Hometown Easter Egg Hunt

I grew up in a really small town on a 500 acre dairy farm.

When you live in a small town, the people who live there become like family.

A lot of things have changed in the 20 years since I left home.

Our family farm was sold and pieced off.

More families have moved into the area as other properties have been sold or inherited.

There are a lot of people who live there that I have never known.

One thing I remember going to every single year was the town Easter Egg Hunt.

When I was young it was all the women of the church who would boil hundreds of eggs and then color them for all of us kids to find. All the eggs had a number on them and after finding as many eggs as we could we would go stand around the park pavilion and wait for our number to be called.

I never really won anything, maybe a candy bar or something.

I usually just went home with a bunch of boiled eggs colored in pink, blue or yellow.

But, one year, I won a 1 pound solid chocolate bunny!

One pound of solid milk chocolate!!!

My dad love chocolate.

I love my dad.

He loved to tease me.

I loved to be teased.

So the chase of the chocolate bunny began.

My dad even climbed up on our roof in order to keep the chocolate from me. I hid under my bed with it until he found me and pulled me out by the leg. To me, as a little kid, it seemed this chase went on for the entire day.

I remember my dad's big smile and jolly, goofy laugh as he chased me round and round the perimeter of the house outside and up and down the stairs (jumped them basically) of the house. I seem to remember one point where he leaped off of our 10 foot high porch just to catch me.

Good memories.

My dad loved to play with us and make us giggle and laugh!

I guess that's one of the many reasons I still love taking my kids to my hometown Easter Egg Hunt.

The eggs are plastic now and everyone gets a prize as long as they get an egg and it is much more crowded with all the alumni and the newbies.

My kids get really overwhelmed at the first with all the people, the eggs and just the idea.

But, I love to watch my parents get so excited to help their grandkids get the eggs and then the prizes. My dad still gets that same twinkle in his eye and my mom still gets amped up with the same excitement as she did with us.

She's sitting on my lap waiting nervously for the chance  to get her eggs

I tried to get her to smile with me. I just wish I would have gotten a shot of her with my dad.

Then the kids end up happy as can be with their little treasures and we drive back home after 5 minutes of Egg-citement!

Here she doesn't even want to look up at me because she is so enamored with her prized sparkly blue pony.

The UP for me this morning was when Baby saw Grandpa James and she spread out her arms and ran to him to give him a hug.

It reminded me of me when I was her age.

The other UP of my day so far is the fact that I am leaving in 15 minutes to take Brother to go see the Hansel and Gretal Ballet at the Scera Theater. They are having a free showing for families affected by Autism and I feel blessed to have that kind of opportunity.

The BIGGEST UP of my day is that in about 10 hours I get to see my brother, Daniel, and his family who are coming from Illinois to visit for a week!

Yay!