Isaac has a few things he absolutely loves, and they usually surround collecting or organizing. Collecting eggs from our chickens. Loves it. Collecting rocks. So fun for him. Ever since he was little he loved organizing his matchbox cars into colors. He also loves geography -- organizing which countries go in which continent and which capitals belong with which state.
And Isaac absolutely loves Easter egg hunts.
I, on the other hand, am not a huge fan. I don't mind the ones we do at home with just a few kids, but when you have a big group of kids, I find the whole process nerve-wracking. I held a couple of Easter egg hunts when we were on the island in our big garden, but I limited how many eggs the kids could get. After they found ten, they had to help another kid find ten. That worked well.
There were a lot of Easter egg hunts organized around town this year, and we opted for one yesterday at a local Methodist church. John had to work so Grama offered to go with me as I didn't think trying to manage all four kids in mass chaos was within my skill set.
They had one section for kids 0-3 so Grama teamed up with Hannah there. And then the other section was for kids ages 4-12. (This is part of what I don't like. I can't be with all kids at once.) I immediately saw this as being a problem for Abigail. I asked her if she wanted to hunt with Hannah. She didn't. So she was up against all these older kids.
Sure enough, the whistle blew and Abigail basically froze. She is so shy and whenever there is a new situation and it is chaotic, she does not like it. Everyone is running for eggs, including my boys, and she is just frozen. I had to give her a pep talk and then lead her to a section that was not covered with kids so she could feel a little bit more comfortable.
See what I mean? This is just too much pressure for a mom. Not to mention the kids. I really don't like it at all.
But I love Isaac.
So I do it.
In the end, Abigail was very happy with her collection of about a dozen eggs. The boys got a lot more, and as I had encouraged them, they shared some of the candy they didn't like with their sisters who didn't get as much.
Prior to the hunt they had a little Easter backdrop set up to take pictures. They had all sorts of props for the picture, and, no surprise, my kids were not interested. Taking a picture was plenty for them.
Speaking for Easter, I let Isaac fill up our own eggs with candy in preparation for an Easter hunt with our cousins, Grace and Nate, who have come to the farm to spend their Spring Break with us. He finished and left them on my bed.
While I was preparing, I suddenly realized that I hadn't seen Hannah in awhile. After scouring outside and then inside, it suddenly came to me. THE EGGS!
Sure enough, as I walked into my bedroom, there was Hannah chowing down on Easter candy. And here's what's funny to me. I have four children, but prior to Hannah, I have never had to worry that one of my children would go through eggs that I have just sitting out on my bed, out in the open. My older three just never got into, like, anything.
But Hannah?
EVERYTHING!
2 comments:
Do you have any park programs nearby? We have park reserves with designated state, city, or county parks at which they hold events for Easter. We had gone to the typical egg hunt activities before and I agree that they were terrible. Last year, we went to a local nature center and had a nature walk through the park reserve looking for a sequence of painted wooden bunnies with fun facts on the back that the kids would write on their little tracking sheet. There was a section in the middle in which the kids hunted for golden eggs and when they found one (the staff kept putting them back after kids came through and found then), then they each got a prize (a cool rock/agate). At the end there was an Easter Bunny greeting them. Since they staggered the start times and it was a hike/nature walk, then by the time we got to the Easter Bunny, it was just my kids there for a few mins. We got some photos and then moved on to the activities in the lodge (petting real baby bunnies, bird watching, meeting and learning about falcons and owls, crafts, snacks, etc). Definitely more my style than the chaos of the egg hunts we had been to before.
http://www.babycronk.blogspot.com/2015/04/easter.html
I think you must of just been lucky with your older three not getting into anything! I have two boys, and they would have been right into those eggs left where they could get them!
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