fun by force

Easter!!!! We really do love Easter in our house! Ever since the boys were old enough to sit up we have colored Easter eggs (which at that age they simply tried to eat with the shells on...), we have attended community Easter Egg Hunts and I have forced my boys to wear matching outfits on Easter Sunday! (Much to their dismay...) In recent years it takes more work on my part to force the Easter fun on the rest of my household pulling them away (sometimes literally) from TV and video games to attend an Easter Egg Hunt or bribing them into coloring eggs with the promise of ice cream or McDonald's but, at the end of the day, we actually do have fun! This year we attended our church's Easter Egg Hunt that they held at a local park near our house. We were so excited that Grampa Mike and Gramma Pennie were in town, all the way from Connecticut, to join us!

Maddox is EXTREMELY competitive at the Easter Egg Hunt every year. He knows there are a few elusive prize eggs hidden in the park somewhere and each and every year he is determined to find one. Thus far he has only been rewarded with cheap, dollar store prizes and off brand tootsie rolls shoved into plastic eggs but he never gives up. I haven't had the heart to tell him that it's probably best he hasn't won because this is an egg hunt that our church puts on for the community and employees kids probably shouldn't win a new bike or cash gift card...I just get so much joy out of seeing his competitive spirit! One day Maddox...one day...

Ash, on the other hand, couldn't care less about the annual Easter Egg Hunt. Sure, once he's out there he has a good time and does his best to fill his bucket with prize filled eggs BUUUUT he would MUCH rather be at home, in his "house pants" (what he calls sweats...), watching cartoons on his Kindle with his ear buds in. Ash has absolutely no competitive drive whatsoever which works out really well for me because when I want to steal his Easter egg candy he also couldn't care less.

Look at those filled-to-the-brim Easter buckets! Maddox is secretly peeking in brother's bucket making sure he has more eggs than  him...

 

After the Easter Egg Hunt we loaded up into Grampa Mike's rental mini van and headed to Bricktown for a yummy lunch at Fuzzy's and a trip to Bass Pro. It was a beautiful day!

After lunch we went home and colored Easter eggs. Again, disregard the "forced fun" and pretend that you are seeing joyful, excited boys coloring eggs without any complaining or irritability at all! Pretend like no one fought over the orange dye or cried because the white crayon wouldn't color on the egg. Nope! Nothing but pure joy here!

Once the eggs were colored and shoved back into their cartons (I think we only broke one egg!) the boys happily went back to their technology filled lives. And by boys I mean Brandon too! I cleaned up the mess and cherished one more Easter of memories made. This mommy will never get tired of forcing fun memories on her family! Happy Easter everyone!!!!