So last week we went to the Egg Drop at Seastrand Park in Aliante. It looked to be a fun event, a helicopter was going to drop thousands of eggs for the children to pick up, looking back I'm not really sure why all of the things that could have gone wrong didn't go through my mind, considering that I'm constantly worried about everything, but this time around I must have been blinded by the adorable idea of sweet kids collecting Easter eggs. Honestly, the only thing that I thought could go wrong was an egg being dropped on my kid.. but alas..
My mom and I decided to go fairly early because I told her about the event after pre-registration had closed, so Keith wasn't registered. I was ready with coffee in hand (for her, not me.. still going strong Lent!) at 7:00am. Okay.. that's a lie, I was ready to go at 7:00am, however Reilly was still fast asleep, so I had to wake him up, nurse him, and get him dressed. Anyway.. we got there by 8, which is all that matters. The parking wasn't that bad by the time we got there, they had the lot closed so we had to park on the street, but we weren't far from the entrance, the line was nonexistent, but hey.. better safe than sorry right. Reilly and Keith got their color coordinated, age appropriate wrist bands, and we laid out a blanket and hung out until the event opened. Within the hour an INCREDIBLY HUGE line started.. no, not a line, a mob. The mob wrapped around the gate of the park to the complete opposite end, down the street.. and.. out of my sight. Once we were in Keith wanted to go straight for the bounce houses.. so Reilly and I found a spot away from the loud music and chaos and set up our blanket once again.
The eggs were set to drop at 10:45 for Reilly's age ground, under 3. There was a huge lot dedicated to each age group, and then this one was divided once more for toddlers who would be collecting eggs on their own and those who needed parents to help them. By the time 10:00 rolled around, holy cow, thousands of parents and children were crammed together around the field. I'm sorry.. but.. why, and how are you going to keep your under 3 year old still for 45 minutes? Fortunately, my blanket was huge, and no one was rude enough to step on it.. so our space was not compromised. We continued to hang out, playing with balloons, Easter grass, eating breakfast...we had fun. Once 10:40 arrived I was skeptical about even doing the egg hunt, would Reilly remember? No. Does he know what an egg hunt is? No.. Does he even care? No. So I figured we'd just see how it played out.. the helicopter came along and did drop thousands of eggs. They were all empty.. we'll get there, and the ropes were cut letting hundreds of parents loose to search for eggs. Wait, let me go back.. parents? Yeah.. parents.. I didn't see any toddlers picking up eggs, I saw parents going completely insane..pushing strollers onto an egg hunt field? Yeah.. that's safe.. knocking people over going... I'm getting mad all over again thinking about it. It was the most disgusting thing I have ever seen in my life. I saw an egg that the helicopter had blown far away from the madness, so Reilly and I hurried to it. I put Reilly on the ground with the egg between us so I could take a picture of him going for it, and a grown ADULT ran up and snatched his egg. I immediately yelled at that woman that that was his egg, and she dropped it, but.. I couldn't believe it. Is this really what parents are teaching their children? To be this selfish? To steal? To hurt others? Reilly was more interested in watching everyone from behind a gate than anything else, so that's what we did. After a few minutes I suggested to him that we go back to our blanket because this egg hunt was horrible, and a mother overheard me. She was holding her one year old, and agreed saying that they weren't even in for 30 seconds before her daughter was kicked and knocked over by other parents. I couldn't believe it. Since they were going by age I started worrying about Keith, whose age group hadn't gone yet. I thought the toddler group was brutal, what would his age group be like, so I called my mom and warned her about how crazy it got.
The best part about the whole thing was that once the egg hunt was over, you took your empty eggs to the candy exchange and traded them for a bag of candy. So whether you had 15 eggs, or just 1, or even none, everyone got the exact same bag of candy. We decided that if we took our eggs home empty, the Easter Bunny would fill them up on Easter, as opposed to waiting another minute with the crazy people. Prior to the hunt, I heard some parents telling their children to make sure each child got an egg, and only take one because there will be more eggs on Easter, and sweet lessons, but then I heard about other parents telling their children to make sure they got every single egg, it's just.. so sick, and so heartbreaking that this is the way some kids are learning. My mom saw a sweet little girl collecting eggs, when a boy came up and stole all of the eggs right out of her basket. I mean.. I guess we've all had something like that done to us, and it just builds character, and yadda yadda yadda.. but.. heartbreaking none the less. As we left, my stomach turned as we walked past parents counting out eggs from the baskets of their children that could barely walk, let alone fill an entire basket with eggs.
