Easter 2013

This year is the first year Ivan has done an Easter egg hunt. He absolutely loved it! I debated on whether we would actually be able to go to one this year since it was so close to Charlotte's due date, but things worked out for us. The next decision to be made was which egg hunt to attend. There was one in Idaho Falls with 16,000 eggs and big prizes like bikes, but I didn't want to be gone that long and was a little afraid Ivan might get trampled. There were 3 egg hunts here in town. One at a grocery store (Broulim's), one at Porter Park, and one Fat Cat's (it's a movie theater, arcade, bowling alley, billiards place, and mini golf thing). With all the snow we've gotten this year I think it was a great idea to have a few indoor options and was leaning towards those since I wasn't sure of the weather anyway. I wanted to go to an egg hunt where Ivan might actually get a few eggs and be able to run around and get some energy out. I was starting to hear a lot of bad things about the egg hunts in Rexburg. Things like moms pushing kids out of the way to get eggs and that kind of thing. I didn't want any crazy mom to touch my kid, especially since I have a bit of a temper and I can be a little overprotective. And none of these egg hunts had age group separations. So I could have a bunch of twelve year olds taking all the eggs before Ivan even has a chance to understand he's supposed to pick them up off the ground. I was not about to go to an event like this just to get really angry. So I decided to go to the one in St. Anthony. That town is about 20 minutes north of us. They had 4 baseball fields and each field had a different age group on it.

 The Saturday before Easter came around and it turned out to be a beautiful day. We rode with one of our friend's (Kristen) and her little girl (Ember) who is 9 months old. When we got there, we met up with Tami and her daughter Ellie (Ivan's best friend). The thing started at 10 but we were told to get there early because it goes by fast. They had a guy talking on a megaphone telling everyone that parents are not allowed to help if kids can pick up eggs on their own then they must do it on their own. This was very comforting. To me that meant Ivan had a chance. Most of the kids in our age group, which was 0-4, were nice enough to leave an egg or two behind so that slow poke Ivan would actually get a few. I was really nervous about going somewhere with so many kids loose that I might somehow lose Ivan. It hadn't been a week yet since Charlotte was born and I wasn't that confident in my running ability. So I got him a leash. Yep, I'm that mom with her kid on a leash. Ivan didn't mind it too bad. In fact, he thought it was pretty dang funny to run as fast as he could just to get yanked back when he reached the end of the line. So he wore that little backpack leash thing while he picked up eggs. I held his bucket for him and he did a great job picking up eggs and putting them in the basket. He got 9 eggs. Then they announced to open all the eggs and check to see if you won a prize. We did! There was a table at the entrance of the ball field with tons of toys on it. They had bouncy balls, bubbles, recorders, water guns, and lots of other small toys to offer as prizes. We got in line kinda late and all that was left was bubbles, but we're happy with that. And it's a good thing we were early to that thing cuz it ended quick! We were home within an hour of leaving, with 20 minutes driving time there and 20 minutes back.

On Sunday we had Michael's sister Brenda with us. We all got baskets with candy in it and little stuffed animals. I put eggs out all over the living room and kitchen and Ivan had a blast picking up all the eggs and putting them in his basket. He got to eat 1 piece of candy and was pretty content with that. Ever since, he's been so busy opening and closing the eggs, putting them in and pouring them out of the bucket, or stacking them on the bench or entertainment center. We didn't have a traditional Easter dinner. I made pulled pork, potatoes, corn bread, green beans, and corn. It was delicious. And it made a ton! Thank goodness we had Brenda and some friends over or we would be eating leftovers from that for weeks! We had apple Snickers salad for dessert. That's easily becoming one of my favorite foods.