Easter Egg Hunt in the Bahamas

Since having kids, we've gone to a few Easter Egg hunts. The worst by far was the one put on by the base we lived on in Washington. They had a big penned off area in the grass, and supposedly they were going to break us all up in age groups. Instead, when the woman running it couldn't seem to get the crowd in control (in her defense, there were a lot of people there, and only a handful of MWR folks running it), she just gave the go ahead to dump all the eggs in a huge pile. Wyatt was about 18 months old, and ended up without a single egg because we didn't want to fight the crazed fools (most of them parents) lunging for the eggs. I ran across one little girl who had about 30 eggs in her basket and asked if Wyatt could have a couple because he hadn't gotten any. She stared at me, then her mother made her give him one egg. Luckily, they had held some eggs back, so we were about to pick up about five more eggs for him, which was more than enough to keep him happy. We did, however, never attempt that one again.

This year, we had a much better experience. The rec committee on base put one on for the kids this Thursday. It was held at the Beach House, which here is actually the main bar. (Only here would you find such a thing, haha.) You wouldn't guess that from the outside. It looks just like a small cottage, with a nice deck overlooking the ocean out back. We all stayed outside on the deck, where this unfortunate soul showed up:

I have to applaud this guy's willingness to wear fur here. We aren't experiencing the summer's full heat as of yet, but I sure wouldn't have wanted to dress like that. Oscar was too terrified to go up to him, and Wyatt was too busy hanging with his friends, but I finally made him go sit on the poor bunny's lap because I felt sorry for the guy. Most of the other little kids weren't willing to sit on his lap, either, although a few parents did make their babies do it. Wyatt did a great job of hamming it up, though. He even started flipping the bunny ears around to much laughter.

It was then time for the egg hunt. We trekked across the sand to a nearby stand of tropical trees. The ground there was full of roots and fallen logs, making a perfect place to hide eggs. The trees themselves were also full of branches and kinks to hold surprises (although, the kids were warned to not put their hands in any holes). They had also set up an area outside the trees for the really little kids.

I ended up taking Oscar inside the tree area because it looked more fun and the rest of the "little kids" were really just babies so I felt weird bringing him over there. I should have, though, because the older kids were a little over-exuberant and snatching eggs right out in front of us when we were clearly trying to help Wyatt and Oscar see them. I was a little annoyed by that, but they did end up with about 6 eggs each, which was fine for them. As it is, they've been eating candy way more than normal over the weekend and I can't wait for it to be gone. More eggs would have just meant more candy.

Everyone treks over to the egg hunt area. Wyatt is holding his best friend's hand. Incidentally, you are also looking at the entire kindergarten class for this fall. That is, unless someone else happens to move in this summer. They will be combined with the two first graders.

This is a shot to give you some idea what the area looked like. The ground was really soft in places, so I'm glad Wyatt had chosen to wear sneakers. I wasn't as lucky.

And, if all that weren't enough, they also had a cookie decorating contest set up for the kids. Everyone got three cookies, and could choose from four different frosting colors. There were then a lot of different sprinkles to pick from. The really little kids, Oscar included, had their own table, and the older kids stood around a couple of retangular tables. The table for the little ones was actually one of those extra high tables with bar height chairs. Not at all kid friendly, so I had to put Oscar on my lap to do this. He loved it, though. The frosting was in zip lock bags with a corner cut off, and I let him go at it with them. We ended up with a large cookie mess, but since we were outside and I wasn't in charge of clean up, I was totally ok with this. 

It seems they do something like this every year, so I'm looking forward to it. Hopefully, Wyatt will be able to be a little more competitive in the egg hunt so we can concentrate on helping Oscar. It seems to be a full on task to keep the other kids away while he searches. He did, love it, however. He was so excited to find his first egg. I think we're going to rehide the eggs and let the kids have some fun on their own.

View from the back of the Beach House patio.