Eggs and Babes

I know, I know, this post is a few weeks late.  Meh, it happens.  My biggest excuse is that I returned to work and have spent my time restructuring our lives to accommodate the change. Now that I've excused my lack of timely posting, let's get on with it.

Our little town throws an Easter Egg hunt for all the kids on the Saturday before Easter.  This was our first year participating and we took full advantage of the festivities.  We dressed the kids up for the occasion and the weather was perfect for us to walk over. Upon arrival we were directed to our place for the 'hunt' (there was no actual hunting involved as it was just a bunch of goodie filled plastic eggs strewn all over a soccer field).  Miguel and the kids posed for some amazing pictures before the egg race began.  I decided to check out the few shots I snapped of Salem and Piper in their wagon and the family pics I had just taken when I was met with shock and horror; I HAD NO MEMORY CARD!!! Not one of my fantastic snapshots had actually ever existed.  Needless to say, my heart sank into my stomach and I was met with a wave of disappointment in myself.  I have missed quite a few priceless photo opportunities in my children's lives thus far and I was so excited to get some quality memories captured.  After a minute of self loathing, I took a deep breath and captured what I could with the camera on my phone.

Salem was so excited to get started he could hardly contain himself to stay behind the starting line.  When the organizer got on the megaphone and shouted for the kids to "GO!" , Salem took off like a rocket.  In the beginning, he had a nice path with little competition but that changed the closer he got to the opposite end of the field.  All of a sudden there were crazy parents getting a little too involved in the race and pushing the limit on acceptable behavior.  Luckily, Salem had quite a few eggs by that point so we called it quits and headed to the line for the special prizes (silly toys).  While Miguel and Salem waited, Piper and I retrieved our wagon.  Once all the goodies were received, we headed home where I snapped too many pictures of the kids and their loot (I had to compensate for my previous absentmindedness).

Salem couldn't take his eyes off his candy! Ha!

Miguel and I had planned to color eggs with the kids that night, but after his nap Salem informed me that he "had enough Easter" and didn't want to dye eggs.  Miguel was sleeping to prepare for his night shift so I decided to take Piper and Salem to my parents for the afternoon.  Salem loved telling Pop and Grams all about his successful egg hunt that morning.  We stayed for a while then headed home to make dinner and send Miguel off for the night.  As the kids slept, I couldn't stop thinking about hiding eggs around the house for Salem to find in the morning.  I had already boiled a dozen eggs and I figured I could hide the plastic shells from the other hunt too. When I awoke before Salem, the Easter bunny in me came out.  We didn't have a fancy basket with gifts to give Salem, but Miguel had stashed a few candy filled eggs from the day before and had a random hot wheels car in his glove box. plus I had a couple of honey sticks in the cupboard.  The bunny wrote the kid a quick note and as soon as Salem woke up the games began!

We are new to this whole celebrating holidays with children gig and are trying to figure it all out as we go.  In all honesty, we struggled with the idea of celebrating religious holidays when we aren't religious people.  After much discussion, we have ultimately decided to roll with the punches while they are young and when they are old enough to understand, we will explain/expose them to the origins/meanings of each holiday.  I think it would actually be fun to celebrate all the holidays on a given calendar, researching the traditions and customs then embracing them or adding a personal twist.  Imagine the things you would learn and the memories your family would create!