Egg-Hunting

Got up early this drizzly morning and made our way over to the local nursery, where every year they do a pretty decent job of having an Easter egg hunt for the kids. We met up with Mel, Jon, Spencer and Emersyn. Even Will got into it this year and he soon figured out that the shiny wrappers hidden amongst the plants and flowers had chocolate inside them. As always, there was one embarrassing moment.. Will spotted a whole bunch of eggs. But they were in someone else's Easter basket! The dad was pretty cool about the fact that Will stole some. Owen was out of sorts there though, so we didn't stay long. The crowd there seems to get bigger and bigger and every year it just seems to be harder and harder to find those eggs. It could just be that our kids are getting older and we're more desperate to find the chocolates to keep the little ones from tantruming. :) We ran into quite a few people we know from around town and many of them had already heard about our move to Calgary. The consistent comment that I hear from everyone.. especially people that have kids themselves.. is that they are all happy for us that we have found an option, when it seemed like we had none, staying in Ontario. It sure is a sad commentary about the province that I love and thought I would live in forever.
Afterwards we went to McDonald's and the kids actually did okay. They played in the playland and Owen even surprised us by eating a little bit. It was nice catching up with Mel and her kids are growing up to be so sweet and well-behaved. At one point Spencer said to me that Jake was bad because he told him to "shut his mouth". I nearly over-reacted and pounced on Jake "please tell me you did NOT say that to Spencer" and Jake says "but Mom.. he's chewing with his mouth open". It really was hard not to laugh.
The weather continued to be crappy but we caught a window of sunshine and went for a long walk along a new trail that was just paved last year, that led us to a playground (we never knew it was there). Will puddle-jumped the whole way back and Jake ran off some energy, so it was a good plan.
Not sure what's in the air this past week, but the tantrums seem to be getting worse from Will AND Owen. It seems like everything is the trigger. The two of them have been crying, smashing their hands into everything, hitting each other and the rest of us and just generally driving us all crazy. When the tantrums go into the second, third and fourth hour, it's hard to remember that it's not always this bad. But then they smile at you and reach out for a hug.. it's hard to be upset with them.
It's going to be a busy Easter weekend. Hopefully we'll have a chance to pop back in with some updates. Have a Good Friday!