The boys were giddy with excitement prior to the hunt. I'm not sure they realized that the Easter Bunny was stuffing the eggs with candy that morning rather than the cold, hard cash that he uses on the official holiday egg hunt. Sorry, boys, the bunny has to abide by an annual budget.
The club divided the children into an older and a younger group as an attempt to level the playing field. Baylor's group went first, and it was clear there were a few rookies in the group. I had already confirmed that Baylor remembered the strategy from last year...skip the close eggs. Let the rookies fight for those. Instead, take off for the ones in the distance and fill your bucket.
Very quickly, Baylor revised the plan. He had Jaxon's buddy, Sean, working for him. Baylor simply carried the bucket while Sean filled it. That Baylor...always thinking!
We heard a rumor about a buried golden egg for the grand prize, but I'm not sure it was ever located. Toddlers don't grasp the concept of searching for the hidden egg when there's hundreds of other candy-filled eggs out in the open. Oh well!
Next, the older kids took a turn. They were a little more motivated in the quest for gold.
Jaxon and Sean were simply happy to fill their buckets and then head for the pool! The morning egg hunt was simply a necessary prerequisite.
Not wanting to leave the adults out of the fun, the beach club organized an adult bottle hunt. Airline-sized bottles of liqueur were hidden in the landscaping outside of the club's main entrance. The only problem is that unlike the egg hunts that were held in the morning, the bottle hunt took place at 4 o'clock in the afternoon. So how do you think the adults that would be interested in bottle hunting passed the hours? You got it! When you combine the high number of alcoholic beverages consumed by the club members with the grand entry staircase and flip-flops, you're just asking for trouble! Somehow, (truly a miracle!) there were no injuries this year. Unfortunately, we were near the rear of the pack and the bottles weren't as plentiful as the eggs. Aunt Nguyen was the only member of our team to find a bottle. At least the laughs were more plentiful!
Fast forward to Easter Sunday, and we all once again set out with our baskets hoping to score. Only this time, we were in search of the annual bragging rights associated with finding the silver and/or gold egg. Oh, and the green stuff inside.
The boys proved to be stiff competition for the adults. The Easter Bunny really stepped things up a notch this year. Not only were there more cash eggs, the Bunny hid a few toys around the yard, but the boys weren't distracted. They simply came back for the toys after snatching up as many of the eggs as they could get their grubby little hands on!
2011 turned out to be Anh's year. He FINALLY enjoyed the thrill of a successful egg hunt! In past years, Anh's total rarely topped a single digit, but this year he walked away with the $100 gold egg. Of course, it wasn't hard to top his performance from last year when he walked away with NOTHING! Nguyen took the $50 silver, but then promptly donated it to the boys' piggy banks. Anh donated his jackpot to my wallet. Ha!
The final tally was:
Travis - $157.50 (Proof that the smaller bills really do add up!)
Nguyen - $115.00
Anh - $108.00 (Good thing he found that gold egg!)
Baylor - $58.25
Shannon - $57.00 (Shouldn't have let Baylor have that last egg!)
Jaxon - $44.00 (As usual, Jax wasn't happy about his last place finish. Luckily, he seemed happy once I explained that if we had factored in the value of the toys he would have easily taken first place.)
So as you can see, gold doesn't necessarily equal victory because it was Travis that took top honors. Until next year, when we'll all be sure to trip him at the starting gate!
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