Easter egg hunts

Although I grew up in a religious home, I never went to an Easter egg hunt. Or maybe BECAUSE my family was religious, we never went to Easter egg hunts. Last year I dyed my first Easter eggs almost ever. And because Tobey actually remembered doing it, I thought it'd be fun to dye them again this year...not that we ever had time to this year.

This weekend we did two Easter egg hunts, purely because it was a fun kids activity and an easy way to get a piece or two of chocolate. Unlike Halloween trick or treating or Christmas gifts, Tom and I never once discussed whether we wanted to "do" Easter egg hunts as a family tradition. Maybe because this year was the first year it came across our paths and we were too busy with family to reconsider it.

Nevertheless, we had a great time. We did a little home hunt with Kelsey and Morgan. I say "we" but really Kathleen, the sister-in-law who won't give me the cookie recipe, put it all together. She did a great egalitarian job. We only had four kids ranging from 6 years to 21 months so needless to say, she needed to even out the playing field. She had 24 eggs, 4 sets of 6 colors. Each kid was to go out and find one of each color. It kept them all looking and it kept it fair and a little challenging. It didn't turn into a "how many do you have" contest. It was more like a puzzle. Some were easy to find, others, a little harder, like the one she hid on a rock climbing handle. Knowing we're not big into candy, she filled them with coins, a teeny toy and the empty one scored you a "little turtle" (Tobey's new best friend). Baskets were just ones folded from paper that she knew how to make. It was homey. It was fun.

Easter Sunday afternoon we went to Dave & Yvonne's for our first "large scale" egg hunt. There were maybe a dozen kids/babies, ranging from 5-ish to 5 months. Yvonne split the playing field into different divisions (or weight classes!): 2-3's (the younger end of the spectrum got a 5 minute head start) and then the immobile babies. She had 160 eggs, yes, you read that right, 160, hidden in the front and back yards. It was fun seeing a random egg just pop out of nowhere while looking in a bush or behind a post. Yvonne made the event special, getting each kid a fancy Easter basket, Eli's a plush doggie, Tobey's a Spider-Man head. I never knew that the plastic eggs also got fancy, some transparent, glittery, some looked like basketballs and baseballs! Yvonne filled them with various pieces of candy, which I already sifted through for Tobey (peanut butter cups go to me and Tom, hard candy and gum go to Tom's work and the regular chocolate Tobey can have gradually). The candy is fun, of course, but it does make finding that last 160th egg all the more important, otherwise she'll find them when the ants get to them this summer. They did a great job of hiding them. I once pointed Tobey in the direction of the lemon bush but the "egg" I thought I saw was really a grounded lemon. And she hid a couple of yellow eggs ON the lemon tree. Eli was even stumped, pointing at a lemon with "please", wanting me to pick it up for him. After the party, Yvonne went to find the remaining ones -- I think in the end she found all of them except for three.

The baby egg hunt was hilarious. It was a handful of babies, all immobile, in the under 1 division, sitting around a pile of plastic eggs. And they let them at it. It's all an exercise in assertiveness but entertaining nevertheless.

The boys had fun. During the first hunt, Eli clearly wasn't getting the idea. By the end of the second hunt, he was kind of getting the hang of it, eventually finding his own egg without any help. The funniest part was that he asked me for help picking up the eggs if they were too hard to reach, because I had taught him to ask me for help if his ball or rock wanders out into the street. I was glad he stayed out of danger but felt extra-ridiculous for picking up my child's Easter eggs. Or was the funniest part that Eli made a connection between eggs and baskets, but he started putting the eggs back into the yard? Tobey caught on quickly and was having a grand time finding eggs, especially at D&Y's. I loved the proud look on his face when he found one of the last few eggs still missing.

And now we have around 20 plastic eggs in our playroom. The Monk/OCD side of me has already surfaced as I can't stand to see a half an egg lying around without the matching half nearby. Soon, I will collect them all and stash them away for next year. In a way, I look forward to next year. The sight and sound of children looking for eggs on a perfect sunny Sunday afternoon with friends was an experience I'd love to have every year.