But we've had some bad experiences.
The first year Sawyer was old enough, I had all these grand visions of him with his cute wicker basket hunting pastel eggs in the green, green grass.
Didn't happen that way.
The egg hunt we went to at a local church wasn't pretty … visually or spiritually. The tiniest tots were cordoned off on the playground covered in yucky brown mulch and muddy spots and surrounded by a lovely chain-link fence. Nothing says cute Easter pictures like prison-esque conditions. The parents couldn't go inside the fence, but they did plenty of yelling and, pardon the phrase, egging their children on from outside the ring. Kids were pushing each other and climbing over one another to grab the eggs. I kept waiting for the punches to start flying.
We were appalled, and we were not about to send our sweet, wobbly 16-month-old son (who had no clue what to do with this basket we'd just stuck in his hand) into this lion's den of kids.
Since then, Sawyer's been to egg hunts at several people's homes and at preschool, but we haven't returned to another public hunt.
But this year, I couldn't make it to his egg hunt at school, which is usually over in like 10 minutes. And I felt bad. I didn't have a single sweet picture of him dashing around grabbing eggs or stuffing his face full of the jelly beans inside (as he generally does).
And despite the beautiful spring weather we've been having, my sprained ankle has kept Sawyer and me from visiting the park and other fun things we usually do. He's been struggling at school with some other boys, and his teachers told me they thought my changing jobs might have been harder on him that he let on. I felt guilty; he was getting a double-whammy of not spending as much time with Mom.
So I scoured the Internet for egg hunts and asked my friend if she and her son would like to go to the one I found. She said they'd been to it before and it was awful. It didn't even have eggs! Just a bunch a candy strewn through the grass. She invited us to a different one at a small church near their house. Besides an egg hunt, it had inflatables, pony rides, free food and a train. We were sold!
The "egg-stravaganza," as it was called, started at 3 p.m., which gave us time to sleep late, be leisurely, do some household chores and still make it without being rushed.
The 3- to 5-year-old kids went first. Church volunteers led us to a big grassy field full of eggs … the grass was tall, but the eggs still weren't really hidden. And the church bell rang to start the hunt … a nice touch, I thought.
Sawyer raced around grabbing eggs, and I tried to keep up without A) hurting my foot, B) knocking any other kids down and C) stepping on eggs. He'd pick up one and run past a dozen more to the next one. I think he just wanted to run around!
With dozens of kids, the egg collection was finished in 10 minutes. Then, we got herded toward the church. I figured something must be going on inside, but I was surprised when we got to the door and had to dump our eggs into giant boxes so they could be reused. Neither boy made a fuss or even asked why.
From there, we followed the crowd to the sanctuary, where a short video played on the Easter story. It might've been a little above the heads of younger kids, but it was quite funny and Sawyer enjoyed it. Every time the narrator asked a question, he'd answer it. He's clearly been learning stuff at Sunday school and Godly Play in preschool. It was a very nice, relatable version of the Easter message, and I thought it was cool for the church to minister to people that way. The religious side of it wasn't ignored but it wasn't shoved down your throat, either.
As we exited the church, each child got a goodie bag filled with candy and religious coloring pages.
Most of the rest of the hot afternoon was spent waiting in line. Every station had a long one.
The train turned out to be a firetruck. But I don't think Sawyer cared.
Wait 15 minutes in line for a 10-second slide. I've gotten worse at waiting in line as I've gotten older.
The baseball inflatable was cool. The ball floated on a stream of air, making it somewhat of a challenge to hit.
The boys did pretty well until the last one … the pony rides. By then, they were hot, thirsty and tired of standing around. Frankly, the moms were too.
Sawyer was first in line, so he got to choose which horse he wanted. He chose the biggest one.
He's riding a real horse. You'd think he could muster a smile! He doesn't look like it, but he was having fun.
I'd still prefer a real hunt, and we still might have to hide some eggs around our yard. But this redeemed my faith in a church's ability to hold a civil Easter event that resembles an old-fashioned egg hunt, not a boxing match.
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