Easter Day 2

Day 2 in pictures. I kept saying I was going to look up how the story of a bunny who lays eggs originated but I never did. 

Wait a tick. I just did. Interesting. See below. Essentially, it's just a smash up of cultural traditions. 

From Mental Floss: 

If you go way back, though, the Easter Bunny starts to make a little sense. Spring is the season of rebirth and renewal. Plants return to life after winter dormancy and many animals mate and procreate. Many pagan cultures held spring festivals to celebrate this renewal of life and promote fertility. One of these festivals was in honor of Eostre or Eastre, the goddess of dawn, spring and fertility near and dear to the hearts of the pagans in Northern Europe. Eostre was closely linked to the hare and the egg, both symbols of fertility…

The pagans hung on to the rabbit and eventually it became a part of Christian celebration. We don't know exactly when, but it's first mentioned in German writings from the 1600s. The Germans converted the pagan rabbit image into Oschter Haws, a rabbit that was believed to lay a nest of colored eggs as gifts for good children. 

Oschter Haws came to America with Pennsylvania Dutch settlers in the 1700s, and evolved into the Easter Bunny as it became entrenched in American culture. Over time the bunny started bringing chocolate and toys in addition to eggs (the chocolate rabbit began with the Germans, too, when they started making Oschter Haws pastries in the 1800s).

Sorry so many pictures but these kids are just all so darling! 

(goodness. so cute.)

Mid day break at the party shop. Meet Dora and Dora. Then imagine a high pitched giggle fest. :)

The eggs were dry and ready for hunting when we got home! 

Tiny boy. Big Tree. Great shadows. 

These two were hunting the last egg. You can barely see it but there's a yellow egg right above Caden's hand. They COULD NOT find this egg. They completely missed it even though it was about to jump out and bite them!

Still hunting it! Silly goof balls!

Caden got a marker and wrote 'winer' (winner) on one egg. This egg became seriously important. This was THE EGG to find… even better than the golden egg. And yes, he made a 'loser' egg too that was REALLY BAD if you found it!