The Annual Egg Hunt

Every year, I try to hold an Egg Hunt at the house for Lewie, his cousins, and his "extended cousins" (a.k.a. children of my childhood friends).  This year we had nine "littles" at the house searching for eggs--three eleven year-olds, one eight year-old (Lewie), one six year-old, two five year-olds, one four-year old, and one three year-old.  They all were given different egg colors that were hidden with varying complexity.  Obviously, the eldest children had to search in more places, and I did not make it easy.  In fact, some didn't find all their eggs, and forgetful me couldn't find them either.  Oh well, I suppose they will be left as treats for smaller critters...

Lily, the youngest, searching for pink eggs in our flower patch.

An Egg Hunt may sound a little redundant after we had Easter two weeks ago, but there's a method to my madness.  1) Having an egg hunt after Easter, allows me to buy leftover candy on sale--some marked down as much as 90%; 2) our egg hunt doesn't interfere with other Easter activities that take place before the holiday, and 3) having the egg hunt late in the season gives us a better opportunity for warmer weather.  Unfortunately, this year, the weather pattern shifted.  Easter was an 80 degree day; whereas, our weather this Sunday (exactly two weeks later), was in the high 40's/low 50's.  We all wore jackets and sweatshirts.  So much for my weather theory!

My grammar school friends with their husbands. (Notice the winter gear!)

I had a photo opp with my friends, too.

I tried taking pictures of all the little ones searching for eggs, but I learned a valuable lesson.  Candy is important business for all the kids, and they were not going to let pictures interfere with their valuable candy-finding time.  So, needless to say, I have random action photos of kids running around looking for eggs--no cute closeups or frame-worthy smiles.

The second valuable lesson I learned is that when kids have a chance to pick prizes, candy will always win out.  The cute Dr. Suess eraser set,the colorful package of rainbow pencils, and the pretty princess pencil sharpener went virtually unnoticed.  In fact, they are left-overs to be offered as prizes next year...

We've never had so many children on a trampoline at one time.  Luckily, they all decided to play tag
and exit before I had to start asking kids to get out and patiently wait their turn.

At the end of the get-together, we were pleasantly surprised to see how well all the kids played with each other.  All nine were on the trampoline until they decided to play tag and hide-and-go-seek.  They also helped each other find eggs by announcing, "Hey, I see an orange one over here."  Nothing could make me happier or prouder.  Honestly, I live for planning days like these.