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)…

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

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.

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)

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.