A Hunting We Will Go

Yes, Easter is far behind us now. But, I was kind enough to warn you that our Easter festivities weren't quite finished. So you can't be too annoyed, right? Plus, Easter is rapidly becoming one of my favorite holidays. Regardless of the fact that the festive side of Easter doesn't seem to have anything to do with the sanctity of the Resurrection. But then again, Halloween is hardly about....what is Halloween about?? Something about All Hallow's Eve? Okay, whatever. Thanks America for completely obliterating any true meaning in the holidays and replacing them with candy.

So, we did some egg hunts. One was back right before Easter. We love our city hunt. We never miss. This will be my last year in the small child area. Actually, I don't even know what it looks like on the other side, since I have always been in charge of the littles. (Odd to be headed out of that phase.) Pearl was ready to go. She knew the drill.

Everyone came back with a haul. Ivory did well.

Some children picked out certain items to hoard. Here is Robyn with a whole bunch of little animals.

And June found her own treasure to collect. (Weird, now that I think about it, I have no idea where all those pinwheels went. I haven't seen them since that morning.....I must remember to search June's room for secret stash locations.)

Daisy collected pixie sticks again.

Silly cute girl.

And I admit one of my favorite parts of the egg hunt is seeing old friends. You know you are going to run into them at least once a year.

We didn't eat too many donuts this year. I let the girls have candy instead. (Really, what is the difference?) And then they played a bit. It was a gorgeous year compared to many in the past. And in March to boot!

Yay Easter.

Okay, fast forward to this last weekend. My family is visiting and I had a specific request from Tim to postpone our egg hunt until his arrival. (Yes, he is 16, but since we hide money in the eggs, he is still enticed. In fact, if any of you have egg hunts with money involved, I would be happy to attend. No one really gets too old for money.)

We still let the kids exit and search in reverse age order. Pearl was the first to take off.

I was impressed with our patient waiters. Although in the future I will only space them 30 seconds apart. Pearl can sure pick up a lot of eggs in a minutes time.

Daisy was next.

Ivory was off like a shot when her turn came.

And she had made her own bag using school stuff. I thought it turned out cute.

Robyn was next out the door. It gets harder to catch pictures of them when they are so speedy.

I had clearer pictures of June, but I love this one because of the egg in the background.

And then....Tim. He is super patient since he goes out last. And we were short a few eggs out there since Pearl was quite the scavenger. Plus, only the hard eggs are left.

The real quest was for the camo eggs. Everyone got 4 and then the rest were up for grabs. Robyn was our big winner again finding the 5 dollar bill.

June had her own stash by the end and raked in the most, cash wise.

Pearl was content with the candy and spent the afternoon munching on her treasures.

I would say the day was a success. But stayed tuned for our Family Crack off. The eggs were incredible and we still need to see if Robyn's Anger Bird could come back to win it all....

Breaking Into Spring

We had plans for Spring Break, and then we didn't. Then we made some more plans, and they fell through. So, we decided on 'Plan C', the official don't-have-a-plan-plan. Tyler still took some days off from work, and that immediately makes things special. The girls feel so spoiled when he is around during the day.

Thursday was beautiful, so we went to the zoo. The only problem with that, is that it was Spring Break. So, crowds and craziness were expected. But, we have our membership to use up, so besides gas, it was a free trip.

Daisy was especially glad Dad was there, and she let him show her the sights.

The big elephant wasn't misting anyone this time around, but Pearl still wasn't going anywhere near it.

I was prepared with snacks, water, and lunch. (I've done this enough times to know that without those things, the zoo gets old fast.)

I finally saw the otters. (First time.) And the armadillos were so cute. We watched them for a good eight minutes. (That is an eternity in zoo time.)

The kids were well behaved and cute. We only had minor moments where they wandered off. I wonder when that feeling of panic, when I can't find them, will leave? When they are 16, 18, 35?

We found a good shady spot for lunch. Must remember the Cat Wok Cafe for good seating and a show. Okay, the show was put on by Ivory. She was pretty good at flinging her water bottle up and catching it again.

When we reached the giraffes, June remembered there was a heart spot on one. We scoped out this giraffe and were trying to decide which spot it was.

We saw him from the other side, and checked out the mom, but we still weren't sure.

Then June spotted this guy!

Here is a close up. No doubt this time.

The mom and baby sure were cute. And the Zoo is building a new African Safari area. Which means lots of construction for a while. I don't think we will renew our membership this year. Perhaps the following year.

While visiting the giraffes, Daisy was riding on Tyler's shoulders. A ladybug landed on his head. We had to take a picture, because they are lucky.

And I am pretty lucky. I love hanging out this these guys.

Other Spring break festivities included:

Sleeping In
Arguing Some
Trying not to do chores (unsuccessfully)
Miniature Golf (it was indoor and dark, so this is all the evidence you get)

Reading together (love that Ivory rocks at reading)

Board Games
And CONFERENCE!!

General Conference was great.We chilled as a family and listened to the talks. We did some activities to keep us busy.

Others took notes. (June had pages of notes!!)

And when it was all over, there was a bit of this.

