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This year Easter came really early, on April 8. As always, we found time to celebrate and have fun.

We had an early eggs hunt the last weekend of March at the YMCA. We met Alyce, his gym buddy, and they had a lot of fun sliding and jumping on the bouncies and playing on the playground.

Keegan and Alyce watched Alyce’s sister Betty collecting eggs. They were cheering for her from the sidelines, holding hands.

Then it was finally time for their eggs hunt. Keegan and Alyce were ready. For the first time, Keegan actually jumped right in and started collecting a lot of eggs…

…then “tragedy” struck. Somehow (according to Keegan a big kid run into him), Keegan stumbled and fell, spilling all his eggs on the ground. Of course he immediately started crying, while all the other kids kept on picking up his eggs. Poor sweetie. I went to help him and comfort him, and grabbed some eggs to put back in his basket: after all, it did not matter how many eggs you got, you still received the same goodie bag. The YMCA attendant was very nice and helped him gather more eggs, and then one mom gave him one of the special eggs, that provide an extra prize. I guess her daughter got two, so she shared one with Keegan, since he was so upset. It was so sweet of her…it really touched me.

So, he dried out his tears, collected his prizes and went back playing. How fun.

The following week was spring break, but fortunately Keegan’s school stayed open. We did have a play date with Alyce, though. We went to her house to do some eggs coloring and playing. It was fun. The kids had fun, and the adults enjoyed quiet time and a nice glass of wine. Keegan even got to share a delicious dinner of mac and cheese and chicken nuggets.

Incredibly, turns out that Keegan likes hard boiled eggs, a lot, and he gobbled 2 the next day, and 4 more within the same week. Well, this is an easy lunch to make.

The same week, there were more Easter celebrations at school. On Thursday, the Easter bunny itself came to visit and to do magic tricks, and Keegan was one of his assistants (I hope to get some pictures to post from school). The kids also baked Easter cookies and Keegan helped decorating them.

On Friday, they kids had an egg hunt, after painting and decorating hard boiled eggs we had provided. Keegan sent home a nice note he decorated himself to remind us.

The weekend was pretty mellow. We did not make too many plans: Matt was not feeling well, so we took it easy. I took Keegan to the gym and then he wanted to go straight home to play. He was simply not interested in the Clairemont Easter celebration, since he has already seen the Easter bunny at school.

So, when we got home, we did some more eggs coloring.

Keegan and I created a few, short lived masterpieces: we ate right at lunch time.

I spent Saturday evening filling eggs and preparing the basket. Just like last year, most eggs included some little surprises and very little candy.

On Sunday morning, after I woke up from my nap, it was eggs hunt time!. We placed the eggs in the yard, and this year we hid some of them a little more, but they were still very easy to find.

check out the big green one under the plant

what a bootie…

We had a few small eggs for his yellow basket, a large Easter basket with surprises and a few over sized eggs. It was fun to watch. He tore through all of it really quickly. He was particularly happy to get some new cars — Nigel, Shu Sudoroki and Grem, as well as a smaller Francesco and another lemon—new books and the Cars soaps.

While Keegan ate some candy, he did overdo it, and we all avoided the sugar rush. And after tasting some plain chocolate (and the good kind, straight from Italy) he affirmed that “chocolate is not really my favorite. It does not feel good in my tummy”. Oh darn, this means more chocolate for us. (-:

We called and Skyped with my parents and Keegan’s little cousins, and he proudly showed off all his new things, and we spent the rest of the day at home, playing with the new toys and reading  the new books. We even tested out our new tent, since we were planning on going camping the following weekend (which did not happen, since it was storming). Keegan had a lot of fun playing in his side of the tent. Hopefully we can reschedule soon.

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Birthday season is officially over…at least for a month or two. From January to March we are usually involved in a whirlwind of birthday celebrations. Fun for Keegan, but a little exhausting for us.

We usually start with MacKenzie’s and Calson’s birthdays, but this year we missed the combined celebration since we were in LA.

Next up was Van’s party. This is usually a very fun affair. This year, the theme was super heroes, and all the kids were wearing some kind of super hero shirt. There was games and food and a real Batman, who walked in at the sound of…the Star Wars music (uh?). The kids were excited. He did some games and blew up balloons. Keegan wanted a sword/gun.

He then posed for the obligatory pictures with all the kids.

Then there were more games, the Batman pinata…

and the awesome Batman cake and cupcakes

It was a beautiful, warm, sunny day and we all had a great time. The chilled wine helped.

Next up was Rozelin’s party. She had her celebration at the skate park, right next to our house. Despite a very early morning rain, the clouds quickly moved away, and we were still able to have fun in the grass. There was a flower bouncie, which was Keegan’s first stop.

A red haired local clown also showed up and brought a little, soft, cuddly friend with her. Very cute!

The kids had fun fighting with their balloon swords, and climbing in the nearby playground. Then it was pinata time! Rozelin actually had 2 different pinatas, so all the kids had the chance to hit with abandon.

Then, it was cake and cupcakes time. Keegan usually only eats the frosting, leaving plenty for me.

The good thing about all this morning parties is that Keegan usually gets very tired and fall asleep immediately for his nap.

Next on the list was Elliott’s party. I was really dreading this one, and not only because of parties burn-out. Keep in mind these festive occasions happened almost every week. This particular party, however, was to be held in the early afternoon, on Saturday, at Chuck.E. Cheese. I could not imagine a worse place to be on a weekend afternoon. Fortunately, Matt volunteered to go. Seriously! I have been on party duty for most of them, but I guess he does not mind Chuck. E. Cheese as much as I do, since there are lots of games to play. Regardless of the reason, I was grateful. I also had lots of work to do, so it was a win-win situation for me. I only have one picture of the party. Look at how Rozelin and Keegan are focusing on a shooting game, while Erik is looking on.

We had a couple of weeks break, and then there was another combined birthday party: Julia’s and Erik’s. This time, the party was in Mission Bay, on a chilly, but clear afternoon. Keegan took a very long nap that day, of course, but we still made there in time for all the fun. A slide, dolphin bouncie was there, as well as crafts, such as “make your own kite” kits. Keegan loved flying the kite. It is incredible how many variations you can have on the classic “bouncie at a park” theme.

Julia’s mom made some awesome “cake pops”, which looked as good as they tasted. Lighting candles was a challenge, but we gave it a shot anyway.

As the sun went down, and the fog started rolling in, we lit up a bonfire. I did not have a bonfire in a long time, and it stoked many memories…none including kids or bouncies, of course. We cooked some s’mores. This was Keegan’s first, and of course he really loved it.

Matt is in charge of preparing s’mores…

and distributing them

Julia, Keegan and Rozelin with theirs’mores!

This was fun. It was worth getting to bed a little later.

Last but not least, it was Markus’ turn, one of the neighborhood kids. The party was at his house, which was great, so we could walk to it. There was the obligatory bouncie, and soccer goals set up for impromptu soccer games. There was also a fum stormtrooper mask to play dress up with.

The kids were able to hit the pinata just in time, before the storm arrived.

As soon as the rain started, we all run inside for cake time. I am not sure if you noticed, but there is a common thread in all these birthdays photos. When is cake time, Keegan is always next to the birthday child, first in line for the goodies. Pretty smart, eh?

So, we can now finally rest. The tour de force is over. No parties for a few months, just regular weekend activities and fun.

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