Easter Egg-stravaganza!

Saturday was Ava's first public Easter egg hunt.  When Andy first approached me with the idea for taking her, I have to admit the images that flashed through my head were not happy ones.  Thanks to a couple of recent newspaper articles, I pictured a chaotic scene full of hundreds of greedy children, egged on by pushy parents willing to drop-kick the nearest kid for a shot at getting just one more egg into their basket.  I was sure first-aid would be required, and the mere idea of subjecting Ava to this nightmare sent shivers down my spine.  But, unwilling to be a total Easter killjoy (and making sure to give myself full rights to call the whole thing off the minute I smelled trouble) I gave in.  We grabbed Ava's Easter basket and headed to a nearby school, hoping for the best.

I'm so glad I did.  Instead of the aforementioned horror show, we were greeted with games run by sweet, smiling teenagers, cotton candy and popcorn machines, bounce houses, and an egg hunt, organized by age and featuring literally thousands of plastic eggs filled with top-notch candy.  And as for Ava?  You'd think she did this for a living.  She waited behind the line for the hunt to begin, and when the signal was finally given she knew exactly what to do.  Frankly, she was brilliant.  Instead of simply stepping over the line and snatching up the first thing she saw like all the other kids, she took off like a shot and claimed a treasure-filled spot all her own. 

She hunted like a champ until she figured out the eggs had chocolate inside.  She was pretty single-minded after that.

 

The day was a hit.  She loved the games...

She was supposed to stand about 10 feet back and throw the torpedo thingy through the hoop.  She thought that was a stupid idea.

Was baffled by the cotton candy...

"Ok, so you're trying to tell me this is food?  I'm pretty sure I just pulled some of this out of a teddy bear this morning."

And capped the whole experience with a "drive" through a nearby park. 

She's laughing because she's using the car to pretend to run over her dad.

Happy Easter, all!  Tomorrow I'll get to our adventures in egg dying.  Stay tuned...