Easter in photos

Will enjoyed his third egg hunt of the week in our backyard Easter morning. And this one was particularly fun because he got to “win” the hunt. He’d told me with some measure of disappointment in his voice that another girl in his class at preschool had found the most eggs in a playground hunt they did on Thursday. Then Friday we had enjoyed an egg hunt play date at a friend’s house – but I was so caught up in a conversation, with Will sitting by my side, that I failed to realize the egg hunt had been launched and with our 30-second handicap many of the eggs had already been found.

“Give Will an egg,” all the nice, attentive moms around me started telling their children when they saw his measly collection. So he wound up with a boatload, but that was just charity. He hadn’t quite earned them.

So yesterday, he announced to Rob, Owen and me as we were heading out the back door: “I’m going to find the MOST eggs!”

It seemed like a good bet, since we gave him no competition. In fact Will found every egg -- save for the one that we’re pretty sure a raccoon beat him too. (We did a hard-boiled/plastic egg combo hunt and I hid the plastic eggs Saturday night. But one that contained a bag of yogurt-covered-raisins was removed from its hiding spot on our hammock, split open and all the contents consumed by some night scavenger.)

Throughout the hunt Will speculated about where the Easter bunny must have hopped to situate the eggs in their various locations. He was particularly mystified as to how the bunny managed to jump this high:

When we’d completed the morning hunt, Will walked inside singing “I got the most, I got the most. Mommy and Daddy, I got the most.”

“Did anyone else get any?” I asked him.

“Ally and Puff just got a little bit, but I got the most.” (So convenient to have imaginary friends who you can triumph over in competitions like this.)

We also enjoyed a small Easter birthday party yesterday with Simon, who turned 5. If, like Simon, you’re lucky enough to have a mother for an artist, you can get a dinosaur cake that looks like this...

and a dinosaur piñata that looks like this:
This piñata was a real fighter. It endured blow after brutal blow from the kids who weren’t too scared to fight him with a bat (Will was NOT in their brave company). Finally, the adults had to finish the deal.

In a sort of cathartic release of what appeared to be joyous rage, first a mom, Courtney, wailed away ruthlessly at the dino, shouting "This is wonderful!" as she attacked the pinata. Then a dad, Dan, who happens to be a psychologist by profession, went nuts on the dinosaur until the battered thing finally busted.

All of it was great fun to witness.

And here’s a final photo of Owen, in the arms of Aubry, his number one fan. My favorite Easter moment of all.