Extra! Extra! Read All About It!
It’s official! For the first time in Pennington history we found every. single. Easter egg.
Not that it was easy. No, we spent 1.75 hours finding most of them until we got down to 2 that were still missing. Now, normally we might let it go and just not look for them. That fact can be proved by the eggs we found that were from last year, all full of rotten candy…..gross. I heard one of my boys daring another to eat it when I jumped in to stop the madness. But the 2 eggs that were missing didn’t have candy in them….no. They had money.
And no one was inclined to give up looking.
I bought some character shaped eggs that I put $5 bills in and there was one for each child (I use the term “child” loosely because 3 of my egg hunters are over 18, which basically means they wanted the money most of all). I gave them pre-hunting instructions, “When you find your character egg, you can’t get any more, so if you find another leave it for someone who doesn’t have theirs yet.” But after nearly 2 hours we were all on a desperate search and it was every man for himself.
Earlier in the day while we were hiding the eggs James suggested I take a picture of where I hid the money eggs. But did I listen? Nooooo (a fact he reminded me of at least 7 times during the last hour of the hunt). In fact, the last time he said it I replied, “You are completely right honey, I should have listened to you and next year I will definitely do whatever you say.”
“You know,” he said with a smirk, “You could just start doing whatever I say tomorrow.”
Don’t push your luck buddy. Next year will be just fine.
When we finally found the last money eggs the kids and I sat outside while they emptied their eggs into baskets. James went back to his normal March activities of doing people’s taxes (he’s a CPA, in case that didn’t make any sense at all) because, as he said as he walked away, “3 hours is more than enough time to spend on Easter eggs hunts for 7 people.” Since I bought pre-filled eggs this year (except for the money eggs) there was mostly bubble gum or Now & Later in their candy piles. I know it’s not as exciting as previous years when I’ve picked candies that each child loves most, but I was just too tired to spend 4 hours filling eggs like I did in years past.
Why so tired? Because I am barely recovering from washing sheets last week after our house full of guests. It took me 3 days to get it all washed and put back. And I have a washing machine! Can you even imagine washing everything by hand?! I would still be out in the river beating those sheets on rocks and wouldn’t have even had time to hide any plastic eggs. 😉
After the egg hunt and cleanup from our traditional ham and scalloped potatoes meal, I crashed in my recliner and didn’t get up until bed time. I have no shame in admitting that I went to bed at 8:30 on Easter Sunday. Celebrations wear me out….especially when they involve crawling under bushes searching for plastic eggs that I hid in the first place and everyone is being passive aggressive saying things like, “Maybe SOMEONE ELSE should hide the eggs next year.”
The good news is that since Easter was so early this year we have a whole month with no holidays so I can get rested up before the next celebration. And since the next “holiday” is Mother’s Day, I should get some rest with that, at least in theory.
Have a great week!