Wonderful Weekend

 We enjoyed a wonderful weekend. On Saturday, we started our day with the annual Apache Junction Easter Egg Hunt.  We've attended many years (except last year when it was rained out) and the kids have a great time.  It's a shame that each year the event gets smaller and smaller, but I'm glad the city still makes the effort to have a great egg hunt for the kids.  Various companies set up tents / games for the kids, and that's the part that has really dwindled over the years.  It's still fun, and the bouncy houses are always a big hit. The kids were all in different age groups this year, and all gathered up a few eggs.

 

The eggs are scattered on the baseball fields, but the kids are broken up into different age groups.  For every age group, the kids run out from the edges and find one egg.  When they grab one egg, everyone freezes.  This helps ensure that everyone finds at least one egg.  Then, when everyone has an egg, the kids are allowed to grab as many as they can find.

My sister & I then ran to to the grocery store to pick up picnic stuff and food for Easter.  After a very brief rest, we headed to Boyce Thompson again.  They were having a members-only event that included an astronomy lecture, an ice cream social, then the chance to see the night sky far away from any light pollution.

The astronomy lecture was very interesting -- or so I heard.  My boys, sister & Bo enjoyed it!  Lydia got tired after a very short time and we spent the majority of the 2 hour lecture outside checking out the plants and chatting with some staff.  (Shout out to Lacey!)

The lecture ended around 6.  As the participants came out, one woman stopped by me and said "Your boys are very well-behaved.  You should be proud!  Smart, too! They asked some very good questions."  That just warms a momma's heart.

We grabbed our picnic dinner from the car and enjoyed it in the picnic area.  They had a fabulous ice cream sundae bar set up, so we of course all made sundaes! Then, we waited for it to get dark.  Did you know there are multiple twilights?  There are -- and even though my sister told me what they are, I can't remember all of them now.  Oh, well, let's just say there are multiple twilights and with each one the sky gets darker.

The East Valley Astronomy Club members set up their telescopes and let people look through them and did a great job of sharing their knowledge.  It was fantastic watching the sky darken, and more stars pop out.  I didn't have the chance to look through any telescopes, but I saw more stars than I think I ever have (outside a planetarium.)   The boys looked through every telescope there, and were able to see Mars, Saturn's rings, and the Orion nebula. As we drove home, Colin said "Now, this night is what memories are made from!!"

The next day, we had our regular backyard egg hunt.  That Easter Bunny hid 116 eggs this year!!  (Usually about 1/2 that are hidden, but last year I couldn't find my stash, so I had to buy more.  I found my original stash, which doubled the eggs. Usually, I put the eggs out on Ash Wednesday for the Bunny to pick up. I don't buy eggs each year.) They had fun, and also hunted for their Easter baskets in the house.

We decided to open the pool and the kids had a great time splashing and playing in the cold water.

I dipped Peeps in chocolate, made some cupcakes, chicken salad  & deviled eggs.  My sister was under the weather, so I dropped off some food by her and we picnicked again for dinner!

It was a busy, but lovely weekend!  How about yours?