You read that right. No, it’s not a typo. That is what our banner, hung above the cute jointed bunny, read. Brand new, purchased unopened from the store…”Happy Easer.”
I guess I should back up and give a little context here. Today was the 4th Annual Sloan Creek Estates Easter Egg Hunt and Neighborhood Get-Together. Yeah, I should probably come up with a catchy, cute, short, gimmicky name, but I’ve never been one to mince words. Probably why I’m not in marketing. Or journalism. But I digress. We got a late start on planning this year and invitations didn’t go out until a couple of weeks ago, but despite the short notice and the fact that this is the start of spring break, we had an excellent turnout. Lots of familiar faces from the neighborhood and a few new ones. Lots of kids – we invite family members of residents to attend to encourage lots of people to come – and quite a few little ones this year which makes it lots of fun.
We did a few new things this year to keep things fun and fresh. One of them was to stagger the egg hunts to give the little ones a chance to hunt first. Every child started by getting 15 eggs, and once all the children had hunted (we divided it into groups of infant-2 years old, 3-5 years old, and elementary age children K-5) and gotten their 15 eggs, we did a “free for all” to collect any leftovers. Last year, we discovered that chocolate in eggs + sunshine = a BIG mess so we requested no chocolate this year, and most of the neighbors who donated obliged. Those that did bring chocolate we hid in the shade, to try to keep the candy from melting all over our yard. Since we didn’t have access to large tables this year we used card tables to hold the snacks and drinks, and we had door prizes and a sign-in on a different table. We gave away a kids’ door prize of a nice easter basket from Costco and an adults’ door prize of Easter lilies.
The final change was to create a photo area for pictures with the Easter bunny. Since we didn’t have a real Easter bunny, we found a cute pin-up one that we tacked to our fence. The door prize easter lilies flanked him on either side, and the now-infamous “Happy Easer” banner hung overhead. The effect was so cute, lots of parents took pictures of their kiddos with the bunny and their baskets…but a true “Jay Leno Headlines” moment.
The thing I love most about this event is the fact that it brings our neighbors out and gets us together for just a short time to visit, make connections, and solidify our sense of community. I think this was our best year ever, and those that came had such a fun time. The kids went home with lots of candy and eggs, and many families stayed long after the hunt was over to visit while their children were playing.
I’m too tired and I have far too much clean-up and organizing to do tonight to deal with pictures, but rest assured, they will be coming. But until then, I wish you and yours a very Happy Easer.
The eggs were hidden in some very creative places!
Crisana with her purple “Princess” basket.
Neighbors had a great time visiting!
Trey and Crisana with the Easer bunny.
Hey Debily – Your annual neighborhood Easter egg hunt always sounds like such fun for the families and a heap of work for your family. Our church does an annual “Easter Discovery” after church on Palm Sunday with Easter egg hunts (couldn’t be outside this year as it was snowing again), pancakes, pretzels,hot cross buns, a craft and other activities related to the symbols of Easter.
You know you could get an Easter message out of your banner with the missing “t” representing the cross and I’m sure you already thought of that – as it’s not really Easter without the cross.
Happy Easter to the family. Looking forward to the pictures. This is the start of a very busy week for the parson. Since this is the last Easter in Waltham, he’s been asked to organize the Sunrise service plus all the other services at our church. Someone asked today if they could be baptized next Sunday. I must have has a panicked look on my face at that request because she asked me what was the matter (I’m on the baptism committee). She now knows it’s more than a “I want to get baptized next week” sort of procedure at our church(Ken baptized 13 last Easter – whew).
Leave it to the pastor’s wife to come up with that analogy…
Ken can feel free to “bloglift” that one if he needs a good analogy for Sunday. I humbly admit you gave me a definite “d’oh! Why didn’t I come up with that one?” moment.
Sorry snow put a damper on your festivities but hopefully you all still had fun. It’s hard when Easter comes so early – you can almost guarantee it’ll be too cold for spring dresses and white sandals, huh? (I still remember my last Easter at Gordon – despite the cold and rain, I was determined to wear my new dress and pretty pink shoes. I may well have ruined the shoes sloshing through puddles, but it was worth it!)
Some happy Easter egg hunters and love Crisana’s purple Princess basket. Good thing her second cousin Alexis didn’t see that. See,Deb, your blog followers do take you at your word and go back to see the afore promised pictures.