Monday, April 6, 2009

A Boy and A Birthday and A Bunny

All week, Alex was looking forward to a big second birthday party for one of his classmates, so he was pretty psyched when Saturday finally rolled around. The theme was an Easter egg hunt, so A brought his manly football-shaped Easter basket, his eagle eyes, and extra elbows, in case he needed to throw a few.

As it turns out, there were plenty of eggs to be had, and the kids politely gathered their loot and placed it into their baskets, only stopping long enough to stuff their mouths full of chocolate from the candy-filled eggs. Alex, however, wanted nothing to do with his basket, preferring to haul the eggs around himself, as if carrying them in a little basket would be the sissified way to go about it. And once his hands were too full of eggs to pick up any more - I think he maxed out at five - he dumped the ones he had on the ground and went to find five "fresh" ones to carry around. Eventually he stopped dumping them on the ground and started dumping them into other kids' baskets. Yeah, he was kind of missing the point.

When he finally discovered that one of his eggs had candy in it, he got so excited that he tried to eat the candy without peeling off the foil. After giving the candy a baffled, "what the...?" look, he handed it over to me, knowing mom would know the proper way to handle a piece of chocolate.

Seeing as it was an Easter egg hunt, it only made sense that the Easter Bunny would make an appearance. That's one of those things that could either be a huge hit or a miserable failure considering that some kids totally freak out at the sight of giant, humanlike creatures in weird, fuzzy, animal costumes with big, bobbly-heads that sing and dance and walk around on two feet, and those kids usually end up running away screaming or paralyzed by fear or maybe soaked in their own urine...Yeah, my kid is the complete opposite of those kids.

Oooh boy, that poor bunny didn't know what she was getting herself into. Let's just say that if there is a law against stalking the Easter Bunny, then my child is totally going to end up in juvi. He followed that bunny around the entire time we were there, and every time he found an egg or a candy wrapper or a piece of mulch from the flower bed, he made a beeline for the bunny to show her that he, Alex Evans, had found a piece of mulch. Do you see this mulch, Bunny? Do you? Do you see it?? And when he was satisfied with her answer and convinced that she had indeed seen the mulch, he would run off to find something even more spectacular to show her. At one point, he found two pieces of sidewalk chalk and ran all the way across the yard to where the Bunny was entertaining some other kids, where he proceeded to create a masterpiece on the ground at the Bunny's feet. Look here, Bunny! I'm drawing you a picture! Do you see the picture, Bunny? Do you see it?? DO YOU??!!

I think Alex just innately knew that, out of everyone at the party, the Easter Bunny was the one to impress. I mean, Easter is only a week away, what smart kid wouldn't try to impress the ears off the Easter Bunny a week before Easter, if given the opportunity? I have a feeling my kid would trade his dignity for a Cadbury Egg. Timothy even had the theory that Alex's "masterpiece" was actually a detailed map to our house, just in case the Easter Bunny's ride wasn't equipped with a GPS.

When he wasn't showing the Easter Bunny the various things he had found in the yard or demonstrating his various skills and talents, he was placing himself in other people's family pictures - with the Easter Bunny. All of the families were taking turns having their photo made with the Bunny, and every time a family gathered around her, Alex would sneak up and make himself at home among the complete strangers, like, "What are you looking at? I'm totally related to these people!" You probably think I'm joking, but literally, every family picture that was taken with the Easter Bunny will feature some part of Alex, whether it's his arm, the top of his head, or maybe his adorable face covered in chocolate. I guarantee those families will look at those pictures later and wonder who the little blond-headed kid is.

So the party was a huge success with one exception - the birthday girl was m.i.a. Poor Mary Lawrence got sick about thirty minutes before the party started, and her poor mom, who had planned this fabulous party with delicious food and eggs and decorations and the Easter Bunny, was left with no choice but to have the party without her. She did come outside long enough for us to sing "Happy Birthday", after which she went right back inside for some r&r while the rest of us stayed outside and ate her birthday cake. Bless her heart.

Once we got into the car to head home, we took inventory of Alex's basket and discovered that he had scored two-and-a-half eggs, two pieces of chocolate, one candy wrapper, a watch, and the straw from a juice box. Yeah, he totally cleaned up. We had a fun time, it was a great party, and a total bummer that the birthday girl wasn't able to enjoy the festivities.

It was especially exciting to us because it was Alex's very first Easter egg hunt, and so far, it's the only one he'll go to this year. We do plan on going to the Arboretum this Saturday to participate in their Easter celebration, including getting a picture of A taken with the Easter Bunny. And I'll tell you what, if Alex decides to start being afraid of the Easter Bunny after I've handed my fifteen bucks over to the professional photographer, the ol' Bunny and I will have to have a little talk about where to leave all of the Cadbury eggs - in Mommy's basket, of course.



p.s. I had to post pics in slideshow form because I hate Blogger, and apparently Blogger hates me because I continuously have trouble uploading and manipulating pics using Blogger's uploader. Sorry for the inconvenience.

1 comment:

momboe said...

Oh! I wish I could have been there! He looked so cute, oh, I mean...ahh...manly! Sign of a smart boy! HE knows who is in charge of Easter!