At the end of the day, Reilly had fun, he likes being outside, he got to play with two eggs, got a balloon, and a lollipop.. was completely oblivious to anything going on around him. So I guess that's all that matters, Keith had fun too. Will I do it again? Probably not.. my over thinking brain just can't handle it!
My mom and I decided to go fairly early because I told her about the event after pre-registration had closed, so Keith wasn't registered. I was ready with coffee in hand (for her, not me.. still going strong Lent!) at 7:00am. Okay.. that's a lie, I was ready to go at 7:00am, however Reilly was still fast asleep, so I had to wake him up, nurse him, and get him dressed. Anyway.. we got there by 8, which is all that matters. The parking wasn't that bad by the time we got there, they had the lot closed so we had to park on the street, but we weren't far from the entrance, the line was nonexistent, but hey.. better safe than sorry right. Reilly and Keith got their color coordinated, age appropriate wrist bands, and we laid out a blanket and hung out until the event opened. Within the hour an INCREDIBLY HUGE line started.. no, not a line, a mob. The mob wrapped around the gate of the park to the complete opposite end, down the street.. and.. out of my sight. Once we were in Keith wanted to go straight for the bounce houses.. so Reilly and I found a spot away from the loud music and chaos and set up our blanket once again.
The eggs were set to drop at 10:45 for Reilly's age ground, under 3. There was a huge lot dedicated to each age group, and then this one was divided once more for toddlers who would be collecting eggs on their own and those who needed parents to help them. By the time 10:00 rolled around, holy cow, thousands of parents and children were crammed together around the field. I'm sorry.. but.. why, and how are you going to keep your under 3 year old still for 45 minutes? Fortunately, my blanket was huge, and no one was rude enough to step on it.. so our space was not compromised. We continued to hang out, playing with balloons, Easter grass, eating breakfast...we had fun. Once 10:40 arrived I was skeptical about even doing the egg hunt, would Reilly remember? No. Does he know what an egg hunt is? No.. Does he even care? No. So I figured we'd just see how it played out.. the helicopter came along and did drop thousands of eggs. They were all empty.. we'll get there, and the ropes were cut letting hundreds of parents loose to search for eggs. Wait, let me go back.. parents? Yeah.. parents.. I didn't see any toddlers picking up eggs, I saw parents going completely insane..pushing strollers onto an egg hunt field? Yeah.. that's safe.. knocking people over going... I'm getting mad all over again thinking about it. It was the most disgusting thing I have ever seen in my life. I saw an egg that the helicopter had blown far away from the madness, so Reilly and I hurried to it. I put Reilly on the ground with the egg between us so I could take a picture of him going for it, and a grown ADULT ran up and snatched his egg. I immediately yelled at that woman that that was his egg, and she dropped it, but.. I couldn't believe it. Is this really what parents are teaching their children? To be this selfish? To steal? To hurt others? Reilly was more interested in watching everyone from behind a gate than anything else, so that's what we did. After a few minutes I suggested to him that we go back to our blanket because this egg hunt was horrible, and a mother overheard me. She was holding her one year old, and agreed saying that they weren't even in for 30 seconds before her daughter was kicked and knocked over by other parents. I couldn't believe it. Since they were going by age I started worrying about Keith, whose age group hadn't gone yet. I thought the toddler group was brutal, what would his age group be like, so I called my mom and warned her about how crazy it got.
The best part about the whole thing was that once the egg hunt was over, you took your empty eggs to the candy exchange and traded them for a bag of candy. So whether you had 15 eggs, or just 1, or even none, everyone got the exact same bag of candy. We decided that if we took our eggs home empty, the Easter Bunny would fill them up on Easter, as opposed to waiting another minute with the crazy people. Prior to the hunt, I heard some parents telling their children to make sure each child got an egg, and only take one because there will be more eggs on Easter, and sweet lessons, but then I heard about other parents telling their children to make sure they got every single egg, it's just.. so sick, and so heartbreaking that this is the way some kids are learning. My mom saw a sweet little girl collecting eggs, when a boy came up and stole all of the eggs right out of her basket. I mean.. I guess we've all had something like that done to us, and it just builds character, and yadda yadda yadda.. but.. heartbreaking none the less. As we left, my stomach turned as we walked past parents counting out eggs from the baskets of their children that could barely walk, let alone fill an entire basket with eggs.
At the end of the day, Reilly had fun, he likes being outside, he got to play with two eggs, got a balloon, and a lollipop.. was completely oblivious to anything going on around him. So I guess that's all that matters, Keith had fun too. Will I do it again? Probably not.. my over thinking brain just can't handle it!
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