Growing up in the 1960's PEEPS were a part of  of my family's Easter Celebration. Most kids received them in their Easter Basket, but my mom used them for a table decoration. She usually started decorating our dining room table a couple days before Easter with an Easter Lily plant and plenty of Easter grass with those cute little yellow PEEPS here and there along with lamb and bunny figurines (and a matchbox car hidden by one of my brothers)! 

After our Easter dinner was consumed, and the dishes cleared away, my mom would put away the lambs and bunnies and I got to clean-up all the grass to save for next year. This meant unsticking all the PEEPS. I felt it was a waste of "food" to put those sweet little PEEPS in the trash, so naturally I ate them (grossing out my brothers)! They were crunchy and oh so good! To this day I open up my packages of PEEPS and let them "breathe" for a few days before I eat them.

Flash forward to 2019… I along with all my team members at work were introduced to PEEP Wars by Jeffrey and Janelle Slipp. Jeffrey has had this tradition in his family for eons, and shared it with us, and now I'm sharing it with you!

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away there were ancient and lineal fights between blood lines of PEEPS. So the Grand Council of PEEPS (aka Jeffrey) created a yearly Tournament of Champions to put an end to the tension and declare a one and true PEEP Ruler for all the tribes for the coming year.  

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To re-create this at your home, you'll need at least three colors of PEEPS, plates, something to use as  lances (toothpicks), and of course a Cube of Doom (microwave). To enhance the experience, you'll also need the opening theme song from Star Wars. There should be procession with a human team member carrying in their PEEPS team member in their hands or on a plate accompanied by the Star Wars theme song.

In picture #2 you'll find a warrior from the yellow team vs a warrior from the purple team holding onto their lances ready to do battle. Into the Cube of Doom they go (for 25 to 30 seconds). The one to emerge the largest (that would be team yellow) is declared the winner of  round #1!  

Now I need to add that while your warriors are in the Cube of Doom, their human team members need to sing "PEEP Wars, Annual PEEP Wars, in which "PEEP"les win.. " you know the tune!

In the next round we have a newcomer to the ring. On the right side of the ring we have the blue bunny a close PEEPS cousin ready to do battle with the purple PEEPS warrior. It's a close call, but the purple team wins as his marshmallowy goodness is found flowing out of him.

Our last round is the conciliatory round for the Ultimate Loser Award. Normally it would be the two winners from rounds 1 and 2. But the blue bunny was… well so "blue" about losing that team yellow and purple let him join  this last battle.

Picture #7 - Poor blue bunny is awarded the Ultimate Loser and team yellow gets the honor of being the True Ruler of Peepdom for 2021/22! Now what happens you wonder to our warriors? Well those handy dandy lances make great holders to pick up said melty marshmellowy treats to  pop right into your mouth!

Happy Easter!

And now… for the Grandest of Announcements (drumroll please!!! )
Even though we still live in the land of COVID-19, the board has decided to move the 2021 Tour with 31 beautiful gardens from the first weekend in May to the last weekend in June. This will allow more time for more of us to get fully vaccinated, and hopefully for Orange and Los Angles Counties to transition into lower tiers. Our website will have the Tour Guide posted soon.

 We are so EXCITED!

Contributed by Cindie Reilly, MLHMGT Board member with thanks to Jeffrey and Janelle Slipp