Easter egg hunt

I enjoy living in a city. There are lots of things to do. The closest grocery store is 1 mile from my house. There are lots of restaurants and shopping places. Lots of choices.

But sometimes, there are things I miss about being from a small community outside of a small town.

Like the Easter egg hunts we had growing up.

There were about 150 people in the church I grew up in. Everybody knew everybody, and I was called down by more than of the ladies there. Back then, in a small community, when a church lady called you down, it didn't matter whether it was your Mama or your Granny or your Aunt or somebody not even kin to you, you did what she said.

And it was those same ladies that threw the best Easter egg hunts.

The hunts were broken down by Sunday school class, so you were hunting eggs with kids your very same age. There was no pushing or shoving or bigger kids knocking down smaller kids. If that happened, you knew one of those ladies was going to yank you by the arm and remind you quite sternly of your manners.

Those ladies also always had candy for us. Some of them gave it to us in bags. Some of them doled it out into the baskets we brought. But my favorite was when the Sunday school teachers would collect a bunch of the little plastic baskets that strawberries came in and make pipe cleaner handles for them. They'd add some green plastic grass, then fill them up with candy. The last touch would be when they opened the marshmallow Peeps and tore off a couple for each kid. I always ate mine right away because I don't like them stale.

Those Easter egg hunts were what prompted me to have one at our house Saturday. 

In the size city we live in, there are a lot of hunts to choose from, but they're just too big for my taste. So we invited several of Biscuit's friends to come to our house.

And it was also a chance for me to feed people -- something I really enjoy. I decided to bake a ham for ham biscuits, but have you ever tried to buy a ham two weeks before Easter? It's like they don't exist until the week of Easter.

Naturally, I called Mama to ask where to get one, and she had the answer for me.

I got to the store, and there were about eight different kinds -- spiral sliced hams, picnic hams, smoked pork loins, whole bone-in hams and more. Another lady was there staring at all of them like I was. "How do you know what kind to get?" she asked me.

And like I had known her 40 years, I said, "Mama likes butts, but I didn't see any. I called her to see what the second choice would be, but she isn't home."

While I was telling her this, I was rambling through the hams they had. Just as I said Mama wasn't home, I leaned down and saw two butt hams way in the back. I grabbed them both, then handed one to the other lady. She thanked me, then just like that, she put it in her buggy and rolled away.

That felt like something that would happen in the small town I grew up in, not the bigger town I live in now.

Anyway, I finally got my ham.

So Biscuit and three friends played while the Dads hid the eggs in the back yard, then it was time to hunt. Two of the boys are 3 and Biscuit and the other boy are 4. So when the Dads asked how hidden the eggs needed to be, the Moms had to remind them who they were hiding for.

The boys seemed to enjoy the hunt. I'm pretty sure they found all the eggs. I used plastic eggs (each egg had a piece of candy inside), so if they did leave any behind, we won't have a stinky yard next week!

The hunt didn't last too long. It was actually the shortest part of the day. Once they figured out that the eggs had candy inside, there was no getting them back to hide them again. If we do a hunt again next year, I think we'll hide eggs in the front yard and the back yard. Then they can hunt at least twice.

After the hunt, the boys played on the swingset and played baseball. I think they all had a good time.

When the time came for everybody to start leaving, one of the Moms overheard Biscuit ask me, "Mom, is it close to my naptime?"

I assured him that he could take his nap as soon as everyone left. What can I say, my boy has his priorities.

I didn't check with the other parents to see if I could post their kids pictures here, so here are some pictures of Biscuit:

Don't walk away! You're leaving two eggs!

Two times ... TWO TIMES ... he fell out of this swing onto his head.
Shouldn't he have figured out it was a bad idea after the first time?!?

Is there anything sadder than a kid alone on a see-saw?

I'm not sure what the cheering was
about, but who cares, he's happy!