The GREAT EASTER EGG HUNT 2011!

Still not Grandma and Grandpa but we are Mr. and Mrs. Easter Bunny for our nieces and nephews and it is so much fun! We filled almost 700 eggs with treats and money (like nickels, dimes and quarters) and had lots of other fun items hiding in the bushes. Bubbles, rubber duckies, pens and pencils...

IT WAS FREEZING! It was raining and cold! This was the latest Easter could be in the year and it still felt like an early March Easter.

New this year was the prize table. There was a metallic egg for each child with their name written on it hidden somewhere in the yard. When they found it they could turn in their egg for a prize at the table. It was just a lot of random spring toys for boys and girls. You know, like whiffle balls and bats, kites, sidewalk chalk, Frisbees, crowns, Slinky's, plastic gardening set. I think in the olden days everyone got gardening sets for Easter from the Easter Bunny. You know, a pail with a shovel, a hoe and a rake. We couldn't wait to get out and dig up the garden!

It was too cold to count out the loot outside so everyone piled into the family room to see what they found. Ryan, Abby, Chase, Emma and Morgan check it out.

Ethan with piles of eggs.

Minde saw our egg hunt on my blog last year and was jealous! She brought Riley and Chase from New York City for the egg-stravaganza!

Lisa,Addy, Hayes and Taylor sort it all out.

Scott helps Garret while Cyd helps Ethan. Probably more sugar than one kid should have in a year. However, I am the Easter Bunny. I can spoil them all I want and then just send them home with their parents to deal with the sugar high! Hop, hop, hop.

Any thing the kids did not want to take home went into the recycling bag. I think they know that if I take the eggs home I will augment them with more next year and fill them all up! I think that is why the egg count goes up so much each year! That, and the fact that I can never remember how many eggs I have so I always buy more just to be safe...

I think I hopped one too many times! I was tired and needed a little bunny nap before I could get back on my feet!

Thanks to Mark and Gainell for their hospitality and for sharing their grand kids with us. The 'things and stuff' that make life worthwhile are focused around traditions and the people who are important to us, that is what makes our Easter egg hunt such a fun tradition!