Chick Magnet Goes Hunting

This morning McKinley donned his 'Chick Magnet' t shirt and schlepped along his 'Chick Magnet' Easter Pail and we headed for Deming Park's annual Easter Egg Hunt. And no...I am not implying that my son is a chick magnet...okay, well maybe a little, but he seriously loves chicks. The fuzzy kind. He calls them 'kickies' and he is a fan. Real ones (courtesy of the kind gentleman at Rural King who so willingly scooped one up to show McKinley, risking a wet hand), wind-up ones, blog wallpaper ones, t shirt ones - he loves chickies. So, we went with the chickie shirt and bucket. Cute! And don't you know it - I had his vest zipped up and he had his pail turned around the entire time. Oh well.

So, the hunt...Shhhh - don't tell, you're supposed to be at least two to participate. So, we're shy a couple of months, it didn't matter because McKinley made us proud!

Parents were not allowed inside the gates of the 2-4 year old hunt site which slightly frightened me. I could just see McKinley A. Melting down at the mere thought of Mommy being out of his line of sight for more than a minute, B. Suddenly displaying some sort of strange toddler behavior and taking out all the other kids in order to get a tiny, plastic egg, or C. Being the target of such behavior from another unpredictable toddler. Hallelujah, we had none of the above. The sweet helpers inside the gate were tolerant, helpful and made sure each child had plenty of eggs.

The whole thing lasted a total of 48 seconds - give or take a few seconds for camera adjustments. We waited in line forEVER for that, but it was so worth it to see McKinley head for the eggs that would hold precious prizes and candy. His favorite part was taking the eggs apart and putting them back together - that's my boy!

In the end, McKinley walked away with 5 eggs, 2 prizes - a bunny puppet and a card game, a little mud on his shoes and a big smile on his face.

After nap time, Cary and I took McKinley to the mall to have his picture taken with the Easter Bunny where we ran into friends Kylie, Ben and their son, Lincoln. McKinley and Lincoln. I call them future running mates. We've also got to fit Reagan, Chrissy's daughter in there too - she's obviously going to be a future presidential candidate as well...I digress.

The bunny thing went okay, though it was not McKinley's favorite thing to do ever, he tolerated it for a moment. We got the picture! Whoo hoo!

After dinner out, we came home to dye Easter Eggs. McKinley was much more interested than I anticipated. He LOVED dipping the eggs into the dye and could hardly wait to get his hands on the eggs. He just kept saying, 'Eggs! Eggs!'

The day's festivities brought back lots of memories for Cary and I and reminded us what it was like growing up with the Easter Bunny, Egg Hunts, Easter Eggs and all of the kiddie stuff that surrounds the holiday.

We know these are the trivial parts of Easter and obviously not the true meaning, but what a classic part of childhood and wonderful family time spent together that we would not trade for the world.

Tomorrow we will see what the Easter Bunny brought for McKinley then we will go to church, spend the day with family and celebrate the true meaning of Easter. Wishes for a Blessed Easter to everyone.

Lynn