Spring Fling at Reiman Gardens

Reiman Gardens always puts on great activities for holidays, so of course we've been counting down the days until their "Spring Fling" Easter Egg Hunt. And of course it was 40 degrees and very, very windy, but still very fun! Here are some highlights from our day.

First stop: Scary Easter Bunny. See that look of Ella's? "I only just stopped crying when Mommy picked me up. What the hell is that thing? It's ridiculous. And stupid. And poop!"

I threw that "poop" part in to make her pretend thoughts more authentic, since that is still her favorite word of all time.

Proof: Here's a new joke she told us tonight after I told her to eat her potatoes.

"Knock knock!"

"Who's there?"

"Potatoes!"

"Potatoes who?"

"Potatoes, potatoes! I don't like poop potatoes!" (That last line was presented in song.)

Let the Easter Egg Hunting begin! Gazillions of kids, gazillions of empty plastic eggs, it was pretty cool. The Gardens had it set up so that the younger kids (Ella's age group) and bigger kids (Peyton's age group) went a'hunting for eggs in two separate areas at two different times. It really worked out perfectly. Then all the kids traded the empty eggs for cute little goodie bags at the Egg Exchange Station.

We rarely eat candy in our house, but I'm not against letting my kids have their perfect day, so they each had 2 suckers and 1 piece of chocolate while we were there. And then we we got home they each had 2 more pieces of chocolate.

And then Ella snuck an extra Hershey's Kiss into her room during nap time and then whispered loud enough for the entire house to hear: "Peyton! I just ate some candy!"

I go into her room: "Ella what did you eat?"

Ella (sitting on the edge of her bed, swinging her legs, smiling the biggest smile I've ever seen): "Chocolate! I LOVE CHOCOLATE!"

I tried to be stern, but it came out as laughter and a big hug. I mean, really, I just couldn't fault her for it.

And check it out - Nature! At it's best! This Canadian Goose was sitting on her (or his? I don't know who takes care of babies in Geese Land) eggs. Don't worry, I didn't get this close, I cropped the picture. Some other little kids got too close and Mama Goose really gave them an earful!

Then we headed inside to pet some real bunnies. There were 4 bunnies on volunteer's laps and Ella had to pet each one. Except she wouldn't do it by herself: "Peyton! Peyton! Come here and pet bunny!" After her big brother touched a bunny, she assumed it was safe, and then she would pet it. I could tell Peyton really didn't care about the bunnies, but he loves taking care of Ella, so he went around petting all of them with her.

There were a lot of craft stations set up inside, and Ella chose to make a basket. The volunteer craft helper person let her choose a basket color and she got to decorate it with stamps and stickers. Peyton watched and waited patiently. Sometimes he's just anti-craft.

When Ella was done decorating her pink paper, the volunteer folded it up and stapled it together into a basket shape and Ella was thrilled! She made us sit down as soon as we left the craft table so that she could transfer all of her Easter treats into it.

There's a big open walk-through area to the right of this turnstile, but Peyton and Ella always have to go through this way. I don't blame them, I still think turnstiles are fun, too! Peyton has a sucker in his hand. Check out what Ella is doing. Busted!

Okay, honestly, he had just told her that she could have a lick, but I still think this picture is hilarious!

And in the car, on the way home, Peyton said to me: "Mommy, I bet tonight, when we do the best part and worst part of my day, this is going to be my best part! This is the best day of my WHOLE LIFE!" He says this a lot, but I still think it's one of the best sounds in the world.