hunting for eggs, ages 14+

I know that Easter weekend was several weeks ago.  I also know that most people with blogs tend to blog about their life or current events that occurred that day; two days past at most.  But I can never seem to get it together to keep up with the 'now'.  It's like I'm in a constant state of living in the now, planning for the future, and recording the [distant] past.

Sigh.  Maybe one day I'll become a big girl and get my act together.  Not likely, though, as here I type at age 27 and nothing has changed in many, many moons.

Moving on...

Last year my second family had an Easter egg hunt/Ashley's 18th Birthday party.  This egg hunt trumped any Easter egg hunt that you or I have ever been a part of; this I know!  I would tell you about THAT party but then you would really think I live in the past!

We each had to design an egg before the games commenced.  Isn't my green bunny just precious?!

So this year, when the weather started to get warmer and the 'Dollar Spot' at Target began to be filled with Easter colored plates, grass, and memo pads [yes, 'Easter' is a color!] it was clear that Easter was just around the corner.  One night, as Ashley and I were discussing how the past year had flown by and that her 18th birthday party was her favorite party of all time, we both stopped and said 'Hey!  When is the party this year?!'  Apparently we exclaimed this in the earshot of the right people because the 'When', 'Where', and menu were in the making before you could even say 'Easter egg'.

One of the best things about the party?  All I had to do was show up.  Ha!  This is one that our mom's put together.  On the Friday before the party, we all received a text message reminding us to wear tennis shoes and our Easter basket/pail/mop bucket.

Waiting for the air-horn.  As you can see, we ALWAYS play fair :)

The hardest part of the hunt was listening and paying attention to the rules as they had changed from the year before.  You would have thought we were all in our 'Terrible Two's' instead of our mid-twenties!  Who knows what the outcome would have been had we all listened to the directions as there was much confusion on the playing field.  I think that at the sound of the horn, we were supposed to go and find 8 eggs, bring them back to the house, and work through a Easter-weekend appropriate crossword puzzle before heading back out to hunt.

Kara

Our soon-to-be newest member of the family!

Me & Adam: friends since birth

The average height of us all is about 5' 10"; maybe one day we will
remember to keep that in mind when taking pictures.

Amanda & Me

Amanda planned part of the activities for us this year!!!

After the huffing, puffing, and dry heaving died down from racing each other back to the house you could hear exclamations such as, 'SAVIOR!', 'TOMB!', or 'I can't find the DISCIPLES!!!'.  Some extra words were found as well: 'SATAN!  Hey, what's he got to do with Easter?!'  Unfortunately there no extra credit was granted for words found that were not meant to be found.

Kirby, Mom, Amanda, Andrew, & Ashley

Mom enjoys her roll every year: collecting our papers and recording our times.

Kara, Me, & Trey

It is intense! 
You even have to hide your answers as some people [Trey] have been know to cheat!

Back on the playing field...our goal was to find as many eggs before the sound of the air horn.  When the air horn sounded you had 30 seconds to get back to the house; you earned penalty points for every 10 seconds you were late.

Me & Emily

We thought 'bunny ears' were an appropriate pose.

Adam & Mr. Danny

NOTE: How to win an Easter Egg Hunt:
I might have paid Mr. Danny to distract Adam on the playing field.  Maybe.

This is what a 2nd Place basket looks like!

We were competing for several different categories:  'Most Eggs' collected, 'Best Time' in Crossword Puzzle Completion, and 'Best Overall', a combination of both scores.  Kara won 1st place in the 'Best Overall'.  I told that she could breath now because next year she will officially be 'in' the family and won't have to try so hard.  Ha!  Congratulations, Kara!

Allen, Me, Adam, Kara, Andrew, & Emily

The Winner's Circle

2nd Place prize: a 'Texter' Bunny

This was my 'trophy'; everyone laughed as it is most appropriate for it's recipient.

The next portion of the afternoon was dedicated to 'Egg' activities.  Believe it or not, there is a surprising amount of 'Egg' activities that test your strengths and abilities.  Our first challenge was to break an egg bare-handed.  Holding an egg in the palm of your upward-facing hand, the goal was to squeeze, crack and collect as much egg juice in your bowl. [I made sure that these were the kind of eggs that didn't have baby chicks in them before breaking mine.  Ha!]  Sound too easy?  For most of us it was simple.  But two unfortunate individuals got eggs that WOULD NOT CRACK!  At first we thought they were being 'Punk'ed' and had been given boiled eggs but upon further inspection [smashing them into the stone wall] we learned that some eggs just have a tougher shell.  Who knew!?


Perfect action shot!
WARNING:  Do not try this at home without the protection of a Garbage Bag Bib.

'Little' Brother, Baby 'Odrue

It was so icky!  Our parents then proceeded to leave us standing there for a while with
yoke oozing out between our fingers while they laughed at us and took pictures.

Egg-Toss

Most people did pretty well!

Adam & Andrew K. won with Dad and Mr. Randy at a close 2nd.

Amanda's bib design was both thoughtful and creative; I am pretty certain that she could be a contender on Heidi Klum's 'Project Runway'.  Look for her on Season 8!

Me, Allen, Kara, & Emily

Fashionista's?!

Or Super-Ista's?!?!

Confetti Eggs

Circle of Love [and blood relations] 

Prize ledge

You do not go home empy handed from these events.
Miss Sarah always has the cutest little goodie-bags for us!

This year's goodie-bag/Easter baskets took the identity of a Chinese take-out box.  Contents of the cartons were-but not limited to-candy, Pez despsensers, more candy, toys, and even more candy.  You know how you always wanted to shoot the $1 air dart gun in the house when you were little but were never allowed to?  It always amuses me how at the ages of 20, 24, & 27 you still have that itch to shoot things in the house but now, all of the sudden, it is okay to do so?!  And not only is it now acceptable to play inside, it is also okay to go crazy ninja-like?! 

Allen, Andrew, & Adam

Don't remember what their intent was...

...but it took all 3 of them to execute their mission...

...and they were pleased with the results!

Mom & Daddy

After a satisfying meal of delicious hamburgers, hotdogs, and shark steak!

You can be sure I'll be practicing my crossword completion and egg hunting skills for the year to come.  I will also polish up on my jump-roping skills as I am sure they will throw a change at us again next year!