Easter Egg Fun

This past weekend the kids went to 2 different Easter Egg Hunts!  

The first was our neighborhood hunt.

 See this lovely photo of my children walking down the block to the neighbor's house?

I'm glad I got this photo.

Because about 5.3 seconds later Carter had a massive unexplained meltdown and threw his bucket, Chloe started hunting the eggs before the official "start", and Audrey (aka the enforcer of every rule that she is not currently breaking) felt it was her duty to yank all the eggs out of Chloe's hands since - of course - it was not yet time to pick up eggs. Chloe started wailing, Audrey was yelling about Chloe not following the rules, and Carter was refusing to go and hiding behind a tree.  

Did I mention that the whole neighborhood was watching this fine display?

At this point, I almost packed them all up and headed home.  

Instead, I held my head up high (okay, not really) and marched us all to the egg hunt.  (Okay, maybe a little dragging was involved.)

Sometimes parenting reminds you that whatever control you think you have is really an illusion!

Thank God these neighbors all know us well enough that I did not find this totally embarrassing.

 As  you can see, we managed to recover from the aforementioned drama.  

I asked Carter & Chloe to look at the camera but they were WAY more interested in checking out their candy stash.

 

 Our hosts (who are also the Smiths....) have a new trampoline that was the hit of the party!

On Sunday our church hosted an Easter Egg Hunt for the community.  

I brought my camera but I did not manage to take many photos ... I jumped in to help at the face painting table so my hands were busy most of the time!  

The face painting was REALLY fun.  After you paint something on a kid's cheek and then hold up the mirror, the look on his/her face is priceless!

And the egg hunt?  Well guess what - Carter had ANOTHER meltdown. 
I think this kid has something against the Easter Bunny. 

No really - Carter has been seriously tired for days but he WILL. NOT. NAP!!

Despite all my attempts to get him to do so.  So I think that is the root of his problems this weekend. He usually is such a happy and easygoing boy.

Anyhow, I took these few photos of Audrey, who was watching all the face painting (and desperately wishing that she could do it).  I did let her paint a heart on Chloe's cheek.

 BUT -does this kid look grown up lately or what?  I almost fell over when I looked back at these pictures.  Wasn't she just in preschool???

 

I wonder how much longer she will think Easter Egg Hunts are fun.  

I am guessing that she is going to be too cool for them in a few short years ....  :(

Spring Break has now started .... enjoy the time off everyone!