Easter Extravaganza

The kids had quite an Easter weekend. Yesterday we went to the Shields Family's 17th Annual Easter Extravaganza. We missed last year on account of rain, but this weekend the weather was beautiful -- sunny and in the low '70s. The event started at 10:00, and we arrived around 9:45. We saw the Give and Take Jugglers for about a half an hour, and they have added a dancer
to their act who scaled cloth ribbons suspended high from a tree branch and twisted and hung upside down as in Cirque du Soleil.
I escorted Luke to the area designated for three- and four-year-olds and Ken was with Bryn. The lawn was absolutely littered with
candy and tiny stuffed animals and trinkets, and both kids filled their baskets to the top despite a huge crowd. It's fun watching
Luke in an egg hunt. Three-year-olds aren't competitive, and he forewent stuff right by his feet as he scoped out the Matchbox
cars, of which he collected seven!Once all of the loot was collected, the crowd gathered to watch three
parachuters jump from a Cessna -- two of which were dressed like the Easter Bunny. Unfortunately, one had a bit of a spill when
he landed, but he wasn't hurt. From the Easter Bunny the kids got heart-shaped balloons on sticks. At the start of the event, Mrs. Shields said that her family puts the event on every year (in conjunction with another family, the Langfitts, and a land trust) because they want to create wonderful childhood memories.
This morning, Easter Sunday, Bryn woke up an hour earlier than she did for Santa! So at 7 a.m. a hunt in our living room and sunroom began....Then we drove to Aunt Jeanie's house for her annual egg
hunt and gathering with the McCanns (my Dad's sister and her three children and 5 grandchildren). I am absolutely thrilled to report that Jeanie was upright and walking and looking terrific
after she spent the better part of last summer flat on her back, in excruciating pain. She's doing remarkably well given how bad off she had been, and it was really wonderful to see her looking so healthy and moving so well. Jeanie has a huge, flat
yard, and there were dozens of eggs for seven children -- Bryn, Luke, Zach (Cindy's stepson), Coady and Connor (Stephen's sons), and Jack and Cameron (Ellen's children). I trailed Bryn in her quest for eggs, and she collected so many that her basket was overflowing! She gave Nama six to hold for her, and at one point she got teary eyed, and when I asked what was wrong, she said she was just so happy (to have filled her basket to the top.)
From my cousins Bryn and Luke got even more gifts -- chocolate rabbits, a new game, a new puzzle, Pez dispensers. Bryn said her favorite part of Easter was the egg hunt at Aunt Jeanie's house, and so, I hope, the great childhood memories continue...