Today was a day we’d been looking forward to for a long, looong time.
It didn’t quite turn out the way we’d planned, though.
But I really don’t want to talk about why.
About the massive egg hunt our church has been talking up for weeks and weeks.
Filling our kids minds with visions of bouncy houses, endless supplies of chocolate and peeps galore.
And how we spent hours getting ready… hair fixed, clothes chosen, teeth brushed, baskets intact.
Stroller. Diapers. Sippy cups.
Check. Check. Check.
And, after waiting in traffic for over an hour, how we hurried to the sidelines just in time to witness hundreds of kids devour the eggs that had been laid out.
Every last one.
And how my heart positively cracked in half when Sophie turned around, empty basket still in hand and said, “This wasn’t so fun, mama.”
And how we drove directly to T@rget to purchase our own large stash of eggs. And candies. And prizes.
For our own egg hunt.
Good. I’m really glad I didn’t talk about it.
I feel so much better.
We actually ended up having a great time. Most definitely a memorable time.
We started by letting the kiddos pick out their favorite candy.
And choosing little prizes they thought their siblings would love.
Once home, we all gathered around the kitchen table to stuff every kind of chocolate into our eggs.
Glittery eggs for the littles and solid eggs for the big kids.
And seven slips of paper were hidden in seven random eggs, each with a number: one through seven.
The lower the number, the better… first pick won first choice of the prizes.
The kids could hardly wait to be let loose to hunt their eggs.
Chris and I had a pretty good time, too.
Just watching them wiggle and squirm, white knuckling their baskets as they waited for us to holler, “GO!”
No huge crowd pushing and shoving.
Just us. Pushing and shoving.
Not really.
There was plenty to go around.
Plus, we’d warned them all to stop hunting once they reached a dozen eggs.
Shepherd found a few right away and was pretty content with his haul.
Sophie had more fun counting her eggs than actually hunting for her eggs.
And Vivi did more playing than hunting.
She knew the old lady would give her all the candy she could eat.
No questions asked.
Isabelle raced all over the yard, relentless in her search for every. last. egg.
And when she’d found the last one, she was happy.
Sophie was just happy.
Ditto for Shep.
Jude found the egg with slip of paper for #1 prize-picking-position.
No explanation necessary for the smile.
In fact, everyone seemed quite content with their winnings.
Even Vivi found something she really wanted.
Vivi, meet Mr. Wigglesworth.
The chocolate bunny.
Welcome Easter. With all the trimmings.
I’m posting Sunday Snapshot early because, well… it’s Easter. And I’m not sure I’ll be around tomorrow.
I hope you’ll share your Easter pictures, I’d sure love to see.
Feel free to link up on Monday if you’re too busy on Sunday. I’ll leave the inlinkz open through Monday night 🙂
To join in, just copy the code under the Sunday Snapshot button. Paste it into the body of your Sunday Snapshot post where you’d like the button to be displayed. Once you hit ‘publish’ it should show up just fine 🙂
Then add your link below.
To do this, go to your blog. Click on the title of your new Sunday Snapshot post. The new url in your browser window will be a direct link to your Sunday Snapshot post. Copy that url and paste it into the inLinkz window below.
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Ok I give! This Sunday Snapshot stuff is too great to pass up! I'm going to go find something to snapshot and I'm in from here on out! Now which one to start with…. What a great idea, by the way, to turn a crummy moment into something fantastic! Yay you guys!
You amaze me with your creativity and your wit! What a great day you pulled off for your clan! I love it! 😉
It sounds like you had a perfect family time together and the pictures really show what a special day it was.
That was awesome how you turned a bad experience into one so much more wonderful! Your egg hunt was better than any huge church easter egg hunt could ever be!
Your Easter Egg hunt at home was much more fun than the church one!!! Sorry the church one did not work out but MEMORIES were made!
Happy EASTER to all of you!!!!!
LOVED all the photos!
Hmmmm… so I'm thinkin' YOU need to organize your church's egg hunt next year! 😉
GLad it all worked out & I love how you did your egg hunt, with the numbers & the prizes! Great idea!
I also loved the photos of Vivi in this post…she looked like she's been egg hunting for years! lol!!
HAPPY EASTER, Stef, to you & your family!!!
Sounds like the family egg hunt was a huge success!
