Easter Weekend 2011: The Photo Op and The Hunt

Saturday was the day of the Big Hunt but we had planned a little photo op for Mac that morning. My Mom wanted to get some pictures of Mac on the train tracks (the old no longer in use tracks) in train conductor overalls like my Papaw used to wear. My Papaw also had a conductors hat that we borrowed for the shoot, he did not drive trains it's starting to sound like he did and maybe he should have since he apparently had the uniform, I digress.

We went to town early Saturday morning, in a rush since Pearl's Easter Lunch was going to start at noon, to get pictures. Mom had found my old suitcase so we handed that to Mac, slapped on Papaw's hat and let him loose.




He was such a good sport. But I think that is because we just let him walk around. We didn't direct him at all and Mom just snapped away.



Here is one in color so you can see his outfit. So cute!


But even good sports get tired and want to leave...


We packed up, headed to the house for the eggs and the food we were taking to Pearl's and then went to the HUNT!! Everyone ate lunch and talked for a while and then it was time! Time to hunt eggs!!

Now I have said that this is a big deal and here is were you start really getting a feel for it. The total number of plastic eggs to be hidden was over 4,000. Close your mouth, I'm not kidding. 4,000. Pearl's house was covered in baskets full of eggs. Here is her front porch.



This picture is of her front yard, it's huge. Larger than this picture really conveys but I think you can understand that there was a lot of ground to cover up with 4,000 eggs. The adults grabbed baskets and started sprinkling the eggs from the front porch down to the tree line you see in the picture. The yard was divided into sections by age group and the eggs and toys were scattered in the appropriate section.


The entire yard looked like this little section... You had to watch your step or you would crunch an egg, a toy or both!


It was finally time! We started to line up, everyone in their age group. We were in the front part of the yard by the porch (which I already knew was our section because of my experienced Pearl Egg Hunt past).




TIME TO HUNT!



Find a bunny, chew a bunny...





Notice the candy falling out of the egg... That was his technique for the entire hunt. Pick up the egg. Open the egg. Dump the candy and change. Throw down the egg. Jimmy and I were behind him picking everything up! ha!


After he found the play-dough he was done. It took a lot of encouraging to get him to continue picking up eggs!


He did a great job and filled up two small baskets with eggs. We had his little Easter basket and Mom ended up going and borrowing one from Pearl because we ran out of room! And no, we did not get a picture of his first Easter Hunt haul... geez. But we did learn that even when you are in a hurry take the time to change your child out of his photo session non-summer egg hunting clothes into his summery shorts outfit perfect for hunting eggs because this child was burning up. I felt sooo bad!

After everyone finshed up hunting Mac was chatting with Rhonda. Apparently you can never have too many eggs or easter candy since she was steadily filling his pockets from her Easter sack!




By then it was mid-afternoon and Mac was tired, it was about two hours passed his normal naptime. We said our goodbyes and made our way home...but not before we got some pictures with Pearl!



Little man was out and still holding his favorite find of the day... the play dough.


After his nap we were off to my Randall's house to grill burgers.

To be continued...

Ps. What egg hunt would dare be an egg hunt this day and age without a bounce house. At one point Mac took off, headed straight for it while carrying a plastic sword he found on the ground at lunch. He is certainly king of this bounce house castle!






Oh and there's a train too...