Ready, Set, Hunt!

Connor loves egg hunts. In fact, after our first egg hunt, Connor begged Ed and me to hide eggs for a l.o.n.g...t.i.m.e. And last year was no better. In fact, I think we were playing egg hunt into December.

This year, we attended one warm-up hunt. Prior to the hunt, Connor and Helen totally hammed it up as if they were amateurs.

But then, they decided to practice a little bit. While the other children milled about, played in the moonbounce, and ran around, Connor and Helen searched for rocks. Thankfully, Helen kept dumping her basket out after filling it up because I have a rather large rock collection at home already, that I'm not particularly fond of.

I put them both in the 2-3 year old age group. And when the hunting began, my children definitely separated the men from the boys.

First, I turned my back for a minute, and the next thing I knew, a whole bunch of parents were laughing, and I had to go fetch Helen off the grounds.

When the hunt actually began, Connor took what turned out to be very sage advice from Ed. Rather than being lulled into grabbing the close eggs, he sprinted past all of the other children a few feet, and then stopped to pick up eggs. He was cleaning up the joint as the other kids were tripping over each other. He easily filled his basket and was super excited that he seemed to have found a patch of eggs with Smarties in them - yummy! He was kind enough to share these with Helen, which she was very excited about.

After the hunt, the two of them bounced around in the moonbounce, which was nothing less than completely frightening. She was - by far - the smallest child in the moonbounce, and it is nothing short of a miracle that she survived. I did have to go in with her to fend off the jumping beans around her. She may have wanted more at the end, but I was done.


A couple of days later, we hosted our annual egg hunt. It was supposed to be a gorgeous afternoon - like all the afternoons leading up to it. I had spent the previous day clearning the lawn of the hazards I could find. Unfortunately, Mother Nature had something else in store for the day. It started raining the night before and didn't let up until Saturday afternoon after all the eggs had been hidden - and for the most part, discovered. Incredibly, the house is still standing after about a dozen kids tore through the place looking for the plastic shelled goodies.

Here's Connor, preparing for the hunt with his secret ingredient - apple juice!


Sequestered in the basement while the eggs are hidden upstairs.


Finding the eggs


Helen made it about two-thirds the way through the party - and then she passed out.

Next year, I'm hoping for some sunshine!
Elaine