Easter 2023

Now that I've finally made my way through all the blogs from the cruise, it's time to get caught up on the last month. The weekend we got back happened to be Easter. Asa and I decided we are going to make all the eggs sort of hard to find- but put $1 in each of them. 

When I say hard to find too, I was pretty proud of a couple of my hiding spaces- including buring one in the plant pot on the back porch. You can kind of still see it though, I'm not a monster. 

Plus these kids today don't even have to look for their basket. Back in my day, my dad would hide these in the hardest to find spots (especially Cort's). But, my kids get to snack on all their Easter googies while looking for cold hard cash in the plastic eggs. 

So, normal plastic eggs had $1 in them this year. And there was a mad dash to find those. 

But an hour later, they both only had two eggs. 

And they are pretty decent at looking these days. I had no idea the back of the piano opened up like that. And had I known, I would have found it to be an excellent hiding spot. If Calib ever has kids, they're screwed. He thinks of all the best places. Or, the best places that nobody hid an egg. 

In edition to the colored plastic eggs anyone can find any number of, there's always one golden egg hidden that has $5 in it, and each of them have a special colored egg that only they can find. Calib found Haydens really early on, and so we re-hid it. But the other high value eggs we had no idea where they were- because we let Jake hide them the day before Easter, when he was still here. Hayden gave up pretty early (his plastic egg is still hidden a month later), but it just eats away at Calib and he HAS to look. In fact, he's so scarred from last year when he came out of his bedroom Easter morning, I announced "Happy Easter! Welcome to your nightmare" (if you followed the saga last year, you get it). 

Fun fact, I took notes about all of this. I planned to take notes as long as the hunt went on, but you'll see they end mid-day easter. (This reminds me slightly of the day my oldest friend Ben and I were not supposed to argue--back in high school--, so we kept a long all day of what we did to each other. Somewhere that log exists and I bet it's AMAZING) 

11am: Egg hunt begins

111:15 Hayden suggested I should have hid the egg in the dirt I made. I feel for his kids

11:25 : Hayden "ok time to start opening things." Asa "oh, I see we've reached the archeology phase of the egg hunt"

11:33 Jake calls. Jake: "Happy Easter" Calib "screw you Jake"

11:45 Calib is already exclaiming how he hates Easter , Hayden is taking his first break for his "mental health"

12:00 Calib opens up the top of piano I didn't even know opens, would have been an excellent spot. Hayden: "great spot Calib" Calib: "thanks, my reward is nothing"

Calib finds the egg I buried on the back porch in a planter and says "YOU BURRIED ONE?!? This is not a good sign.'

12:05 Break for lunch

12:30: Calib finds Hayden's pink egg, says "screw you Jake" thinking it's his, and then we have to rehide Hayden's egg AGAIN (though we did it in the same spot)

Calib: "This is fine. I feel good. I could still go another 7 or 8 hours" and is now theorizing Jake hid the egg in his suitcase and it's back in Ohio.

The hunt did in fact go on longer than my log. Though, the next day Calib did find the gold one hidden in the laundry detergent containter inside the laundry room cabinet. 

Eventually, three days in, Calib texted Jake for a hint, and Jake gave him a big one. He said: You need a ladder to get to it. So, Calib went out to the garage, got himself the ladder, and as soon as he came back through into the kitchen, he put the ladder down... and looked up. And there, in the only recessed lighting without a bulb in it, was Calib's egg taped into it. 

A good spot, Jake. Very impressive. Hidden in plain sight. (Jake said he was going for a place where it was obvious but not- so when Calib did find it, he would be like 'oh my gosh, how did I not see that before now.' 

The egg hunt only lasted 55 hours this time. At least for Calib. Hayden's egg is still floating out there. He hasn't attempted to look for it, though. So, we'll see how this goes. 

In other news, Cort's family arrived safely back in Ohio. And despite Garrett's inhaling of calories, turns out he lost two pounds. And despite me telling Gwen she could have my after sun lotion (us Floridians know suncare!), and not to worry about it, Cort and Holly quickly sent me some more on Amazon. 

I think I've mentioned Chess Club at the library, but Asa is volunteering to help run it. He's been helping a lot of little kids learn how to play, so I designed and made him an "ask me about the horsies" shirt. Hayden then wanted one too. 

They turned out really awesome, and became so popular at Chess Club that I came one night and made a bunch for people- so stay tuned for that blog. 

It's also so popular they could stand to have a few more boards, I put out a request on our Buy Nothing Group and got one person to donate a set, so that was nice. We went and picked it up in time for the next chess club. 

I've been doing some more crafting. I'm having another Minnie Ears class in June, and I'd like to make a few more for that, but I also made this pair for a new friend who donated some DnD books for us. I still have to get them to her- we're just hardly ever north, and she lives up that way. I promise I'll get them to you, Ama! 

Baseball opening day came and went without too much fanfare from us, but the Rays went on a crazy long win streak at the begining of the season. Tied for the most in the modern era. 13, I think. So, on their 12th win, we ordered pizza for half off to celebrate. 

We've had a lot going on lately, and sometimes the doggos seem really unhappy with how much we've been coming and going. But, I make time to get my puppy snuggles in. 

We're also trying to soak in the last of the not "ass-hot" weather. I know summer is coming for us. And I hear it's going to be a brutal one (We're also at a UV index of over 11 everyday now!) But, I've been trying to enjoy it while I can, and spending a lot of time on the back porch. Dinner. Reading. Hanging with the dogs. You know. 

Speaking of the doggos, we've got a new puppy friend down the street. Oakley and Ellie have taken some walks together, while Oakley's mom, Teresa, has offered to help get Etta a little more familiar with her. 

We did have an extra animal visitor in the house. Everyone ran screaming from it, and since there was no Olivia (she's still in the UK), and Asa was working, I was tasked with getting our lizard friend out of the house. 

We did some after cruise errands too. We hit up Fleet Feet to get Asa some running shoes built a bit more for him, and swung by Wawa for some lunch. 

And before I finish this blog, I"ll give you an update on where the garden was mid-April. The cucumbers were really doing great. 

And, I did get the greens to perk up a bit. Marcus did an awesome job watering for us while we were gone- but it was SO hot (I think they hit 97 while we were gone). 

Next up: A vacation from vacation!