Easter Egg Hunt 2013

So I thought it would be fun to have an Easter Egg Hunt at our house this year.  Ryan thought so too, until he found out how many people I'd invited.  Too many, I admit.  It was Spring Break, so I figured a bunch of people would be out of town.  Turns out they all decided to stay.

We ended up with around 50+ people, which was a little crowded in the house, but made for a fun hunt.  Guests brought their own eggs to add to the hunt and contributed to the brunch fare.  

We lucked out with a gorgeous day (those have been rare lately), perfect for an egg hunt.  The kids were so excited!   They hunted in the front yard, backyard, and on the hill across the street.  They totally cleaned us out.  We went on clean-up patrol afterwards and couldn't find a single piece of candy, and we only found 3 candy wrappers.  

We actually had quite a few more guests couldn't show up.  It's hard to pick and choose, and I can still think of others I should have invited.  Part of the fun of a hunt is a large crowd of overly excited children.  

I'm thinking that next year maybe we could have the whole party outside--maybe set up the brunch in the garage?  Problem is keeping the kids entertained so the adults can enjoy themselves.  Maybe we could do an Easter parade with bikes before the hunt and then kids could ride bikes after?  Of course, that all depends on the weather.

But I love these little faces:

Drew's mission was finding all the "geen" eggs.

Sweet Juanita, who brought eggs to hide even though she didn't bring any kids to the hunt.  

And Jody helping with clingy Drew.

All of the kids had a great time--except for mine, that is.  Drew woke up in a horrible mood with a gushing, gooey nose.  He was clingy the whole time.  Tess' anxiety was in overdrive from the moment she woke up.  She wanted to help hide the eggs outside that morning, but her worries kept her from having a good time.  She was worried that the geese would steal or poop on the eggs; that the eggs would blow away in the wind; that someone would come take all the eggs; that there wouldn't be enough parking for everyone; that our house would crash down with too many people inside; that the kids would destroy her room and take all the feathers out of her pillow (in a pillow fight?); etc., etc.  

When it came time for the hunt, everyone was lined up waiting and she couldn't find her basket (which she'd misplaced about 10 different times that day) and was hysterically crying, needing a hug and perched on my hip while I was trying to direct things.  

Then there was the issue of the prize eggs.  We hid one shiny gold egg and one shiny silver egg, and whoever found them won chocolate Easter bunnies.  Tess had ideas about where to hide them, so Ryan  let her help hide the silver egg, with the understanding that she could not be the one who found that egg.  

So come time for the hunt, and Tess bee-lines it past all the colored eggs on the ground and heads straight for the silver egg.  "I found it! I found it!" Sigh.  

Her emotions were already running high, so when Ryan told her she couldn't be the winner, she had a total meltdown.  There was no calming her down, so I told her to let it go, it was all for fun, and let her have the bunny.  She knew better though and that didn't help:  "But it's not fair, Mom!  I wasn't supposed to find the egg!  This is the WORST Easter EVER!"

Tess hiding behind Ryan in full-tear mode.

Finally, I gathered a few of her friends and shuffled them off to her room to play quietly, away from the crowd.  Tess finally calmed down and decided it would be best to let her friend Danielle, have the chocolate bunny.  It turned out to be a fair resolution, considering Danielle wasn't the most aggressive egg hunter (check out her basket in the photo above). Danielle was glad to help alleviate Tess' guilty conscience.  

Phew!  All of this is good practice, right?