Happy Hunting!

The Great Egg Release 2012!

The boys had so much fun hunting Easter Eggs this year. It was just a season full of happy hunting! Oh, and throwing baskets full of Easter Eggs was super fun as well!!! We had quite a few different egg hunts, and to be honest the boys would have been happy had we had a few more! They could not get enough of it. We hunted eggs around the house, had a neighborhood egg hunt, a school egg hunt, the bunny left us eggs to hunt, and we had our big family egg hunt. Talk about a lot of eggs! Walmart or Target may not see me back for those little plastic eggs for a few more years!:) Although we had "hunted" a few eggs around the house, Hayden's school egg hunt was our first "official" hunt of the year and boy was it fun...

He was just a little excited to find him some eggs!

They did a really good job with the hunt. Each of the parents brought in some eggs and hid them on the playground while the teachers kept the kids in the classrooms. A couple of classrooms would come out at a time to let the kids hunt, and the teachers had told them how many eggs to look for. I like doing it this way because not only do all the kids get around the same number of eggs, but it's educational at the same time. You know I love to hide some education in my fun!! As you can tell, Hayden wasn't shy at all about finding his eggs. He ran straight out of the door and never stopped running or smiling the entire time. He even let Sawyer help him with a few of his eggs. It was super sweet! We did have to stop and count his eggs because he had gotten a few too many, but that was the "school" part I actually helped him enjoy! Hayden did a great job with his counting and had no problem letting the adults hide a few of his "extra" eggs for other kids to be able to find. It was great!

Finding his eggs!

After the hunt, the kids went back to their classroom to get ready for the Easter Hat Parade. Although Hayden attended this school last year for Mother's Morning Out, he hadn't participated in the hat parade before, so I wasn't quite sure what to expect. He had been given an assignment to create an Easter hat for this parade a couple of weeks back and this is what we came up with...

Little Hayden Cottontail!

Off he goes!

I loved the way it ended up turning out, and Hayden did a great job making it. He helped with pretty much all aspects of the hat, including going to the store and picking out a hat. That part was actually the hardest! I probably showed him 10 different hats before he finally said this one would be okay. I thought the picking out the decorations was going to be much easier because he had specific things he wanted on it. From the beginning he had said he wanted baby chicks, eggs and bunnies, so off to Michaels we went. Let's just say it wasn't quite as easy as I had thought it would be. We had to go to almost every craft store in Alpharetta/Cumming before we were pleased with the materials we ended up with. He would like something and I wouldn't, I would like something and he wouldn't... you know the drill. Finally after about 2 hours and what felt like 10 different stops we were both happy and Sawyer had picked up a few things along the way! Once home for the afternoon we started on the hat making...

Busy at work!

Can you tell he had fun with the process?!?

Hayden loved when the baby chicks stayed where he wanted them!

Proud of all his hard work!:)

The final product!

Hayden helped with pretty much the entire hat. I put the ears on when he was napping, but other than that he was right there making his hat. It was a fun thing to do together, and the actual parade was super cute!

Walking and waiving in the hat parade!

This is what Sawyer did the entire time while waiting on the
parade to begin. I was chasing him like a mad woman!
I guess he's just getting himself ready
for his first hat parade!

After the parade they had the kids a little Easter party in their classrooms which thrilled Hayden to pieces. He loves when we get to come see what he does at school!

He loves reading books with Ms. Allie!

And of course LOVES snack time!

We love our days when we get to go be a part of Hayden's school day! Soon after the Easter events at school, we had our annual neighborhood egg hunt. I guess it's more like a cul-de-sac egg hunt, because we never actually make it to the big neighborhood hunt, but it's a hunt with neighbors any way you look at it! The kids continue to multiply...

Ready for their hunt to start!

