Easter
Golden, Colorado: April 5, 2015
One of the Easter cats, Cirrus, was available to greet our visitors! Well, Maddie looks happier about that than Cirrus does...
Flowers from Uncle Dale:
And now it is time to start the hunt! Valerie had said that she couldn't look anywhere in the yard without seeing eggs - I told her
that those were just the self esteem builders. This year was the first time we added some puzzles to the hunt to challenge the girls a bit more.
We had 4 decorative take-out boxes (thanks to Wal-Mart, when I realized some of the stuff I bought was slightly too large for the eggs), 2 stuffed
dinosaurs, 2 stuffed lambs, 2 wands with Lipsmacker chapstick, 2 very cute Lindt baskets - each with 2 small chocolate bunnies, 2 gold eggs - which had $4
in them and were the subject of some of the puzzles, 4 chalk eggs, 2 M&M tins, 2 duck bubbles, and 91 eggs filled with a variety of little prizes, like
erasers, coins, small toys from the $1 section of Target, nail polish, etc. I try to do stuff other than chocolate. And they're off!
Our neighbors' dog, Oakley, observes the hunt:
Hanging out on a beautiful day! Uncle Dale (Mike's mom's brother), Auntie Linda (Mike's dad's sister), Grandma Kitty (Mike's dad's mom), and
Mike's mom (Gwenn).
Mike, Rannae (his sister), and Valerie (Rannae's younger daughter) by one of the puzzles:
Peeps!
Checking the side yard - Rob, Rannae, Gwenn, Mike, and Maddie (Rob and Rannae's older daughter):
Mike and Valerie work on the first puzzle - using an earth magnet to lift an egg out of the plastic tube.
Valerie broke the egg open, so she waits while Mike fixes it so they can try again:
MOVIE!
Mike helps Valerie with a trick egg AVI file, 4.3 Mb
Meanwhile, Maddie heads over to another magnetic egg. This one is in the gutter, propped up against a wine bottle. It has a string with a washer. There is a
metal pointer with a magnet stuck to the house. She has to use the pointer to reach the washer, and then pull the egg out of the gutter.
Ta da!
Time for the next challenge! Sorry Maddie - I didn't realize this one had a fake challenge and the real challenge.
Filling the bucket with sand tipped over the chute - and she got 3 rocks! The egg must be somewhere else....
MOVIE!
Maddie with a trick egg AVI file, 3.3 Mb
I spent some time scouting out eggs the girls had missed - they took a break from the puzzles to go find them.
Time for the golden eggs! Maddie's is invisible except for a string...
but Valerie went first.
MOVIE!
Valerie finds a golden egg AVI file, 2.9 Mb
ok - back over the Maddie's!
... and the daffodils look lovely today...
MOVIE!
Maddie finds a golden egg AVI file, 0.8 Mb
Sorting all the bounty! Maddie looks cute in her School of Mines kerchief
Auntie Linda and Valerie:
Uncle Dale with the girls. In the background: Mike's parents and my cousin, Jessica Moffett:
Maddie also had a birthday present from my brother, Mike Rawluk:
MOVIE!
Maddie opens her birthday gift from my brother AVI file, 5.3 Mb
Decorations - these wooden Ukrainian eggs were an heirloom from my dad's mom - Ann Rawluk (Ann Lucyshyn).
I keep them in her candy dish:
Enjoying the beautiful day!
Auntie Linda, Grandma Kitty, Rob, and Rannae:
Uncle Dale, Gwenn, and Jessica:
Valerie and Maddie playing with bubbles:
Mike and his dad:
My decorations in the front yard:
Blue skies and the maple tree:
Auntie Linda, Terry, and their mom:
Mike says hi to Zeke:
Valerie says hi to Lilly:
After dinner - Uncle Dale, Gwenn, Valerie, and Jessica:
Mike and his grandma:
Terry, Uncle Dale, Gwenn, Valerie, and Jessica:
Grandma Kitty also had baskets for the girls. They came with little guns that shoot plastic balls.
It turns out that throwing the balls in the air is more fun...
A few pictures after the party, during cleanup Monday night:
I thought the dish drain looked so happy and colorful!
Mike thought it looked creepy, so I tried to get a picture capturing his perspective:
My grandma's candy dish with the totem pole from Alaska, the decanter from Becke and Tony Barlow (graduation gift for Mike), Trevor,
and the owl from my brother for my MBA:
Enough pictures! The cats say it is time for bedtime treats!
Last updated 15Apr2015