Around 9:00 PM, Mom had Brian and Alison go inside, to get in bed, because the Easter Bunny wouldn't come until they were asleep. Once they were inside, she opened the back of the van and created the baskets.
About 10:30, Mom went inside, hoping everyone was out already, only to find Brian and Alison were wide awake. (Boy, did that put a kink in the plans!!)FINALLY, she was able to coax Brian and Alison to sleep around 10:45 PM, but she decided to wait until early in the morning to fill/hide the eggs. She needed some sleep, too.
Well, when a person is anxious about an event, they don't sleep very well, so about every 30 minutes to 1 hour, Mom would wake up, thinking it was time to head out to the van with the eggs and start filling. At 3:45 AM, Mom got out of bed, disabled the chime on the alarm, gathered all the eggs (even the real ones) and headed out to the van. She filled almost EVERY egg (about 4 dozen or so), and proceeded to hide the eggs - at 4:15 AM. Well, she got a great idea - she took 1 egg per child to the neighbor's houses, and rolled them onto the lawns. That made her feel so happy, and just like the Easter Bunny.
After that, there was no sleeping, so Mom went upstairs and played some solitaire, checked email, sent out some Happy Easter greetings, etc. Around 6:00 AM, she went down stairs and laid in bed. About 45 minutes later (as soon as the sun peaked through the windows) Brian came in and asked if he could watch cartoons. Sure. Mom slowly got out of bed, and went into the living room. Brian was the only one awake. He says, "Mommy!!" Mom says, "Just a second, I need to get the battery for the camera." When she came back downstairs, Brian said, "Mom, I have to show you, the Easter Bunny came!" He was so excited, but hadn't gotten into the basket yet. (which made Mom really proud of him.) So, Mom got dressed and woke Alison, who was more than excited to get started on the egg hunt. The kids got dressed and headed outside to see what the Easter Bunny had done! Oh my, what a surprise. The front and side yards were COVERED with eggs. So the two little ones went at it, hunting like little pros. They found all the eggs and went right inside and showed Dad. Bless his heart, he was so happy for them and paid so much attention, even though he felt horrible.
The Easter Bunny didn't forget Dad. He received a little Easter Bag with his favorite candy and a little stuffed bunny.
Mom took a LOT of pictures - Enjoy looking at them.
Brian and Alison with their Easter Baskets
The front yard decorated with eggs - view from the front door
The side yard decorated with eggs
