Egg-cellent Weekend

Okay, so it’s kind of a corny title, but it fit with the Easter theme of this post. Last weekend was the first Easter Harrison could actively participate in. Last year, he happily gazed at his Easter goodies from a bouncer, probably wondering what was going on. He was only 4 months old at the time, so he couldn’t crawl to find any eggs or sit up and grab the things in his basket.

This year, I got excited about Harrison being able to engage in the Easter festivities. We had such a fun time celebrating with Nana, Aunt Katie, and our neighbors last weekend. Friday morning, Nana, Harrison and I went to story time at Barnes and Noble with our neighbor, Katie, and her two children Rin and Abe. We listened to Happy Easter, Curious George, and then Curious George showed up. Harrison wasn’t so sure about this. He did eventually decide it was okay if I held him to go over and say “hi”, but that was it. I am completely fine with him not wanting to hug a person dressed up as an animal right now. He much preferred playing with the train table and exploring the kids section.

Our other wonderful neighbors had given us a flyer detailing some Easter events at their church, and when I saw “egg hunt” and David saw “bounce house and moonwalk”, we knew we had to go (and take Harrison along, of course). I asked around and found out Harrison would be able to easily find eggs since they just plopped the eggs on the ground for the 1s and 2s to pick up. It was also nice because they set a limit of 7 eggs/child to make sure everyone got just enough to make them happy. Well, it was a good thing they also said they would announce if children could gather more after a set time because Harrison didn’t get the hang of it until his 5th egg, and he was on a mission. He didn’t know what was inside the eggs (candy for Mommy and Daddy), but he enjoyed shaking them to make music. He already knew how to open them from some eggs his sitter sent home with him, so as soon as we got home, I dumped the candy into a bag that went into the pantry and put some Annie’s cheese bunnies and Gorilla Munch into the eggs. I don’t mind some sweets, but I’m pretty sure the people who put the candy in the eggs were assuming the parents were the ones eating it (Starburst, Nerds, and DoubleBubble graced the inside).

Before the egg hunt, Harrison had fun walking around with his balloon (2nd favorite thing beside the egg hunt), going down the huge inflatable slide with Daddy, bouncing around in the mini bounce house, and playing other games. The church really did an excellent job catering to all age groups with the activities they had planned and it was a great layout. Right before the egg hunt, they shared the Easter story. Again, they had a bear tell it (I think this is something they use with the children at this church a lot. Otherwise, I wasn’t sure why a bear. ), which made it easier for Harrison to pay attention. He seemed enamored with this “talking” bear.

Found it!

Me and my yellow balloon

Playing with chalk

“Whee!”

Later that afternoon, Aunt Katie was kind enough to hide the eggs several times for Harrison to find. We started out trying to “help” him, but he didn’t need our guidance. He had quite the eye for the eggs. I was worried he might keep expecting something inside of them, but he actually just enjoyed the “hunt” and all the cheering we did when he found the eggs. I should’ve made Aunt Katie wear our bunny ears while she hid them. Darn it. There’s always next year.

Saturday night, David assembled a wagon for Harrison. This is funny because we purchased this as a Christmas gift, but after the generosity of family and friends, we decided to hold onto it for later. It made sense anyway since it was highly unlikely we would be pulling Harrison in a wagon in the winter months. I found some cute apple baskets at Michael’s that we used as Easter baskets and put a few bath toys and books in one for Harrison. Again, we didn’t really have to get him anything as both sets of grandparents took care of that. His favorites were a touch and feel Peter Rabbit book from his Nana and Grandpa B., a dalmatian toy from PaPa and Grammy K., and a Sing-A-Ma-Jig from us.

Sunday morning we went to Mass and then came home to have a walk with the wagon and one more indoor Easter egg hunt. Nana and Aunt Katie had to head back shortly after lunch, and by then Harrison was one tired little boy. He slept that afternoon from 12:45 – 4, and we had to wake him up! He was not too happy with us, and he was ready for bed again at 7:00. He had such a busy, fun-filled weekend, that he needed extra sleep.

That was our “egg-cellent” weekend. Hope you all had a wonderful Easter weekend, too.