The Easter Egg Hunt

Post hunt picture - two cute kids!

Saturday morning our goal was to tackle our Church's Easter Egg Hunt.  This event includes 40,000 (yes, you read that correctly - forty THOUSAND) eggs, inflatable, face painting, popcorn, candy, and lots of kids.  Buck was M..I.A., but I had the kids,Cindy, my parents and Clara with me for the big event.  We have participated in this activity for a couple of years as documented here and here... I have to admit that I have a love/hate relationship with this event. I think it is fantastic that our Church does something like this for the valley (and I have participated in stuffing eggs full of candy), but I also end up walking away shaking my head at the attitudes that are displayed.  Regardless, I keep coming back for more... To sum it up for this year - 40,000 eggs were picked up in under 2 minutes!

Pre-hunt game face.

So here it goes:  we showed up shortly before the hunt started.  We went over to the "starting line" about 10 minutes prior.  Things went fine until about 2 minutes before the hunt then slowly the crowd began to press forward.  There are zones for each age.  Embrie could have been in the 0-3 area, but my previous experience over there is that parents are out of control.  So I had Hyat and Embrie in the pre-K category (which is where we ended up last year after ducking the rope to escape the previously mentioned out of control parents).  When the hunt started all hell broke loose.  I know this is to be expected, but I still cannot understand it.  People were running and pushing and so worried about getting to a good place to pick up eggs that they were trampling small children and stepping on the very eggs they were there to pick up. Hyat was doing a fantastic job of just picking up eggs, but he was being swept away with the crowd.  Embrie was trying to pick up eggs, but could not figure what the madness was all about.  I was stuck between the two making sure Hyat didn't get too far away and Embrie didn't actually get trampled. I have no idea what happened to my mom, Clara and sister (my dad had bailed out before the start to go the other end watch from there - we never made it to the other end)!

Hanging with Aunt Cindy, eating chapstick and wondering
what the heck is going on!

Eating popcorn and waiting for the big event!

Post hunt - not an egg in site.

All in all, it was a success. Hyat and Embrie both got eggs in their baskets and we came out uninjured.  At the end of the madness, I had no idea where any other adult I had arrived with was, so after looking for them the kids and I bailed out and headed over to the inflatables to have a little more fun.

Checking out their loot and eating candy in line!

Gotta love a bounce house!

JUMPING!

Coming down the slide - what he really wanted all along!

Next year I will remember that none of the adults function well in large crowds... as we were trying to transition from hunting fun to other activities and making a plan there was a little stress involved. Regardless, we had a great time and I enjoyed the fun with my kiddos.  After the inflatables we headed over and checked out the firetruck and a police care.  From there the kids and I went for hamburgers and ice cream and finally, to my parents for the kids nap, dinner, etc.  Now the question is - will I do it again next year?