Easter Festival

Once again, Daddy was the subject of more pictures than anyone else today.  Once again, Daddy was the Easter Bunny.  I sat on my throne for four hours straight without a break, with kid after kid coming up to interact and pose for a picture on a cell phone or camera.  You had all kinds of parents... as I'm waving goodbye to another kid, I turn just in time with my supremely limited vision to see a parent thrusting a newborn baby in my hands, time after time!  One set of parents wanted me to hold three infants at once.  And I can't even see what I'm holding, keep in mind. 

The one thing that made the long period of time endurable is the remarkably chilly weather today.  The high was around 51, and there were winds, and occasional drizzles.  It was not ideal weather.  At all.  The much ballyhooed helicopter drop was canceled due to the weather and rain, too.  But even so, a lot of people came, and we had so many more eggs than we needed this time - everyone walked way with a hefty surplus!

There were rides, pony rides, inflatable race courses, face paint, food trucks, music, and of course the Easter Bunny posing for pictures with the kids.  It was terrific fun for the kids.

Despite the weather, Madison came and did all of it.  She got a bag and collected eggs, and even got her face painted, as you can see above.  She rode rides, and did the obstacle courses a few times.  She was there the entire time, in and out, and having a great time with her friends.

Afterwards, we went home, got cleaned up, and that's when Madison went on the next Easter egg hunt, the official one that Daddy set up, the Marvel Dodge Ball Initiative.  She really enjoyed it, using her handheld device to scan the codes on each dodge ball.  And those codes showed you a page on this blog with Marvel heroes on the dodge ball court, each with descriptions of their abilities and strengths.  Also on each page after the scan were clues to where the next egg (and dodge ball) was hidden.  I think there was only one that gave her trouble.  But in the end, she got through all 21 eggs hidden inside (and outside) the house, finally making it to the end where she found her Easter basket awaiting her.  It was a Marvel one, of course, with two Pop figures of Captain Marvel and Goose, the cat/flurken from the same movie.  That latter character was the reason Nick Fury won the dodge ball contest, by the way.  Also in the basket were lots of jelly beans, chocolate eggs, and a copy of "Spider-Man into the Spider-Verse."  Along the way, she got that new Star Wars book, which she was so happy to see on the shelf.  She saw the egg on the shelf there, but didn't realize the book it was resting on.  Daddy told her to read the spine of the book, and then she flipped out.  It was right in front of her there and she was happy to get it.

Anyway, the yearly Easter egg hunt went well, and now I can go back and fix up the earlier pages on this blog that were used to help her along.  I love that each scan of her scanner took her to a photo on this blog, one that she didn't know was there from a few weeks ago.  It was fun!

After that, the fun continued with our yearly Easter egg decorating!

Here's our yearly group shot, a mix of some of Daddy and Madison's finished products.  They turned out well this year!  And, most importantly, it was fun making them.  Lately, be it cookies or eggs, Madison, Mommy and Daddy have been sitting about spending well over an hour, maybe two, creating our little artistic masterpieces.  We talk and create and just have a great time making art.  These turned out well.

Here's a sea turtle one.  We used the deep blue color, then some glue and green sparkling glitter to put on the glue to make seaweeds.  Finally, a darker marker for the silhouette of the turtle.

Speaking of silhouettes, this cross is created over an egg we dyed red, orange, and yellow.  It turned out well, a nice reminder of the reason for Easter Sunday.  Here's a few of the other eggs too:

You can see the porg in there, along with a globe that Daddy was working on using the glue and the green glitter.  We had that white crayon as well, the one that you use to mark things you with to remain white while the dye is going on there.  You can see that effect with the cloud below:

This design was half blue and half green, so we did a little Nebraska landscape on it.  Or Kansas.  Or Oklahoma.  Or maybe Clermont.  Oh, and here's Bill Cipher, just because:

We had a great time making a lot of eggs tonight!  And yes, speaking of Bill Cipher, we watched a few more episodes of Gravity Falls, but it was time to go to bed early for all of us.  Daddy needed a good night's sleep after the chilly day today.  It was fun though, with lots of good memories for all of us.  The weather might not have been ideal, but it was a really fun day!