My 5 year old son and I were out shopping for Easter eggs to give to his teacher for the egg hunt at school. His first reasoning behind choosing was what type of candy was in the eggs. Then, we found the amazing prospect of a pack that had a Golden Egg! The joy that came to his face imagining being the child that found the coveted Golden Egg until we read the pack and discovered we had to place the coveted item in the Golden Egg. All the charm was lost when the mystery was gone. He ended up choosing some Avengers eggs and a pack of sports eggs.
He came home from school yesterday and ran upstairs to inform me that he had a new girlfriend. Somehow my 5 year old son goes through girlfriends faster than my 7 week old goes through diapers. After asking him who she was and getting his response, he suddenly realized he had something in his hand. He looked up at me with this look of having conquered the world and said to me "And you know what else Mommy?!". I could see the item so I just responded with a jaw dropping look of "How in the world?!". He said "And even I got the GOLDEN EGG! And I didn't even bring it!" I could see the tape was still on it so I asked him if he had discovered his prize yet. As he tore the tape off and cracked open this over sized, poorly painted, treasure, he suddenly looked up at me and screamed "I KNEW IT WAS YELLOW NERDS!!"
Today we head over to the high school to partake in the Egg Drop. These things have such potential every year to be so much fun. It all depends on the crowd, the weather, and the attitudes of the other children. The pure adrenaline that rushes through each one as the helicopter comes overhead, hangs this gigantic bag (that looks big enough to swallow an elephant) outside the door, and rips it open allowing thousands of promising candy filled colored eggs to land on the football field while they are forced to stand their ground at the side lines.
The first year we went to this location, my son was under 2 I believe or had just turned two a few months earlier and my daughter had just turned 5. They separate them into age groups so at the time my son was small enough to be in the corral with the other toddlers. My daughter however was just inside the age bracket to go onto the battle field which we should have been informed before hand to bring their shields and helmets to such an event. My Mother accompanied my daughter and I stayed with my son in his corral. The whistle was blown and apparently, the older children had been starved for a week beforehand based on the snarling and gnashing of teeth that could be heard for miles.
My son managed to fill his bucket as did all the other toddlers so we headed to the gate to wait for his sister. As we stood there and waited we watched all the empty buckets being held by the beaten and tear stained faces pass by us. Thousands of eggs. THOUSANDS! I could not believe this many children were leaving empty handed. As I began to wrap my head around what exactly happened and started to realize there was a real possibility that this event which I talked up so much to my children now had such potential to be the biggest disappointment. I looked down at my son's full bucket of eggs and noticed a good portion was missing when I saw the sweetest gesture from a 2 year old. As each child passed with an empty bucket, my sweet little man was putting one of his own in theirs. I hugged him, loved him, told him how sweet that was, and begged him to stop because if his sister's bucket was empty, we would all be much better off for the remainder of the day if he shared with her.
Of course, Eva finally came around the bend with an empty bucket. A sad expression to match it and a grandmother that was just as exasperated and shocked as I was. The past couple of years we have had better luck. As we prepare for battle this morning, I ask that you keep all these children in your thoughts that their buckets be filled, their bellies the same, and their bodies and faces be unharmed.
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