More Easter Egg Hunts!

First up: the Baker girls Easter Egg hunt on Wednesday, 3/23. Sheilah, Brooke and Blair came through with their adorable annual egg hunt at SheShe's house. The weather could not have been more spectacular and it was great fun to let the boys play with lots of other kids! MaSha was able to come with me to this event so I let Layla go home early. 

Stokes, Ryan and William

When we first arrived, it was just playtime for all the kids! SheShe's backyard is perfect for playing and there were lots of toys and things to play with. 

Swingset play area

Ryan loves the swing!

Stokes and William playing with bats and balls

There was a snack time and all the littles sat on these blankets to enjoy their snacks and treats!

Then SheShe gathered all the kids on the driveway and gave everyone a piece of chalk to color! She said that the kids could trade out colors amongst themselves. I learned a new phrase from SheShe that day: "you get what you get, and you don't pitch a fit!" LOVE it. :)

As per usual, my boys weren't necessarily interested in making chalk drawings. They wanted to pull pine straw out of the flower beds and throw it around instead. Nice. We tried to minimize the pine straw destruction. While the kids were coloring on the driveway, all the mamas went out to the backyard to "hide" the Easter eggs for the hunt. When we were done, it will time for the hunt to begin.

Before they could start, SheShe gathered all the kids in the grass and gave the littles a head start to get some eggs before the bigger kids could go hunting. There were A LOT of kids there and it was physically impossible to get a decent picture of all of them, so here's what we got:

Most of the kiddos!
My boys are in the front with sweet little Baker!

Cute kids!!!

Then, the Easter egg hunt was on!

Despite several practices, my boys are still not into hunting Easter eggs. They may or may not pick them up when they see them lying on the ground or in a bush or a bed. If they decide to pick the egg up, it might, just might, end up in their basket. If they manage to get more than 2 or 3 eggs in the basket, the basket will promptly be turned upside down to let all the eggs escape. *Sigh.

William like Sheilah's big decorative Easter Eggs, and used
this pink one as a hat.

Cutie boys posing for a pic!

Boys with their Mama

Boys with their MaSha

Stokes playing the grass (notice he is no longer even carrying
his Easter basket)

MaSha helping Ryan walk

Playing with the big bouncy ball.

It was a beautiful afternoon and so much fun to go to the Baker Easter egg hunt! I got to see some girlfriends I don't see very often and the boys had a blast running around and playing. MaSha was a trooper to help me keep up with the little guys and I think she had a great time, too.

We took a day off from hunting Easter eggs, then....

On Good Friday, we participated in the Bright Start Easter Egg Hunt. Bright Start is the company that April, Ryan EI, works for. They do monthly activities for all the kids, but they pretty much always conflict with Ryan's PT appointment on Fridays, and we're never able to go. We attended this one last year because Ashley,  Ryan's PT, took the day off for Good Friday. I was a little bummed to hear that she was not taking Good Friday off this year because I was disappointed that we couldn't attend Bright Start's egg hunt. April suggested that we could check with Ashley to see whether she could do Ryan's PT at the park during the egg hunt - genius! Ashley was able to make it work, so Layla and I went over the plan and then put it into action.

Right when we got there, we saw April!

William, April and Stokes

Bright Start chose this awesome park to host the egg hunt. It's nice and spacious and I was excited that we would be able to let the boys run around and get some energy out in a safe setting.

Time to start the egg  hunt!

William found an egg!

Here's another one!

It seriously takes a lot of coaxing to get them to pick up the eggs and put them in the basket!

April was helping Stokes gather eggs

Proud of himself!

RUN!!!

Meanwhile, Ashley was working with Ryan on his PT.

Ryan and Ashley

They love each other :)

Helping Ryan pick up an egg

He got it!

He was so proud!

Stokes can be hard to keep up with at times

Finding fun treats in the eggs!

Stokes

Hmmm...I think they were pondering life here.

Brother hug!

Once again, their interest in hunting Easter eggs was fairly minimal. We had the most success with Ryan's basket that Ashley was helping out with, as well as Stokes's basket that April was basically filling and holding on to. Ha!

And as per my standard routine, we had to get a picture of them! I know you're surprised, right?!?!?!

Stokes,  Ryan and William

Look at that Ryan!!

Add Mama in for one

Add Lala in for one

Then we split up. Ashley took Ryan for more PT, Layla watched William and I kept my eyes on Stokes. He went right over to the "big kid" playground and immediately went up to the top, which is super high and I got all nervous!

After a little coaxing, he came down this huge slide...and had a blast...and immediately wanted to do it again.

One more time down the slide and I got super nervous again with him at the top, so we quickly headed over to the toddler playground, so that my heart could return to a normal pace. Stokes wasn't happy - such is life. The toddler playground is also fenced in, so it's easy to relax a little.  Ryan and Ashley were already here and before too long, William and Layla showed up.

Ryan working on balance

He was so happy! And he loved
the breeze that was blowing!

Wild man!

He was saying, "Need help! Need help!",
which he didn't actually need. Ha!

William steering this ship with this cute girl

Looking so grown up

Layla and Ashley with Ryan

When Ryan's PT hour was up and it was time for Ashley to leave, both Stokes and William went running over to her to give her hugs. It was so sweet!

Everybody loves Ashley!

Layla and I let them play on the playground a little while longer until it seemed like they were getting hungry.  We then went back to the covered area and found a picnic table for lunch that Layla had packed for the boys. They did so great just sitting there and eating their lunch. I was so proud!

Layla feeding Ryan

Lunch time!!!

While the actual Easter egg hunts were not all that successful in terms of actually gathering eggs, both outings were such fun opportunities to let the boys get some exercise, fresh air and socialization. I love taking them to do stuff like this, when I have at least 1 other adult with me. Maybe....one day...I will be brave enough (or crazy enough) to try it on my own, but for now, I'm so glad to the help and support to make these types of activities possible. And the fun doesn't stop there...we had a full weekend so stay tuned for the next couple of posts that I'm currently working on.