Easter Eve

We have a busy weekend planned but it's one of my favorites! We started today with Hudson's soccer game and then we were off to Susan's annual cookie decorating party. I will always remember going with Hadley to Susan's very first party when Hadley was 6 months old (at the time she had Christmas parties but a few years later she changed it to Easter). Its something Hadley and I always look forward to. Hudson was excited to go this year as well. He took his cookie decorating very seriously and had a plan for each one...so cute! Hadley loves to decorate for a bit and then walk around looking at other peoples cookies. We had choices of eggs, crosses, chicks, stars, flowers, and all sorts of icings and sprinkles. Susan has truly mastered the cookie recipe and they are delicious! This year was even more fun now that Susan is watching the kids on Tuesdays. They thought it was extra special to spend the morning at her house!

 

Immediately after we got home we got all dressed for an egg hunt at the Myriad Childrens gardens. We have never gone before but had made plans with the Bakers and it was a perfect day for an egg hunt. Mama and Papa are planning one for the lake tomorrow but with the high chance of rain and a 30 degree drop in temperature we decided to do this one as well in case it doesn't work out tomorrow.
Love these sweet kids in their Easter outfits...and getting Hudson to hold his Easter basket still was quite a chore!

The Myriad had their hunting times split up in age groups. While they were still setting up we got to make Easter decorations under a big tent. The Easter bunny walked around making his appearance and their were food trucks along the street.

The little boys got to hunt their eggs first. Matt and Bart took them into the park and they raced off. Both came back with a full bucket of eggs that they could hardly wait to open.

While the boys were inside Sarah and I stayed outside with Ben and Hadley. We took another picture with the Easter bunny and only had about 30 minutes to wait so we went ahead and got in line.

Sarah and I went in to the park with Hadley and Ben. Sweet Hadley showed her non-aggressive manner and wouldn't dare fight anyone for an egg. As soon as she would find one another kid would race to grab it and she would lose the egg. It didn't even seem to phase her and she would just move on. But in the end she only had 3 eggs (they didn't put nearly as many out for the bigger kids). Ben was so sweet to give her some of his eggs. It was a fun egg hunt and I'm sure we may do it again. The weather could not have been more perfect too! We don't get a lot of nice days in March so we will take anything we can.

One more place to go and we would be done for the day. Lolly and Pops decided to celebrate Easter today to avoid the bad weather as well. We left the park and went straight to their house. Hadley and Hudson thought it would be fun to lay out eggs for Jake and then help him find them. He got a little distracted and didn't seem to care much about finding them but I thought it was so sweet of Hadley and Hudson to try and make it fun for him. We ate dinner and spent the rest of the night playing at the house and hanging out together with Erin, Tim, Jake, Lolly, and Pops. Such a long, but fun Saturday!

Food Bank

We decided to end Spring Break with a little service project. Hudson's Karate school hosted a service event at the Food Bank. Hadley was excited to attend as well. They split the kids into age groups where the little ones (ages 4-7) would learn about the gardens and the workings of the food bank and the older ones (ages 8 and up) would sort food and stuff backpacks. Unfortunately, with only one of me and Hadley not knowing anyone, she was kindof forced to come with the little ones. This however, has never been an issue for her as she always loves to help out! Hudson could hardly wait to dig in and get started. 

We started with a play where the tour guide explained the process of the food bank and how the food ended up making it to the needy. He asked for volunteers and Hudson was quick to raise his hand. This still shocks me because 2 years ago I would have never expected our shy boy to so easily stand in front of a crowd and make people laugh. He was a truck in the play and he was hilarious. He would make beeping noises as he was backing up and he would make car noises as he was going forward. He had everyone laughing. 

Afterwards we were taken out to the gardens where we first learned about compost. You can tell how good it smelled by Hudson holding his nose and Hadley's disgusted face. I was so interested to see that when you stick a thermometer into a compost pile it reads 100 degrees  (even though it was 42 degrees out) because of all the bacteria!

Gotta love playing in a nasty compost bag and rubbing it all over your sweatshirt!

Next we got a little cold relief when we went into the greenhouse to learn about worms and the plants they grow. All the kids got to hold a handful of worms as they were taught many facts about them. I've already forgotten most of them but Hudson was totally enthralled and will probably remember for the rest of his life. Hadley put one worm in her hand and that was plenty. She's my girl for sure!

Back outside to the cold in their open greenhouse. He we learned about the many vegetables they grow and actually provide the food pantries. I was amazed about work and need for volunteers to make this whole operation run. Hudson had many questions about all the vegetables including, "what is this big plant I am standing by?"

We ended our day with a tour of the indoor facility. It looked much like a SAMs with rows and rows of boxes of food. It was so impressive and incredibly clean. Then it made me terribly sad when they said if no more donations were to every come in, the amount of food in this building would last 18-21 days! I can't even imagine there are that many hungry people in the state of Oklahoma. We also learned of the backpack program the Food Bank started. This all began because of a little boy that passed out in the breakfast line on Monday at school. After some questioning they found that he had not eaten a single thing since he left school on Friday. They now have backpacks full of food for those kids so that they will have meals over the weekend.

This trip was very eye-opening for our kids. Hadley cried at the backpack story and Hudson even learned about what it would be like to be hungry. It is something they have never even had to think about before. I can't wait until we can go back and volunteer again soon (especially when both are old enough to do some actual work).