The Life and Times of the Arning Bros.: Easter Egg Hunting

We spent Thursday afternoon at Charlie's school to celebrate Easter with a picnic lunch and Easter egg hunt. It was great fun to see Charlie playing with all of his school buddies.

I will say that we need to work on Charlie's egg hunting technique, however. I'm sure you've all experienced egg hunts at one point or another. You know how quickly they go. It's all about collecting as many eggs as possible in the short amount of time that you have. (Well, preschool is a bit more diplomatic. You actually count the eggs as you go to be sure that each child ends up with 14.)

For a boy who loves all things that go fast - namely racecars - Charlie has a totally different idea when it comes to Easter egg hunting.

His method is to stop, open each egg to inspect its contents, then move onto the search for the next egg. And, if the egg takes awhile to open, no matter. He'll keep at it until he gets the bugger open. He must know what's inside the egg before moving on. Meanwhile, all of the eggs that were once around him, ripe for the picking, have long been snatched up by other eager 4-year-olds.

You see where I'm going with this, right?

To say that we were slow at our Easter egg hunt is an understatement. Charlie was lapped four times over. To the point where other kids who had collected too many eggs, had to go back and re-hide eggs for Charlie to find.

What can I say? He's thorough? He's more concerned with quality than quantity?

We did not end up with 14 eggs, but Charlie didn't seem to mind. He was happy with the eggs he collected and that's all that matters.

By the way, this is the same boy who, each morning at preschool, takes the kite with his name on it and hangs it upside down on the wall. (This is how the kids "check-in" each morning.) Every other kite is hanging straight up and down, but not Charlie's. And if some other kid tries to correct him and hang Charlie's kite right side up, Charlie marches over to the wall to hang it upside down again.

What can I say about this? He's artistic? He's creative?

But, for this Mama who's very competitive and a strict rule follower, I have a hard time watching all this go down. I'm all about collecting as many eggs as possible. I would have strategized before the race - er, uh, hunt - to determine which direction to head in that would offer me the greatest chance at collecting the maximum number of eggs possible. And, when I checked-in at school, my kite would have been right side up and in a perfect line with all of the other kites... probably in some color, numerical or alphabetical order. I'm sure I would have been the kid that turned Charlie's kite right side up. I would have stared at Charlie's kite all day, wondering why anyone would want to hang their kite upside down. It doesn't make any sense. It's supposed to fly right side up!

I'm slightly concerned that Charlie might not be my son.

Maybe he was switched at birth...

Anyway, here are a few photos from a recent Spring day and the now infamous preschool Easter egg hunt.

Enjoy!

Look at the expression on Chase's face. The boy is serious about his big wheel.

And, now look at the expression on Charlie's face. Can you tell their brothers?
By the way, this bike is called a "boot scoot." It is low to the ground and has no training wheels.
Charlie is learning to balance himself, which hopefully means he'll transition to a big bike easily.
He loves riding his boot scoot, and he's pretty good at it, too!