Time to Get a New Strategy

This was a big year in egg hunt world. Connor made the leap from the pre-K group to the K-5th grade group. Buoyed by his success in previous hunts, he decided to adopt what would be a very ill-fated strategy. Skip all the regular eggs, look only for golden eggs.

Helen was having none of that strategizing, and since she's solidly in the upper echelons of her class - being that she can self-propel fairly rapidly - she had no trouble going with the tried and true strategy of picking up anything near her feet. She ended up with a golden egg - yay - and a basket full of other eggs as well.

Connor's hunt went off at the conclusion of Helen's, so Ed and Connor darted over to the "big kids" area and that's when things went South. Really South. As I was selecting Helen's prize with her for her golden egg, Connor got out-paced at the start of his hunt. This, apparently, threw off his entire game. So, rather than reaching down and picking up an egg, he wandered around, looking only for golden eggs, seemingly completely lost. He found one. And when it was clear there were about a dozen eggs left, I gave him an egg with candy in it as well, bringing his total to 2.

Then, of course, the sobbing started. And that's when some random person dropped another golden egg in his basket, unbeknownst to both of us as he hid behind a bush sobbing into my shoulder. Yes, he had been warned by Ed that a better strategy would be to just reach down and grab what he could, but what does Ed know? After all, it's been a while since Ed ran around picking up plastic eggs, and didn't Ed remember - last year Connor was the OLDEST in his group and he rocked it.

Oddly enough, earlier in the day, Ed had told Connor about needing to wear shoes in the area of our home that used to contain a functioning bathroom, in order to avoid the mishap of stepping on a nail. Connor asked Ed "is that a lesson you learned the hard way". I'm not sure what Ed's answer was, but the ol' egg hunt strategy appears to be a lesson that Connor learned the hard way.

And the worse part? I think he took his friend down with him who unfortunately saw the logic in Connor's strategy.

Connor had a more successful hunt this morning, given that all the yellow eggs were reserved for him, and all the pink ones were reserved for Helen.

Happy Easter! And better luck next year, Connor. At least you won't be the youngest in your group. That's a tough spot to be.

Elaine