I took a hiatus from planning parties and events for our Neighborhood HOA once Ryan was born. Our last event was a Fall BBQ at the end of September. We decided that the holidays were already overrun with events, so we didn't try and squish anything in.
Three weeks ago I realized that it was March and that Easter was actually in March so I chatted with my favorite neighborhood social committee friends and we started planning this year's neighborhood Egg Hunt!
Of course I managed to select the one weekend that Kevin was out of town for our event... just to keep me on my toes.
We advertised and sent our fliers and collected money and gathered up all of the stuff we needed and then today was the big day!
It couldn't have gone more perfectly.
The three crazies and I ran to Target last night to get some last minute items and then I spent the evening stuffing more Easter Eggs. Somehow I thought 400 eggs for 30 kids wasn't enough... so I made it 500. Crazy!
While I was up in the middle of the night with Ryan I made my morning "to do" list and once my toddler alarm clock went off at 7am we were off and running all morning to get things done and ready for the big hunt!
The kids were fed, dressed, and our car was loaded by 9am and then the kiddos hung out watching A Bugs Life in the car while we set up at the neighborhood park. My neighborhood teenage helpers showed up right at 9:50 to help hide eggs- they were lifesavers! We will need helpers every year from here on out... it made the day go so much more smoothly!
People started arriving around 9:55/10am right as Ryan fell asleep in the stroller- hooray!
Neighbors checked in and ate lots of treats and beverages purchased by Kara & Sahar and then the big hunt started at 10:15am!
Of course I totally forgot to reconfigure the start times and groups to work with the new ages in our family, so unlike last year, Catie and Andrew had hunts at the same time on separate fields. Whoops!
I followed Catie around snapping photos and attempting to get her to pick up an egg... she wasn't really into it... and then I took a few photos of Andrew on his field while trying to keep Catie in my sights. She managed to escape and run away and hide several times during the event (maybe her new way to deal with her social anxiety... instead of tantruming? Not sure which one is better).
Once all the eggs were collected the kiddos checked out their loot and then ate snacks and played with friends.
All the while Ryan slept the day away. He woke up once everything was packed and loaded into our car to go home and everyone was gone. Love this kid!
I managed to convince Catie to sit and eat some snacks so that I could chat with a few friends and meet several new neighbors. There are several kids in the neighborhood that are starting kindergarten with Andrew next year so it was fun to chat and visit with familiar faces that I had seen earlier this week at kindergarten orientation.
We finally had everything loaded in the car around 11:30am and we went home and just sat on the couch for an hour watching TV and hanging out. We were exhausted!
I get energized being around people and meeting new friends so today's egg hunt was the highlight of my week! I am so grateful for amazing co-social directors who work with me to create such fun events in our neighborhood!
No comments:
Post a Comment