Friday, April 15, 2011

Easter Egg Extravaganza

My kids are spoiled. 

Really. 

They are. 

By the time Easter arrives, they will have attended 4 (possibly 5) Easter Egg Hunts.  I'm not kidding.  I never attended that many Easter Egg Hunts in one year when I was a kid!  One, maybe two, max, but never 4!

My memories of Easter Egg Hunts involve lots of craziness as a stampede of kids, dressed in their Easter finest, would run screaming and trampling each other through a large area scattered with plastic "eggs" filled with melted Hershey's Kisses and hot, squishy Starbursts.  No one came out uninjured or clean.  I remember one year, a brave family in our community hosted an egg hunt for the children of our church on their ranch outside of town, just after the Easter Sunday service.  They never did it again. While those egg hunts were fun, it was truly nuts.  I can see why parents wouldn't want to go to more than one.

Apparently, people have gotten a lot smarter since the 80's.  They section off the hunts so the little kids don't get run over by a stampede and actually have the opportunity to find an egg or two.  They fill the eggs with stuff like stickers, plastic bugs and erasers, eliminating some of the sugar high and sugar coma that result from these events.  Some eggs even come PRE-FILLED, saving hours of trying to stuff prizes into the annoyingly thin plasic eggs that never, ever close right, no matter which way you try to shove them together. 

The Easter craziness around here kicked off yesterday, when the Mommies Group (+ one stay-at-home dad) met at my friend's family farm for our Easter playdate.  It was awesome.  The corn maze that they run is currently closed and they are prepping to open their strawberry patch next week, so we had the run of the place.  Access to the giant slide, the swinging tube, the corn box and the hay stacks: all to ourselves.  These mommies (+ the dad) are some of my closest friends.  The kids all know each other well and love hanging out with each other.  It was a blast! 

The second one took place today at Curly's preschool, just for her class.  It was one well-run event, complete with a catered lunch from Chick-Fil-A. 

The third will take place at our church tomorrow.  It's usually a fabulous, fun outreach event, but it supposed to pour rain all day long tomorrow, so they are going to try to host it inside.  Sounds like insanity to me.  I'm hoping that I make it out alive. 

The fourth will take place next Friday, when my super-cool-Krispy-Kreme-bringing friend will host a flashlight Easter Egg hunt at her house.  Like us, she has a postage stamp sized backyard.   Last year she had an egg hunt for her son's birthday, which was kinda brief since there wasn't anywhere good to hide the eggs.  We thought it'd be WAY more fun at night with flashlights.  We aren't stuffing any of the eggs.  We're just going to count them up at the end, and give out an extra prize to the kid who got the most eggs. 

The possible 5th one may take place at my parent's house.  In year's past, we've done a small one in their great little back yard (plenty of hiding places!).  We'll probably do an impromptu one again this year. 

I'll try to post pics of the Easter insanity once it's all over.

The one great thing about all these egg hunts is that at each one, someone will share with the kids the reason why we celebrate Easter.  While the eggs and stuff are fun, the more important thing to remember is Christ's sacrifice for us, the miracle of His resurrection, and how He bridged the gap created by our sins between us and God.  As a Christian and as a parent, I want my children to hear this message in every place they can.  More importantly I want them to see it in me, clearly and in the reality of our every day life.  I pray that I can show them, not only through telling them but by example, of the love that Christ has for us. 

***Just a plug for my friend's farm:

https://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/pages/Phillips-Farm-of-Cary-NC/115766315101175

They have THE BEST STRAWBERRIES in the Triangle!  They are like our second family, and the place is SO much fun!  Please check them out this year!  They even do strawberry themed birthday parties!!

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