We have been making this same picture of all of them for the last 3 years, and I hope we continue to make it for as long as we do this little hunt for them. It is fun to watch the group get bigger and bigger... in numbers and size! As you can tell from the picture, Sawyer wasn't too thrilled to be taking this picture. It's always difficult to get all of the kids to look at the 10 cameras pointing towards them, and there's always at least one who can't take it. Usually that one has Ronn as a last name! To be honest Sawyer didn't have a great time this whole entire hunt. He had lots of fun at all of his other hunts, but this one was just not for him. We never could really figure out what was wrong with him, but once we made it to our backyard and he started playing things started to turn up. Maybe he just didn't want to be with a crowd that day?!?

Standing at the fence and talking with Bennett was just what he needed!

He did still manage to find a couple eggs...

This picture cracks me up. I guess there's an interesting egg he has
spotted in front of him that has captured his attention enough
to go ahead and get him to bend down to get it!:)

And this one looked so good he decided to open it up right away!

Hayden was able to find quite a few eggs
despite the Sawyer meltdown!

One which was found in a bed of flowers while
taking a break from his Easter sucker!

He had a great time at the hunt!

And found "a bunch" of eggs according to him!:)

Of course, he made sure I saw each and every one he found!

Having so much fun hunting!

Having so much fun opening!:)

Both boys really enjoyed dumping out their
eggs and finding out what was inside!

I don't know what got them so tickled about the process,
but it sure made for a cute picture!

The boys weren't too into this family pic!

The Mommy/Son pics were super fun though!

This was taken during one of our many inside egg hunts!

"Whoa!" he was saying. "A ball!"

Which he took to show to Hayden who in
turn put it in his mouth! Oh, boys!

Now on to actual Easter day. On Easter, we had our big family egg hunt down in Barnesville, which was super fun for the boys. I always look forward to going each year because they always have the best time. Daddy had to work this year, so he couldn't come with us, but Grandaddy got to make the trip with us. When we got there we ate a great big lunch and then let the kids hunt hundreds of eggs. This year Hayden even found the special golden egg. He was super excited. So excited we actually had to make a stop at Walmart on our way home so he could spend his prize egg money! It was really cute!

Our attempt at getting a pic of all the 2nd cousins!

Hayden and Halo's silly pic!

I love this picture of Hayden picking up an egg.
Sometimes it's the details I love the most!

Sawyer wanted this egg so bad he climbed a little hill for it!

An ant hill that is. And boy did he ever pay the price. It was soon after this that he started screaming at the top of his lungs. As you can imagine Grandaddy and I were doing all we could to figure out what was wrong, and finally after him kicking me 100 times we decided to look down. Ants were all over him from his ankles down. Poor baby. Who hides an egg in an ant hill anyways?!? I felt so bad for him, but he was much better once we got all the ants off of him. He still has a few little bite marks on his sensitive little legs now, but they are fading. Note to all egg hiders... please be cautious where you hide eggs, ant hills are not toddlers friends!

I caught Hayden doing this when he realized the golden
egg he found was actually the prize egg.
I'd say he was a wee bit excited!

He was nice enough to let his brother open it up.
After he had already done it once of course!

Sawyer thought it was the best thing ever!

And Hayden immediately put the money he won in his pocket
so he could go buy him a new toy. Just what he needed!

This was after the hunt was over, but they are running
like they have something to find!

They were headed to help Sawyer do more of this...

Look through their eggs of course!

I think they did this for a good 10 minutes, and loved
every single second of it. I just love this
picture of them with Grandaddy!

After the family egg hunt, we headed back to Grandaddy's house for the rest of the afternoon. Would you believe the Easter Bunny even made a stop by his house? That is one busy bunny huh?!? Talk about some lucky boys! Of course we spent most of our time outside...

Where the boys had tons of fun with their new ball!

Kinda looks like he's a basketball player
going down the court huh?!?

Aren't they cute?!?

They sure had fun together!

This was Sawyer practicing his running skills down a ramp!

And this is Hayden going right down behind him!:)

Peek-a-boo!

And of course, although Daddy had to work most of the day, I still managed to talk him into a few family Easter pictures on actual Easter Day! So glad he was up for it! Love all my boys!

So sweet!

Love!

Happy Easter 2012!