It looks like the kids had a great time they all look so cute together in the photos!
Have blessed Easter
Stefanie, I love the new blog do! It's so fun!
Speaking of fun…I love reading about your creative egg hunt! Sometimes plan B's end up being the BEST of all! And really, let's think about this. You've got enough younguns to make it feel like a big ol' church egg hung, right? 12 x 7 = 84 eggs. Yep. There's nothing like it! We always egg hunt at our place too. Fun times!
Happy Easter to you and your sweet little bunnies!
Love you!
You have SO much fun at your house:) I am in awe of you all the time..you took what could have been a BAD day for your kids and made it into more fun then any local egg hunt would have been. Happy Easter to your beautiful family!!!
LOVE it!!! You know, I think the whole things turned out WAY better (if more expensive) than the "real" Easter egg hunt. You guys will be talking about that for years to come, and I tink you started a new tradition!
Who needs the church's stupid egg hunt anyway?????
Sounds like the BEST Easter egg hunt! Our church is small so our egg hunts are always great fun. We even have a section for the adults! Glad your day turned out to be memorable.
Stephanie, I'm afraid you've learned a valuable lesson. Egg hunts are evil! LOL I had an experience/revelation when I was about Sophie's age too. It was sad. I've never liked the huge eggs hunts since. I've always done family egg hunts like you did with your kiddos. Sounds like you took a problem and made it into wonderful memory. Kudos to you!
Hi Stephanie!
I have been following your blog for quite some time and I love, love, LOVE every picture and every post! I've joined in on Sunday Snapshot for the first time today. I hope you don't mind that mine are all vintage family pictures!
Well, it sounds like it all worked out after all. Love the idea of the prizes, they did that at Jasmine's class hunt on Thursday! Your kiddos look adorable!
and everyone was a winner! We had a backyard egg hunt yesterday and it was more fun just watching Em's expression as she uncovered yet another egg hidden in a bush or on the grass. Some stickers, jelly beans, loose change and baby play doh make for a fabulous day. Happy Easter!
I found time to join again! I was getting so busy before that I have not been able to do a Snapshot sunday in a while!
I like the new system to adding your link! You are doing a great job here and I love all those pics from your post today. Too bad things did not turn out as planned but you made the best of it!
Oh, man, this brings back a little post-traumatic stress from some pinata incidents…Glad you had a fun outcome!!
I can just imagine how you felt as you all drove up and had to experience that… we actually had a sweet little one show up late for the egg hunt and had stashed a few eggs away in case that very thing happened. You sure handled it like a mom pro! I know they had way more fun!!! Loved every single picture!!!
Blessings!
Looks like such fun!! God is so good when he lays on our heart the alternative 😉 Could have been a really BAD day, but so wasn't! Glad all the kiddos had a great time! Their happy smiles tell the big story! Happy, Happy Easter!
Have a great week!!
Heather
Just love the way you turned that all around!!! You ROCK!!!! The pics are wonderful and Shepherd looks sooooooo grown up!!!! Got my Snapshot in a little late, again! How do you do it???? LOL!!
Thanks for doing this . Looks like you had a wonderful day.
I am a mom of 8. So not quite as many as you.
I have wanted to do this for weeks. But always forgot.
Thanks for commenting on my blog. I agree I should have taken a photo of the shirt before I cut it. I thought of it after it was in pieces. Maybe next time.
love your new layout! the pics are adorable. and sometimes those last-minute plans are better than any long-planned event. looks like all the kids had a great time!
Great weekend – great day – great pics – great 'bloglift' – about the only thing I miss is wondering who's picture would be on the banner! I'll get over it!
hugs – aus and co.
Newsflash Stef…you guys ARE a huge crowd!
I just loved the pictures watching the kids make their scores and watching the mom and dad revel in the beauty that is their family.
What a great idea…you guys never disappoint!
Happy Easter!
Despite the rough start, it sounds like you had a wonderful Easter.
Hey, just a thought…In all your free time;-)…maybe you should volunteer to organize your church's egg hunt for next year…somehow I think it would run a lot smoother.
Your pictures are great as always!!
Hugs,
Tam
Happy Easter!! LOVE all the pics! Way to turn the day around – those smiles are priceless!!
I also love their baskets!!