For a pre-Easter surprise, we headed over to the Amarillo Community Center pool this weekend to take part in their Annual Underwater Easter Egg Hunt, which consists of many bathing-suit clad kids diving for Easter Eggs in an indoor pool. That sounds like a disaster waiting to happen, but the whole even was actually really some scream-free fun.
The pool people in charge divvied up the kids into different age groups. Alex’s group, the three’s and four’s, went first, sliding into the kiddie pool area and hunting down different eggs among all the floating balloon animals. The idea of the hunt was simple: get as many eggs in your basket before the time ran out. The top five kids with the most eggs won large Easter baskets full of toys and sugar.
Alex scooped up eggs with abandon and came in third. During his part of the hunt I stayed in the gym next door with the girls, waiting for his group to finish. We played some quick games (involving me timing them while they ran around the gym doing crazy things - the first one they had to do was follow a blue line on the ground until they came to a mat on the far wall. Then they had to touch each of the mat’s four corners, jump back on the line, and run back. This was difficult to do with all the other kids in the gym, but the girls would not be stopped. Of course, this kind of game is an improvement on my universally appreciated, loved, and, at times, mocked game Chase On The Lines that I made up in fourth grade while waiting for the bus).
During the seven-year-old time, Megan scooped up 73 eggs, which got her second place (second to the girl who got 74 eggs - curses!). Megan learned pretty quickly that you couldn’t dip your basket into the water or the eggs would bobble out, so he kept her basket pretty high, David Carradine kung-fu style. I had whispered to her as she went into the pool this simple strategy: stay away from the group. Go out where no one else is and get those eggs. I was so happy to see her jump in the pool and immediately go to the far corner, ignoring the eggs in between. Finally, a little advice from Daddy taken seriously!
Colleen didn’t do as well, but that was because her age group (eight and above) had some teen-age dolphins in it. She couldn’t dive too far down in the deep end, so she missed the tough-to-reach eggs. I was afraid she was going to be disappointed, but I think she was happy just to be able to jump in the pool and get what she could. She was the biggest winner of the day.
Here there be pictures:
