Sis was awake at 6 a.m., ready to see if the Easter Bunny had visited our house (this will sound familiar to my parents!). She couldn't contain her excitement and soon had Bud awake too. Then I heard them discussing and debating the egg-hunt rules. A big one was "don't get ahead." They were approaching this egg hunt as a team.
I fetched the kids around 6:30, eager myself to start the day and not wanting them to start fighting before our usual 7 a.m. wake up time. "I'm just too excited," Sis announced as we found socks and long sleeves to go out in the cool, foggy morning air.
Bud spotted the first eggs in the house (which the Easter Bunny had accessed via our very useful "fairy door") and thus knew the Bunny had visited. It's a good thing, too, because I don't think any of our neighbors would relish a noisy egg hunt at 6:30 a.m. on a Sunday morning! They made quick work of the dozen or so jellybean-filled eggs in the house and then peeked out the porch window to see if their empty baskets had been filled.
"This is the best Easter so far!" Sis joyfully announced as she counted up her small, medium, and large chocolate bunnies (the kids, you see, sorta have two Easter Bunnies and we both bought chocolate!). Bud immediately unpeeled the foil from his caramel Cadbury egg, dripping caramel strings all over himself, the carpet, and me. More than that, though, they marveled at the extremely large "realistic" bunnies they'd spotted at the store weeks earlier on a prescription med run (Sis even seemed to remember that she'd seen the bunny at the store but didn't figure out how the Easter Bunny knew she wanted it; same with Bud and his chocolate football goalpost treat). They even rode around the porch on the bunnies for a bit. They wondered at the half-eaten carrots and strawberries--"I guess the bunny was here!" (that was the clue?? Not the filled baskets and eggs?? Or was it proof that it was a bunny?)--and praised the beautiful eggs that the Bunny had made and left for them (guess which colors?!). Then they seemed to suddenly remember that there were eggs to hunt--luckily it was just 7 a.m., what I deemed acceptable egg-hunt time. And so we headed outside.
(BTW, the Easter Bunny visits everyone in our house--Mama got 5 hot sauces of varying types and intensities; I got chocolate and a cookbook. Thank you, Easter Bunny!)
Once outside, they did indeed stick to their "rules"--"we have rules, Mom," Sis had informed me (I had my own rules--no taking an egg if someone is reaching for--or has "called it" first)--and ran and walked near each other the whole time. Which was apparently necessary because Sis was being choosy about the kind of eggs she wanted to pick up. She mainly wanted pink eggs and thus would direct Bud to an egg she didn't want, "Here, Bud, is an egg for you. It's blue." At least she had a plan.
There was one egg neither wanted: the slug egg. Overnight, a slug had attached itself to one of the dyed hardboiled eggs. Something I'd never seen before. Until we saw it again 3 more times. Do slugs smell? How did they find the eggs? And only the real ones? Curiouser and curiouser.
They actually found just about the same number of eggs (but perhaps only because Sis gave away the ones she didn't want). And only missed 4 on their first full pass around the yard (including the requisite two in the mailbox). Of course, Mama and I gave lots of hints and were probably a tad too helpful. They exclaimed over all the eggs, both plastic and dyed, and were excited by how full their baskets got.
Soon, we were all back on the porch opening the plastic ones, filled with quarters, jellybeans, and mini chocolate eggs. As they sorted through the treats, Sis and Bud talked about Easter. "Easter is the holiday of new life," Sis explained. "And maple leafs." Huh? She never did explain.
They played with the new bunnies and ate an exorbitant amount of candy before we headed to church. When warned about eating in the living room, Bud devised a new tactic--he would run into the kitchen and "chipmunk" jellybeans (his favorites were red, her least favorite, which worked perfectly). Hilarious, but we had to put an end to that.
Church found them spotting the "hidden" eggs strewn across the yard and stuffed into the branches of bushes even before service began. Thank heavens for those large, very distracting and entertaining bunnies, for we'd never have gotten through service. Finally, it was egg-hunting time and the kids headed out with their egg-carton bunny baskets, which they could each fill with 12 plastic eggs. Bud was off, but Sis progressed more slowly. Again, she was only picking up pink eggs. Even though we explained that we wouldn't keep the actual eggs but only the goodies inside. No matter. Pink. Which we then had to explain to all the helpful teens and other parents who tried to help Sis find other eggs. But she triumphed and soon had 12 pink eggs of varying hues in her egg carton. Time to eat the goodies! We learned from last year and had brought a container for emptying out the treats.
We headed home soon after and just hung out the rest of the very relaxed day, the culmination of a great Easter weekend.
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