Hunting Eggs

I have to start this post with praise to my husband, Nick. He and his team (staff and volunteers) pulled off a massive egg hunt at our church on Saturday. We’re talking over 10,000 eggs, massive. We’re talking, this picture only shows about a quarter of the 3-6 year old age group alone, massive!

Yep, it was a lot of kids. Thankfully, I had the wisdom and foresight to call for back-ups, because I knew Nick would be too busy working to help me wrangle our own kids.

There’s the famous Aunt Laura and Uncle Mason, with Miss Lily! I think just before I handed Lily to Mason I said something to the effect of “Here, you take her. She’s killing my arms!” Ha! (And yes, those two are going to have some gorgeous babies when they finally get around to it!)

So the boys’ age group egg hunt was before Lily’s. Jackson and Ty darted into the crowd instantly and I lost sight of them in no time. Chase, on the other hand, wanted me to go with him, so I tried to hurry him into the hunting area before all of the eggs were scooped up.

Confession #1: I lost Ty for probably 5 minutes. Ok, it might not have been that long, but it felt that long.

Confession #2: I took zero pictures of the boys hunting eggs, largely due to the massive crowd and aforementioned child-losing.

After I located Ty and told Jackson for the 5th time “stay with me now! I don’t want to lose another one!”, we moved over to the egg hunt for the 0-2 year olds. Ahhhh, much calmer and I was able to take some pictures!

Lily is rather unsure about grass still, and even if she’s wearing shoes, she tends to not budge from the spot we place her. So here she stood – staring at the eggs.

Yes, we’re all admiring you, pretty Easter girl, now pick up an egg!

There we go! Bending down enough to shovel an egg into Chase’s bucket. Doesn’t Chase look excited about all of this?

Alright, another confession for you all… Usually I handle large crowds and chaotic places in stride. They don’t bother me; I don’t get nervous, stressed or irritable and I just don’t see them as a big deal. I think I figured something out though on Saturday, as I left after 2 hours of feeling stressed out. Caffeine makes me more level headed and relaxed.

Are you lost here?

Let me back up… I hadn’t given anything up for Lent for a couple of years, so when I actually  thought about it a couple of weeks before Ash Wednesday, I decided I should go big and make it something hard. I briefly thought about Facebook, but quickly realized that would be detrimental to my business. What was next on my list of vices? Coffee and Diet Coke.

Yep. This foolish woman gave up both. I know, I know…. I probably could have just done with one, but my reasoning was that if I only gave up one, I’d just turn to the other one that much more. So the day before Ash Wednesday I celebrated with a Venti (that would be a large) Salted Caramel Mocha, with extra espresso. Again, probably not a wise thing to do before essentially quitting caffeine cold turkey. I never claimed to be bright 😉

Long story short – headaches for about a week, tea every so often, but I’ve successfully laid off the coffee and Diet Coke.

Here’s the thing though – I’ve been way more stressed out and irritable lately and I think I finally figured it out… it’s the caffeine! I told Nick Saturday afternoon about my stressed out feelings at the egg hunt and said “I can’t help but think I would have been so much more relaxed if I’d had a cup of coffee in my hand.” At least after this coming Sunday I’ll be back to handling large crowds and stressful situations in stride!

In the midst of the stressful feelings I was having on Saturday, I did manage to get a group picture of the kids, which always makes me happy! Hope it makes you happy too!

L-R: Jackson, Lily, Ty & Chase