Another Day, Another Egg Hunt

I went in late to work on Monday to take the Little Man to the early childhood PTA Easter Egg Hunt. They almost always do their events during the week, because I think 96% of the mothers in the group stay at home. This irritates me a little bit, and I brought it up at LM's playgroup, full of working moms. One mom said, "Yeah, it's irritating, but I just go in late and take her". Um, well, OK. That's pretty easy. I can do that too. Geez. So, that's what I did.

The event was sort of organized chaos. There was a petting zoo, a craft, some bouncing, some sidewalk chalk, and of course, the eggs. The thing is, you had to walk through or around the egg field to get to the rest of it, so LM was ready to do the egg part right away. They didn't do that part until 40 minutes later - yeah, he liked the other stuff, but waiting that long was really hard for a 20 month old!

That said, it was a fun event and LM had fun, so I had fun taking him. Here are some photos:

I know it's blurry, but this was just as we entered the petting zoo.

He couldn't choose which animal to attack, I mean pet, first!

The ducks, of course!

His favorite animal these days. 

Well, ducks and lions. He likes to ROAR.

We returned to the duck area many times.

The last time, I got him to touch the duck's feathers. 

He thought that was cool.

Goats. 

He had no problem petting the goats.

This goat looked at me with a cry for help.

"Seriously, I have to put up with THIS all day?"

Chickens of all kinds.

He found them fascinating, but thankfully, didn't try to "pet" them.

This bunny let you pet him. Most of them just hopped away.

This was just afterwards, when pulling on his shorts seemed like the thing to do.

There was even a little pig.

I joke about the "attack" part, but seriously, I was amazed at how much respect he showed the animals. He didn't lunge at them or try to pull their hair. He was very gentle and respectful of their space. It was very sweet. Perhaps this is because we have animals here in the house and we've learned how to respect them and their space as well. I don't know, but I was pleased to see how he acted. This time.

The craft.

It was sticky paper, cutout in shapes of birds and butterflies. Then, you would put the tissue paper over the cutout to make a stained glass effect. It took LM a minute or two to catch on. Notice in that photo up there, the little container of tissue paper pieces is plenty full.

Finished.

When you finish, they put clear contact paper over the other side to hold the tissue paper in. Notice the empty tissue paper container. Once the Little Man realized what the goal was, he just picked up the container and dumped it onto his sticky paper. Efficient. Ahem. 

The homeowners had this trampoline.

He wanted to get inside. So, we took his shoes off and I let him stand just inside for a second or two. The homeowner was very nice to let him do this, as the kids inside were all older than him and he had no business being in there. That seemed to be all he needed. We moved on to a more appropriate activity.

We went over and colored with chalk.

There were some pushy older kids over in this area, and no parents to be seen. But, LM hung out with them and colored away. Then, this little girl called out that the egg hunt was about to begin, so we all headed back to the front of the house. Except there was still a bit of a wait. 

So we had a snack.

Pretzel water. Mmmmm.

FINALLY, the hunt began.

Just to set the scene for you...yeah, crowded.

And lots of little Easter dresses.

It was time for us to skeedaddle after that, so I could get LM to school and me to work. We opened an egg or two before I took him to school, but mostly we checked them out that night after work and school.

Bubbles!!!

Candy! And a few toys and stickers.

A good haul.

It was a fun time.

See you soon.