We have lived in our neighborhood for a decade now, but had never found cause to witness the Annual Easter Egg hunt put on by the Great Northwest Recreation Department. Saturday the 11th of April, my wife and I decided to head down to the soccer fields and see what all the excitement was about. Now we know!
Prior to the start, the staff and volunteers marked off several parts of the field so that age groups could be separated. This insures that some 2 year-old doesn’t get trampled by a herd of 8 year-olds! With the areas clearly marked, the staff assisted the Easter Bunny in covering the field with plastic eggs filled with goodies and tickets. Enough eggs were put out to make sure each of the participants would get a share of the take!
As the noon hour approached, little excited residents and their almost as excited parents lined the starting point as Recreation Director Jose outlined the rules of the event. It was all the little ankle biters could do to wait for the final minute before the strike of noon and the start of the mad scramble for plastic eggs.
In the little baby section, most of the kids were carried by helpful parents so they could get to an open space to allow the collecting of eggs and photographing of the moment. Honestly, there were a hundred cameras capturing the event from every possible angle. If any overzealous kid took a chance on grabbing an egg from another kid’s basket, surely there would be multiple pictures depicting the heist from every possible direction!
In all, there were over 3,500 eggs to be scooped up by the youngsters and in less than two or three minutes, there was not a single egg left on the field. It was like watching an army of Kirby Vacuum Cleaner salesmen in an all out assault on dirt, only these were little kids sucking up the plastic eggs. A note to parents: If you want your youngsters to quickly clean their rooms, why not put little tickets inside socks, shoes, backpacks and toys; they will magically be off the floor, lickety split!
Prior to the start, the staff and volunteers marked off several parts of the field so that age groups could be separated. This insures that some 2 year-old doesn’t get trampled by a herd of 8 year-olds! With the areas clearly marked, the staff assisted the Easter Bunny in covering the field with plastic eggs filled with goodies and tickets. Enough eggs were put out to make sure each of the participants would get a share of the take!
As the noon hour approached, little excited residents and their almost as excited parents lined the starting point as Recreation Director Jose outlined the rules of the event. It was all the little ankle biters could do to wait for the final minute before the strike of noon and the start of the mad scramble for plastic eggs.
In the little baby section, most of the kids were carried by helpful parents so they could get to an open space to allow the collecting of eggs and photographing of the moment. Honestly, there were a hundred cameras capturing the event from every possible angle. If any overzealous kid took a chance on grabbing an egg from another kid’s basket, surely there would be multiple pictures depicting the heist from every possible direction!
In all, there were over 3,500 eggs to be scooped up by the youngsters and in less than two or three minutes, there was not a single egg left on the field. It was like watching an army of Kirby Vacuum Cleaner salesmen in an all out assault on dirt, only these were little kids sucking up the plastic eggs. A note to parents: If you want your youngsters to quickly clean their rooms, why not put little tickets inside socks, shoes, backpacks and toys; they will magically be off the floor, lickety split!And speaking of tickets, thanks to the fine folks at Silver Creek Manor, the plastic eggs were filled with candies and tickets and a few had special silver coins, and one had the grand prize, a gold coin. When the mad dash was over and all the eggs had been collected, the kids formed a line to get to the prize table where the Gold coin was exchanged for a large Easter basket, the silver coins were turned in for smaller baskets, and anyone with at least 15 eggs received other prizes.
Even if your kids are no longer of Easter Egg hunting age, the event was quick and fun to watch. So many activities like the annual 4th of July Parade, Veterans Day events and the New Years Polar Bear swim make the Great Northwest a great place to live.
7 comments:
wow..that looks like a lot of fun...we do something like it but on a much smaller scale..muuuuch smaller..ha
next time you drive thru west,texas instead of gong to the czech stop...take a turn at the sonic(old dairy queen) and go about 1 block..on the right hand side is the smokehouse meat market and bakery...go to that bakery..you'll never ever eat at czech stop again..they make the best kolaches in the state of texas..and the rolls, cinamon, chocolate cake, pumpkin, carmel pecan rolls..are the best..the size of soft balls..and the kolaches are twice the size as the ones at czech stop...trust me..you'll love them...dare you to leave without at least 2 boxes of goodies..
While I thought the method of dividing the eggs up by age group was nice. I think next year they should make half of the parents/kids go to the other side of the field and then both sides would meet up in the middle. This way there would be less parents trying to pick up the kids and make it though the crowd to get to the remaining eggs on the other end. Does that make sense?
Funny, I was thinking the same thing. A lot of the parents just raced across the field to get to an open space (which made sense actually), but I'm sure that more than a few people stepped on eggs during the dash.
..and the kolaches are twice the size as the ones at czech stop...trust me..you'll love them...dare you to leave without at least 2 boxes of goodies..Oh yea. I love me a Kolache. And I have the girth to prove it.
I'm so glad you posted that video, Dave. The lady in the middle (pink jacket & jeans) illustrates exactly why we won't attend this event again until the kids are older. I'm sure the Tot's eggs would have lasted a LOT longer if the tots were the actual ones vacuuming up those eggs. My 3 year old (not shy by any means when it comes to Easter eggs) was quite mad that she was only able to pick up 5 eggs.
C'mon, parents, let the kids have fun! If the kid can walk, I say make the parents stand on the sidelines (infants, stay home, really, they can't even eat candy). I had to show my daughter there was actually eggs there... past all the big people!
Hmm... maybe we should have an ADULT egg hunt next year. That would be kind of interesting!
I'm sure the Tot's eggs would have lasted a LOT longer if the tots were the actual ones vacuuming up those eggsYea... I sorta noticed that. I'm sure that little kid will also do well in the Cub Scouts pinewood derby and other self-paced projects. Geeze.
I do understand the parents hoisting there kids beyond the crowd to get to an open area, but the adult-sized human shovel is a bit much.
Hmm... maybe we should have an ADULT egg hunt next year. That would be kind of interesting!Funny you mention that... I heard on the radio the other morning about the Easter "mini-liquor bottle hunt" a caller had for the adults after they finished with the egg hunt for the kids.
That's mighty neighborly!
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