of Easter Eggs over the years. She’s two, I’m sure this year’s will be beautiful!

    Reply

  16. Deana says

    And when Clara outgrows the eggs, they will look wonderful in a bowl for decoration since they are your decorating colors!

    Reply

    • Young House Life says

      Aw, it’s true! I can put them on the mantel when she’s 15 and say “you used to be my little girl, sniffle!” – haha!

      xo
      s

    • Athena Warner says

      This is what I thought, too! I was admiring how even though the colors are bright and cheery, they’re not so obviously Kid Colors that wouldn’t look goodon their own out of context, and could be put somewhere else in the house. That’s what makes this just brilliant, in my opinion!

  17. Meleah says

    It’s little things like a green and blue bowling set, affirmations of what they think they already know, that keeps them believing. I think it keeps it magical, but my husband thinks I’m a nut when I’m throwing half eaten carrots all over the yard under the moonlight. XD

    Reply

  18. heather says

    Have you seen the video of the boy who is unequivocably convinced that leprechauns are bugs? Why? Because humans aren’t green, though sometimes people have a crazy notion that they are leprechauns humans, and therefor leprechauns are bugs. Duh.

    I think it’s mashables that has a set of videos of young kids explaining things. They are beyond cute.

    Reply

    • heather says

      Wow, good job to me mashing the English language into smithereens. Ahem, clarification: People sometimes think leprechauns are humans. Humans aren’t green. Leprechauns are green. Some bugs are green. Thus, leprechauns are bugs.

  19. Julie says

    I tried to find wooden eggs around my little city in Ontario and couldn’t. I thought they would work better to dye with my one year old than real eggs. This is something to keep in mind for next year though. :)

    Reply

  20. Katy says

    This is so fun! I think I’m going to make this for my 3 yr old. And I know I have a Michaels coupon somewhere! He will love this! I have a feeling something, probably the ball, will become a projectile and the game will quickly resemble baseball more than bowling!

    Reply

  21. Hannah says

    I love those eggs. I don’t have kids and I kind of want to just paint eggs that colour and put them on a shelf. Fantastic colour choices!

    Reply

  25. Cori says

    I love this!! What a cute (and non-junky) addition to her easter basket. That girl loves her eggs! :) We had a cute conversation about them while doing an egg art project today.

    Reply

  26. Katie says

    Adorable! Storing this in the back of my mind for when my girl is a bit older, my husband is a bowler so it would be kind of perfect.

    Reply

  30. Lauren says

    This is such a great idea! Clara’s really lucky to have a Mom that would pursue such an idea. I’m sure this is one of those toys that will keep coming up long after Easter is over. Let us know how she likes it please!

    Reply

  32. Kim says

    Clara is a hoot and a half! I can’t wait to see her reaction when she finds this in her Easter basket. I love the ombre coloring of the egg “pins.”

    Reply

  35. Ann says

    It’s pretty funny/cute that you listed the paint colors of the eggs! ….after all, you know someone was bound to ask had you not!

    Reply

  36. Ally says

    Steeeeeeeeeeee-riiiike! :)

    Clara’s definitely on to something…hey, who among us hasn’t seen big floppy-eared hairy guys at the bowling alley on any given Friday nite :)

    xox

    Reply

  37. Gretta says

    I love you guys! Can I come and live with you? LOL!! Very imaginative, sweet and how lucky is Clara to have you.

    Reply

    • Young House Life says

      I think she knows that they come from chickens – she had a farm unit at school and was fascinated :)

      xo
      s

    • Young House Life says

      Not at all! I think Clara’s favorite things from her first Easter were just empty plastic eggs!

      xo
      s

  41. Diana says

    Oh… brings back memories of my kids bowling in the house. Such a great project; Clara is going to love it!! I hope you record her reaction :)!

    Reply

  42. Sarah says

    Thanks for the idea! I ran out to Hobby Lobby and bought some eggs & paint. They are drying right now and are so cute! My daughter and nephew will love bowling with these I’m sure!

    Reply

  44. Annelies says

    Clara is amazing and so are you for asking her these questions and then doing something creative with it ! She will love this, great idea !

    Reply

  46. OSUJillyBean says

    First off – totally adorable idea to give Clara a miniature bowlign set for Easter. Love it!

    Secondly – I thought I spied 11 eggs in photo 3 and it was driving me crazy. Then I realized the bright blue “egg” was actually the bowling ball. Lol.

    Keep it up you guys – love the site!

    Reply

  49. Sarah says

    LOVE IT! So cute :) Your fam is slowly giving me the itch for kiddos, i need to get my hubs to start reading YHL!

    Reply

  50. essie says

    So how did you actually paint them? Painting objects like this is always hard for me to figure out how to not get my finger prints all over it. Did you hold them while painting or just paint them while they were sitting?

    Reply

    • Young House Life says

      I held them with two fingers and painted all around those two finger spots and then set them down on an old magazine and painted the finger spots once I set them down. It took two coats of that method and then I spray sealed them (just left them sitting up for that).

      xo
      s

    • Jess@ Crunchy Hot Mama says

      I’m so glad you asked (cuz I was just about to). In my head, I envisioned Sherry putting them on a tiny stick/piece of wire to paint them…but that sounds way too time consuming :P Silly me! Can you tell I don’t DIY that much?

      Love these Sherry! I may totally have to steal or come up with my own idea in T-minus 2 days.

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