Easter Egg Hunt 2013

True to the tradition of the past few years, we hosted our annual Easter Egg Hunt again this year.

This year I made chili and cornbread, and the other families brought salads and desserts. We had 72 people attend, and it was oh so rewarding to me to be surrounded by so many friends. In trying to plan a party for an approximate number of people, I always wonder why I do it (especially this year, with trying to make enough chili and cornbread). But then my friends gather with their children, and it is all worth it.

Just for my notes, a quadruple recipe of this chili and three double batches of this cornbread fed the crowd of 1/3 adults, 1/3 small children 5 and under, and the rest in between. Yay for Mel's Kitchen Cafe! And if you ever need a honey butter recipe, hers did not disappoint. I made just enough chili, but twice as much cornbread as we needed--so those are the amounts eaten by the crowd. I was more than happy to send home cornbread with friends who stayed to the bitter end and helped me clean up. It was an all around rewarding experience, and I truly enjoyed myself.

OK, pictures will tell the rest. We held it at the church again. And while we had a few snow piles to keep the older kids looking for the eggs, at least this year the sun was out and we had a gorgeous day to enjoy!

The hunters . . .

 . . . and the gatherers.

 Oh, we love our cousin/friend Tyler! He and David held hands as buddies on their way out to the egg hunt. Tyler remembered that last year's egg hunt was frigid--so he wasn't going to get caught being cold again. He layered on those warm clothes--and in the end, after climbing that snow hill looking for eggs--he was one sweaty little kid.

 The little ones went first.

 The the big kids--4 and up--were off.

 Fun times!

 David had so much fun going up and down the  snow that he forgot to really hunt eggs. So he only got a couple. But he was fine with that--the fun for David is always in the journey.

 Oh, how we love our Alaskan style to what the rest of the world views as a spring holiday!

Happy Easter!

PS--I had such good intentions to make salt dough garden tombs again, but I'm afraid our life is a little chaotic right now. The tradition is that we do an Easter Egg hunt on Saturday and focus on the Savior on Sunday. David and I had a very sweet time together on Sunday morning reading the Easter story together. He understood bits and pieces of it this year, so I was thrilled. I guess I'll have to overlook the fact that I didn't bring out the craft around the story--we got in the essentials, and this year that was enough.