Easter Weekend Egg Hunt

This year our neighborhood decided to have an egg hunt the Saturday before Easter. I loved the idea and offered to host happy hour at our house afterwards. There are quite a few kids under the age of 10 and we knew they’d have a blast searching for eggs together. All the Moms in the neighborhood shopped for plastic eggs and fillers for them and we gathered one weeknight to put them all together. Mission accomplished, preparations were complete. Then it rained the rest of the week. But, we were all hopeful that the weather would take a turn for the better and a muddy egg hunt would commence.

No such luck. It rained and rained and rained. We even postponed the start time hoping it would at least slow down to a drizzle and we could send the kids out in raincoats and boots. Nope. So we came up with new plan and one of the neighbors offered her house for an indoor egg hunt. Game on. As we were getting ready to leave I handed her a basket (fuzzy and in the shape of a bunny) and said, “look Roo, it is the Easter Bunny’s basket for you to collect eggs.” She initially went to grab it, but upon hearing the words “Easter Bunny” shook her head “no, no, no, no” (see earlier Easter Bunny blog entry for Easter Bunny phobia background story). So I ended up carrying the basket.

We arrived and gathered the kids in the family room (a couple of Dads had arrived earlier to hide the eggs). We divided the kids into two groups (under 4 and 4+) and set them loose. Complete and total chaos, but complete and total fun for everyone. Each of the younger kids approached the egg hunt just a little differently. Roo for example kept getting distracted (shocker), mostly by the crayons and Princess vanity table, but her favorite distraction was the Little Tikes piano. She would run and find a couple of eggs, then go back and sit at the piano to play. Then we would pick her up, point her in the direction of more eggs, she’d grab a few and then back to the piano.

About an hour later we were all done and headed to our house for holiday food and drink. I think everyone stayed for a couple of hours, until the kid’s bedtime. It was great catching up with everyone and seeing how well the kids played together. The younger ones (James, Reid and Roo) all loved having a chance to play with the big kids. They played hide-and-go-seek and kept hiding behind our dining room curtains. I half expected them to be ripped out of the wall, but enjoyed watching them laugh and play with such big smiles on their faces I couldn’t make them stop.

Kerry and I collapsed exhausted on our couch after saying our goodbyes, putting Roo to bed and cleaning up the kitchen. So much work, but all worth it. I think we need to make it an official neighborhood holiday tradition. Maybe next year Roo will even hold her own basket?