Easter Fools

Hello, dear friends. I've never actually met you, but I feel like... like we've really bonded. Just kidding I don't know the first thing about you. Sorry I didn't get to post yesterday, but I went to my cousins' house for Easter. Decorating eggs was a disaster. Crayons didn't work well. Half the eggs were broken to begin with, almost all by the end. And worst disaster of the night: the tie-dyer. Ugh, don't even get me started. Too late. "Put a few drops", they said. "Makes perfect eggs every time!", they said. They said wrong. At the end of the day, the eggs are disgustingly brown, and just one drop can completely change the whole thing. All in all, not a good idea. But enough about that. (By the way, I totally nailed the zig-zags!)

Easter egg hunts: practically every definition of fun. You get to run around. You get competitive. You get to open stuff. It's challenging. And no matter how many you get, you are rewarded with each egg. Fun, huh? Not when you're an 11-year-old amongst a 2-year-old, 4-year-old, and 5-year-old. Every time I race to an egg, it's "poppll! Let the little ones get them!" The worst part: Matt points out an egg hidden in a car, calling out to Miley to come get it. Mike runs forth, but I'm right there! Miley has NO EGGS whatsoever, so I reach down and pull it out to give to Miley. Miley's own mom scolds me for taking MILEY'S EGG, and Mike ends up with it. Score 1 for rude adults that get on my nerves. But quite frankly, I have some advice for your next Easter egg hunt, if you do it:

1. NEVER BRING A BUDDY-unless they plan on handing you their eggs. Otherwise, every single one you find will only count as 1/2 towards your basket. Sharing is caring, but not if you want to win.
2. HIGH AND LOW-and everything in between. The biggest hiding spots are the ones that are stable, and well out of ones plain sight, so the only way you can see it is by actually moving your head. One of the best hidden ones I found was stuck on my dad's windshield. Another was down in a bush.
3. COLORS COUNT-Bushes are green. The egg in the bush was green. Pretty clever, huh? Colors can blend, and if the person hiding the eggs is any good, they'll use this to their advantage.
4. TAKE IT IN-Don't glance at a scene once and move on. Eggs are hidden in places that you don't see at first glance. Take a glance, grab anything that catches your eye, and repeat until the whole area is clear.
5. AVOID THE CROWD-If your hunts are anything like mine, everyone goes together. Not necessarily next to each other, but generally in the same area. At my cousins' house, there are 2 yards. If they're all in one, grab everything in the other. When they switch, go to the other yard and clean up after them. After all that's done, you can catch anything you missed the first time around.
6. CRACKS-If it has a crack, chances are there's an egg. Cracks in tree stumps. Cracks in sidewalks. Everything with a crack.
7. NATURAL SETTINGS-are usually the most common hiding spots. However, with close examination, plastic eggs don't blend too perfect with the 'no-straight-line' nature. (Refer to tip 4)
8. INTERACT WITH THINGS-You can't get eggs by just looking. Open some doors. Lift lids. Climb some trees. Miley found one (with respective help from his dad) by climbing the ladder to the unfinished tree house. Ally found one (with respective help from my aunt) by looking behind the backyard beach. You got to look around, if you want any eggs.

That's all I got...

Then Matt hosted a treasure hunt. I led the way, reading all but 2 of the clues. Worst part: Finding clue #7 when you want clue #4. Worst part #2: Giant bag of cheese doodles as prize. Miley dumps contents into Coke bottle. Worst part #3: Holding the map upside down, being the last one to the prize. Worst part #4: 2 yards to search. Yards are endless. Boo. On a happier note: Best part: Clues rhymed! Best part #2: The three mentioned before (Miley, Mike, and Ally; 2,5,4) couldn't read. Found a clue. Passed it to poppll. The end. That was really fun. A bit of advice for treasure hunts, too: look at clues in one of the two ways: literally and figuratively. One of Matt's clues was something like, "Good job so far, try not to get fired. This next clue will leave you tired." All clues before that were very figurative, so we tried everything, from fire pits to trees. We couldn't figure it out. Matt then told us to take it a bit more literally. I finally found the clue UNDERNEATH A CAR. Not just on the tires. UNDER. He put a lot of thought into that one, I bet. Overall, it was pretty fun.

So enough of my Easter adventures for now. Tomorrow I probably won't be getting on either, as I'm going to another group project. Same people. Same time. Same house. Same project. However, tomorrow's the last day of Spring Break! Also, I've converted to pacifism. Oh, and I broke my foot. Almost forgot that part.

Let's see, I still have a bit of time before my mom confiscates my computer, so I should just admit something to you guys. APRIL FOOLS! I didn't break my foot, but it mysteriously started hurting this morning. Sorry I had nothing good for the joke. The best April Fools joke I ever saw was when Matt used a remote control spider on one of my grandparents. All you need to know is that it was taken away shortly after.

Happy April, internet! 'Yes, indeed!' (Horrible reference, I'm afraid...)