Easter Egg Hunting - Quality Verses Quantity

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!

Chase got a kick out of giving Pooh Bear a ride in the grocery cart.

This is Charlie at his preschool Easter Egg Hunt. See? He has to open every egg first.
Not a very good Easter egg hunt technique, but whatever!

I think we're on egg #2 now.

Egg #3. Oh, well. At least he's having fun!

Cutie patootie, regardless!!

This is Charlie wit his teacher, Mrs. Jacobson. She's amazing!

This photo doesn't really capture the sweetness of the moment.
Charlie loves Mrs. Jacobson.

This is a classic Chase moment. He laughs with his whole body.

"A   P U Z Z L E!"

When the boy's happy, he's really happy.

Serious Chase.

I love to see Charlie smile!

I love Charlie with all my heart... kite upside down or not.
What a great day we had! 

Our Weekend

We had a great weekend, especially because Mike was off. We all love having Dada home.

It was a low key weekend for us. We spent most of the time outside or on the deck, enjoying the beautiful weather. On Saturday morning, we took the boys to get haircuts, then enjoyed ice cream afterwards. I thought I would take my camera with me, just for fun.

Here are some photos from our weekend...

I like how both boys are doing the exact same thing but just opposite of one another. 

I tried to get artistic with this photo... I put the TRUCKS book in the forefront and the boys in the background.
Kind of cool, but maybe I shouldn't quit my day job.

This is Chase in his trucker cap. He loves his trucker cap. He calls it his "Lightnin' McKeem" hat.

All together now. "Awww......"

Thank goodness we can take Chase to get his haircut now. For awhile there, I thought they might ban us from ever coming back. As Charlie would say, Chase was a "haircut disaster!" He does great now, thankfully!

Charlie loves getting his haircut.

After the haircut, the boys get to put a card in the machine to get a prize.
They think that's the coolest part.

Charlie, with his spiffy new look.

Aren't they cute?

Chase, enjoying his sucker.

What a big boy!

Off to get ice cream!

Charlie is two fisting it.

Believe it or not, Chase doesn't like sweets.

Charlie, on the other hand, REALLY loves ice cream.

Snapshot Saturday!

There was Photo Friday. Now it's time for Snapshot Saturday! We've had lots of fun lately. Check it out!

In case you don't already know, Chase has officially moved into his big boy bed in Charlie's room. The boys are now room mates! This is a photo from Chase's first night in his new bed. Both boys were so excited... in fact, they still are! They LOVE being roomies!

You might think that Charlie has this back pack on because he's headed to school. Well, you'd be wrong. In fact, I gave him this backpack so he could carry his matchbox cars easily. The Ziploc he had been using was bursting at the seams... literally. So, we switched to his old backpack. Works like a charm! Charlie wore this around for two days straight. Everywhere. Even to the bathroom.

It's been so beautiful lately. We've been spending lots of time outdoors. Yesterday, it took both boys 2.5 seconds to find the water table and another 2.5 seconds to get totally drenched. Thankfully it was 85 degrees outside, so I just let mother nature do the drying. 

See? Drenched.

Is there anything better than a happy Chase?

Charlie, I think you might be just a wee bit too big for that car.

Really. That doesn't even look very comfortable.

The boy is in heaven... riding a tractor with a trailer on  the back.

Happy St. Patrick's Day! I wanted to do something a little special  for the boys so I blew up  a couple of green balloons, put Lucky Charms in green bowls and gave them green-colored milk. I had them at balloons...

Oh, and I also found these cute "I'm over the RAINBOW in love with you" cards.  

Cheese!

Chase seemed to like everything, too!

Especially the marshmallows.

I think this is a cute photo. I love how Chase is really engrossed in the story he's telling Charlie.  I also love how Charlie wanted to sit on the same side as his little brother.

Last year, Charlie loved to eat on his big wheel. This year, it's the bike.