Why don't stores sell dairy free Easter Chocolate?!!

So, in the mad dash that is life with allergies, we had to think fast this year, as our first year with a 4 year old with a Dairy Intolerance.  We thought about saying "screw it" and letting her have the chocolate for the one day, but we dreaded the horrid bum rash and tummy aches that come along with it...never mind the months after of "but you let me have the Easter Bunny Stuff?!!"

Solution?
Make our own Easter Chocolates. 

Sure...no problem.  we'll add that in to the Saturday evening schedule of get kids to bed at reasonable time, tidy house, ensure kids are good and asleep, crochet, sew, tuck child one or two back into bed quickly before they peek down to the kitchen, fill plastic Easter Eggs, hide them around the house or yard......oh, yeah, and sleep....sweet sleep, oh how I miss thee....

hard boiled coloured eggs..

At this point, I may mention that all of this Easter stuff is still relatively new to me.  I grew up Jewish, and still identify as Jewish by Culture, if not by religious belief....So I'm still sorta confused as to what a bunny poopin' out brightly coloured plastic eggs filled with chocolate have to do with the long-haired guy rising from the dead all those years ago....(I was jokingly referring to this Holiday as the celebration of the Zombie.....my partner was NOT amused....and even 8 year old D rolled her eyes at me...)

Anyhow, back to the point of the matter.  For the last 2 days B has had a fever of Near Biblical Proportions (ya see what I did there?!  huh? did ya?!!)  and has been wandering around like a Zombie (thats TWO - I'm on a ROLL), when not whimpering in misery on the couch......And we went to the big family Easter Gathering on Good Friday - a 2 hour drive to my sister-in-law's, 5 hours of enjoyment, hard boiled egg decorating, and a WONDERFUL, if not overly Kosher, Ham Dinner....We got home at half-past stupid o'clock, threw our barely-asleep progeny in bed fully clothed, and passed out for the night.  So when did we get to make these chocolates?  Right now.  Saturday night, 10:15 pm, and we're filling the pastel coloured plastic egg-shaped bunny poops with home-made, dairy free chocolate bunnies, chicks, and carrots....

the wrapping of the minis

melted dairy-free belgian chocolate...

But the thing I'm super impressed with?  Not the basic melting, pouring, and wrapping of the mini-chocolates for our brood to find tomorrow morning and devour for breakfast (one of 3 times a year this gets to happen)...But the Biggies.  The Full-sized Easter Bunny filled with peanut-butter filling,  and the HUGE half-eggs filled with home-made Marshmallow Fluff.  It's amazing what you can find on Pinterest and Google.  You never need to know how to do anything anymore!  here's the peanut butter filling we made for the big bunny.....recipe from the 2sisters2cities website, via Pinterest.....and here's the marshmallow fluff filling we used for the big half-eggs....okay, it's more of a guideline than a recipe...  I've never done these before, and was shocked by how easy they were.  The clean-up, mind you....I was happy to leave that to C....as I had a cat to bathe.....and a 4.5 year old to tuck back into bed....again....
The coolest thing about the need to create dairy-free chocolate, is that we're actually getting super yummy chocolates this year..

Moving molten chocolate around the bunny mold.

and we made them ourselves!!!  Okay, well, maybe we didn't make the chocolate part.  Bulk Barn provided those for a bit of a fee.  But you get the idea.

some of the little guys all wrapped up

marshmallow fluff filled half-eggs

Peanut butter filling.  yummier than Reese's

i

The bunny brought by The Bunny - all full of peanutty goodness!!!

In the end, I have to admit it was fun...but next year we may have to search harder for a dairy free pre-made set up.  I was too paranoid that the kids would wake up and discover who the REAL Easter Bunny is!

I'm so not looking forward to figuring out Hallowe'en.......