Sunday, March 27, 2005

Easter Egg hunts are the best!

When I quizzed my kids about the best part of the weekend tonight, they both agreed that the Easter egg hunt was king. They both also agreed that the spotted eggs that contained the hershey's kisses were also the best egg. I interrogated them in separate bed rooms, so one was simply not agreeing with the other.
We let the kids loose on the Easter Egg course around 11:00. L and T are slightly faster than their younger cousin, so they got to the eggs first. This caused a meltdown with little A. He tossed his basket and pieroetted to the ground in anguish. We all knew the feeling, but were not sure how best to continue. L had stopped hunting and was watching A, but T was still off hunting. A's mom was holding him and trying to calm him down. My wife suggested that we postpone the hunt and go inside for a few minutes and regroup. My kids were fine with that idea, so we stopped the hunt. I thought that was terrific thinking on her feet by my super wife.
While the kids played inside I went out and made some special egg hiding spots for L. I balanced an egg on a 7 foot high stick. I also balanced one on top of a bird house.
When they attacked the course again, A was fresh and we had coached our kids to try to help A find a few more eggs. L was fantastic in this regard. She dropped all of the blue eggs that she found into A's basket, because she claimed it was his favorite color.
When L got to the stick with the egg on top she leapt for it. I think my 5 year old believes that she can dunk a basketball. She jumped 2 more times and then turned to me in frustration and growled: "Dad, can you help me?"
"Try to think of another idea."
The moment that she knew I was not going to help her she wounded up her big pink boot and kicked out the stick. The egg landed on the ground and she scooped it up with a big smile. The bird house was even less of a challenge. I watched as L picked up a stick (The bird house was also quite high) and tipped the house so that the egg rolled down onto her feet.
Have I mentioned that I love to watch them succeed? It make my heart swell.
We let the kids have a couple of candies and then I quickly shuttled the rest of the jelly beans and hershey's kisses into the trash. I do the same thing on Halloween and the kids never miss them.
Later in the day L was complaining that she had not received an Easter card. I told her that she had received several over the past week and one that day. She continued to complain until she finally had to ask: "Daddy, will you make me an Easter card?"
I felt a little dim, having not picked up on this hint, but decided better late than never. I drew a picture of the tree with the stick propped up next to it with a green egg on top on the stick. There was a smiling girl next to the tree and I signed it Love Daddy.
She looked at the card and laughed and said: "Daddy, that egg was pink. But, that is OK."
I could tell she was pleased with the card.

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