I know right now my mama is about to have a conniption because we spent a month in the South this summer and took all kinds of pictures at Disney with Peg Peg and Tex and I haven't posted any of them, and now I'm backtracking to April. We'll get there.
So - Easter!
For the past several years, our family has thrown an Easter party the weekend before Easter for all the kids to come over and have an egg hunt. I went back and forth this year on whether or not to host the annual Burbach party because I wasn't sure I could pull it off with your dad gone. Then I remembered I have the ability to write checks, so I outsourced all the cooking to Cracker Barrel and forged ahead. Did you know if you order an obscene amount of food from Cracker Barrel, they'll pack it up for you in a five foot box? When I die, you can bury me in one of these because nothing would tickle me more than to head off to The Great Beyond smelling like hashbrown casserole.
Our friend group has children in three age ranges, so in the past I've hidden different colored eggs for each group. Last year, we had a few big-time fifth graders in the bunch, so I devised a high-tech scavenger hunt for those two, with a clue in one egg leading to the next egg with riddles to solve and codes to scan and websites to consult. It was such a huge hit that Laney and HER friends wanted the same thing this year, so I ended up creating two levels of scavenger hunt clues. You know there's such a thing in the reality TV business as a Challenge Producer who dreams up all those "Road Blocks" on Amazing Race or "Immunity Challenges" on Survivor. Next year, I'm going to fly one of those yahoos in because it would have to be easier.
I was devious, y'all. I even weighed down an egg in a bag of rocks and put it at the bottom of the hot tub so someone would have to get in and get it. Laney's group had to perform dance numbers if they wanted to receive their next egg/clue.
The boys, on the other hand, just wanted to run around and pick up candy. No plot required.
You can't really tell from this picture Miss Jess took (I took no pictures all day, because I was busy), but I set up a tripod on the deck and we Skyped your dad in Afghanistan, and he got to be the one who did the "Ten...nine...eight..." countdown to kick off the hunt. Tradition!We dyed eggs and played more games, and a truly disgusting number of children ended up in our hot tub (which I drained the next day because there is not enough chlorine in the world, y'all.)
I had prints made of all the pictures I'd taken of everyone's young'uns in the past year and used them to decorate the deck, so at the end of the party everyone got to take their pictures home as a parting gift. Yes, it's dark out. Yes, the party started at 10:00am. The snow had just melted and it wasn't raining and the kids were having fun and expectations were low and a tremendous amount of fun was had.
The only thing missing was your dad.
The following weekend, our friends the Lindauers invited us to a far more respectable Easter gathering.
Laney made a beautiful Easter-inspired cake which was actually delicious. Hagen made friends with a puppy. At the end of the holiday, we'd managed to hand on to all of usual traditions with your dad halfway around the world. Here's hoping we never have to do it again.
Love,
Mom
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