The big Easter Egg Hunt

This morning was cold and clear and beautiful---and a good day for small children like William to hunt for Easter eggs among hordes of other small children who aren't quite sure why they're being urged to pick up small plastic eggs that don't have anything fun or tasty inside. That's right: today was the big Easter Egg hunt at the Nashville Zoo.

You know, Easter Egg hunts for small children are very funny things. They're not really "hunts." They don't actually hide the eggs. They just take big baskets full of eggs and dump them in a huge mess on the yard and let the kids run after them. The people at the zoo did make a token effort to spread the eggs out over the field, but still. There was no hiding or hunting involved whatsoever. Shivering, yes. Especially all the sweet little girls in their Easter dresses. Hunting, though, not so much. Egg-snatching might be a better description for the event, now that I think about it.

Here are David and William arriving at the site for the egg hunt with Leland, Chris, and Mary Clare:
















David and William preview the egg-snatching site. That's Shab and her husband Santi there next to them.
















Shab and Yago:

















Yago with his daddy Santi:
















Leland with her daddy Chris (and David nearby!):
















Another group shot:















Leland and William were ready to hunt some eggs. Er, well, once William could see out from his hat, he was ready.















It took the zoo people for freakin' ever to finally start the event. People were lined up around the field for almost an hour, and if you've ever had to corral a squirmy toddler, you know that it seemed like light years longer than that. But I guess I got off easy. David pretty much took over toddler-wrangling duty. He also received the honor of being the parent who got to help William pick up eggs.



















Now, I will say that William was prepared. We practiced picking up eggs from the family room floor last night. He was very clear on the concept of picking up an egg and putting it in his basket. He just needed them to let him out there to actually to get to some eggs!



















I found some!


































Look, Mom! I found half an egg!



















At the end of the big eggs-travaganza (come one, you have to realize I was waiting all day to use that one), we turned in our baskets of eggs for a goody bag. I think they reused the eggs for the next age group's egg hunt. William was pleased with his little trinkets, probably much more so than he would have been with his eggs. (He found six, by the way.)

And for the grand finale, William got to ride on the big carousel for the very first time.




















That's a pretty big day, huh? And I didn't even tell you about how we wandered around the zoo for awhile and eventually went to have lunch at Baja Burrito afterward. William's supposed to be napping now, and honestly, I think I could use a nap now, too.