An early Easter...sort of

Our local community park puts on this big Easter "Eggstravaganza" every year around this time. It was today, and we were really looking forward to it. Mason's never met the Easter Bunny or hunted for eggs. And this "Eggstravaganza" promised both. I even managed to get to Target this morning to get Mason an Easter basket (which was really an Easter bucket), so he could carry around his prized eggs that he discovered.

When we arrived, it was really neat--tons of kids, lots of game booths, two jumping castles, a petting zoo and the infamous Easter bunny. We weren't exactly sure how Mason was going to react to a ginormous white bunny that doesn't talk and wants to hug him, but he did pretty well. He went up and got his picture taken with not much problem, as long as I was right there.

We knew the Easter egg hunt was soon approaching, so we made our way to the big playground and saw kids lined up all around the sand, getting ready. Then, we got word that the little guys were having their own hunt at the little playground. So, we started to walk over there, and noticed that there weren't any eggs, and kids were already leaving. Come to find out, some little kid ran out onto the playground for the eggs a little too early, and that caused the release of all the other little ones around. So, needless to say, Mason didn't get to find a single egg. He did, at least get to meet the Easter bunny, pet a sheep, watch other farm animals and climb around on the playground for a little bit.

Then, there was a scary moment, but not with our child, thank God. Mason was headed across the climbing structure on the playground, when I saw Mason's Daddy leap across the sand and there was some commotion. Apparently this kid of about 5 or 6 stepped off the edge of ladder part of the playground and took a nosedive for the sand, about 8 feet down. My hubby tried to catch him, but missed. Where was the mom, you ask? She was on her cell, I guess talking to the Dad. When her son fell, she ran over, and before she had even examined him, she yelled into the phone, "He fell! Oh my God, he fell!! Leave work right now and meet us at the ER!!" Now, granted, as a mom, I'm familiar with PANIC MODE. You're not sure how to react, so you let panic take over. But, I think I would at least check out my son before ordering my husband to meet us at the Emergency Room. Yeah, the kid fell, but he fell on sand, didn't hit anything on his way down, and nothing made a cracking noise and I didn't see any blood. I bet he just brusied his arm or head. It's amazing how Nonchalant Mom can turn into Hysterical Mom in a millisecond. And sadly, often Hysterical Mom morphs into I'm-Sueing-the-Pants-Off-You Mom. I should hope this lady didn't immediately phone her lawyer and hear a cash register in her head. The playground wasn't poorly maintained or dangerous. The kid just walked off an area that shouldn't be walked off. Too bad more and more people these days see every accident (or someone breathing on them the wrong way) as a payout. Sigh...

Getting off my soapbox, it ended up being a pleasant hour of our day and Mason seemed to enjoy himself. He didn't even comprehend the whole egg hunting thing, so no loss. Besides, we're gonna do our own hunt in our backyard next Sunday.