Wait, what I meant was, after it was all over, we compared notes at dinner, and I was amazed how much the kids remembered. They mentioned quotes, and stories. It was awesome. I think they listened. I can't wait to reread the talks and discuss them again with the kids. We are so blessed to have a living prophet and such righteous, wise men and women to lead the church.

So, all in all, it was a great Spring Break. Nothing fancy, but that is not what matters. What matters is spending time together. I think we all enjoyed it.

Silly Pictures

These pretty much speak for themselves:

Mega Crack-Off

The Friday before Easter, I think we cracked enough eggs to depress chickens nationwide. It was quite the day. Let's go in chronological order to keep things straight.

The first Crack-Off of the day happened at Tyler's work. I'm only documenting my favorites here. Tyler entered these two eggs:

And I liked these two as well. (The Grenade being my favorite.)

I liked the way the guys boxed in the table, leaving no holes for the egg to escape.

It came down to William and Dan.

Can you guess who won?

The second Crack-Off of the day happened in Robyn's classroom. I thought it would be fun to try one with the school kids and so I put myself in charge of her Easter Party. (I guess egg hunting is traditional, but I wanted to mix it up, and I think they really enjoyed it.) The only reason you get pictures is because Tyler was nice enough to attend.

I had one mom bring in 3 dozen hard-boiled eggs and we let the kids decorate them. Here is Robyn's creation. She named him Anger Bird.

We had a designated spot to keep eggs between crack-offs. I didn't want them to be left at the desks where kids could more easily break them.

We adults demonstrated how to crack. Notice the awesome 'cracking corral' I created this year. I knew the kids would miss sometimes, and I didn't want them crowded around the table. The corral worked beautifully, and I think we will keep it for the long haul.

And then the competition was under way. If your egg survived, you took it back to the carton for safe keeping. And if your egg cracked, you got to go to the back and get a treat. It seemed to take the sting out of losing.

Here are some semi-finalists.

And then there were only two. (Ha ha. Look at the height difference.)

And you know who won it all? Robyn. Yep....my kid.

I have to admit, it looked a little staged when I planned the whole thing, Tyler came and took pictures, and amazingly, our child won. Hmm..... But since I didn't cook the eggs or distribute them, there was no way to fix the competition. Robyn was just lucky.

The third Crack-Off was rather spontaneous. June was having friends over after school and I promised to save them some eggs. Robyn ended up with friends over too, so we had a good amount to compete. I relented to pressure and cooked more eggs, made dye, got out sharpies, and the girls went to town. They had some really fun eggs. (But no pictures this time around. My photographer had gone back to work.) We voted on the designs and then we cracked them. And guess what? Robyn's egg beat them all. The same egg that won the school Crack-Off. Wow. I wonder what is up with that egg? I promised her that after the party that evening, she could pit her egg against the winner.

And so, that brings us to Crack-Off number four. (See what I mean about the enormous amount of eggs going down in a single day??)

In the evening, we hosted our neighborhood Crack-Off. Dave commented that he had never been to an adult Easter Party. But I told him that was the way we roll around here.

We had so many fabulous egg creations this year. Here they are all displayed. (And Stacey and I must be talking about our shoes or something.)

Let's take a closer look at some of these eggs. (They are not all pictured. Sorry.)

Tyler wanted me to give credit this time around, so I'll see what I can do. Here are Jonny's eggs. (I love the color on these.)

Beth made a fun glittery one. (Don't worry, she had a spare because she didn't know if the glitter complied with standard cracking regulation.)

Katelyn's eggs were awesome and reminded me of this year.

My eggs had a theme.

Tyler had some fun ones. (I wish you could see the train better. It was cool wrapping around the egg.)

Jamie is seriously talented in the art department.

Dane's egg was my favorite. I wish you could see the sword on the back of the Ninja.

Stacey and Dave brought superhero eggs, although I think Stacey decorated them all. (Notice Jenaca's Polka Dot egg in there.)

Becca had one that I really liked.

Then we started cracking them of course. (Yes, the corral works for adults as well.)

I had a pretty simple bracket, but Eric was teaching me how to make it into a double elimination bracket. I think it is funny that Tyler caught my confused expression. I was struggling trying to keep it all straight.

More cracking. (Check out Beth's cute baby bump.)

Eric won it all. (Why don't we have a picture of that??) And then Robyn came down to test her egg against his. And guess who won?? Robyn....again. She didn't even bat an eye. She picked up her egg, didn't even look at it, and said to Eric, "Yours cracked." And she was right. (We still gave Eric the prize.)

We have saved Robyn's egg because amazingly we are not done with Crack-Offs. We will have another when my parents come to town in a couple weeks. We'll see if her egg can conquer all.

We played a few games after. The guys dominated in 'Four on a couch' They won twice, so we let them revel in their glory.

And although we didn't win, we took a picture too. (Probably to mock them a little.)

It was such a fun Crack-Off, only made bittersweet because Camille and Eric were moving a few days later. I had to get a picture of my girls. I'm glad we have these times.

And so ends the momentous day of CRACKING!! Be glad you aren't an egg.