Easter Picnic 2009

We had our 11th not-so Annual Easter Picnic on Sunday. In year's past we have always held this annual tradition on Palm Sunday.

Of course, the tradition began when we lived in balmy North Carolina. So Palm Sunday was almost always true "picnic weather". We'd invite all our young friends and their families. They'd come, lay out their blankets on the grass of a local park or playground and have a picnic lunch. We'd play games and hide eggs around the playground and grassy areas.

As we've moved to colder climes, the traditional Easter Picnic is still alive, but in a somewhat altered state. This is the first year we've actually held it since Alicia was born. It originally began when Tess was 2 years old.

With the colder climate, the Easter Picnic now involves sledding and tucking eggs into snowbanks.

We again invited all of our young friends and their families. We held it at the sled hill in Eagle River. There are a couple small pavilions there. But the only one with tables is perched atop the sled hill. So we hauled all the party gear to the top of the slope.

It was a true sledding party. The families all brought snow gear and sleds and spent much of the afternoon hopping onto the sleds and hurling themselves down the hill. There were a few collisions with boulders and pavilion posts. Alicia May bounced off the chain link fence, just missing sliding through the exit to the parking lot. She was stunned, but not hurt. And the experience did not dissuade her from sledding some more. The fact that she was handed a cupcake directly following her collision probably helped some.

The kids brought their favorite stuffed bunny and were led down the Bunny Trail on a Bunny Parade while some big people hid eggs in a nearby park area. Everyone had brought a dozen filled eggs to be hidden. So each child was able to find 12 eggs plus a special numbered egg. And one lucky hunter (Phoebe Collins) found the golden egg which won her a special Easter prize. The numbered eggs were redeemed in numerical order for a chance to pick a prize from the prize bin (bubbles, play-doh, candy, etc).

After the egg hunt, the grand finale was whacking open the egg-shaped pinata. In early Easter Picnics, we'd made the mistake of using a bunny shaped pinata. But the minute his head fell off due to blunt force trauma, several of the kids burst into tears. So ever since then, I've made a pinata using a balloon to resemble an Easter egg.

The weather was as good as could be expected. Bright blue sunny skies. Temperatures were in the high 30's. Perfect sledding weather. Just right for an Alaskan Easter Picnic.