We went to the most amazing Easter Party this afternoon. While all the festivities and activities had absolutely nothing to do with the real meaning of Easter, it was a very fun filled afternoon.
We were invited to this party because the family hosting the party has a little boy in Rachel's preschool class. While the entire class was invited, there were only four families that came. We spent the afternoon hanging out with those families and getting to know them better. This party was the 6th annual and apparently it is a highly anticipated event. There were between 200-300 people in attendance and everything was done so nicely and was very well organized. It appeared that some local businesses were very involved and supportive. Their front yard was HUGE, which was perfect for the shaded awnings with tables and chairs, and bounce houses, and playhouse, and food area, and believe it or not a couple portable potties, one clearly marked for the girls, and one for the boys.
Shortly after arriving, a potluck lunch was served. The hosting family supplied the hot dogs and hamburgers and then everyone else brought something to share. The amount of food was amazing. There were huge ice chests adequately supplied with water bottles, and juice boxes for the kids. Rachel didn't bother eating, as we had grabbed something on the way, not knowing when we'd eat, etc. Rachel's first stop was the bounce houses. Where she spent the majority of the time. If not there, then she could be found in the playhouse, complete with electricity and a doorbell that actually rang.
Throughout the early part of the afternoon, the Easter Bunny made his appearance and had a basket of chocolate eggs he passed out. It was a very warm day and the chocolate eggs made for messy faces and hands, but that didn't stop Rachel from getting one every time he passed by her. Just like Santa Claus, we don't do the Easter Bunny, so he wasn't anything special to our kids, to them he's just a character like at Disneyland.
There was a popcorn machine, and a sno cone machine, which helped keep you cool in the hot sun while you waited to have your face or hand painted by the clown. Rachel had a bunny painted on her hand, because she is afterall, in the Bouncing Bunny class.
After the clown had spent time with the kids who desired to be painted, the next activity on the schedule (and I do mean schedule, they were extremely organized) was the egg hunt!! Every family that came was asked to bring 1-2 dozen eggs, filled plastic or real eggs, for the egg hunt. The kids were taken to the backyard of the house and divided up into age groups. The different age groups had different areas to hunt. I heard in passing that there were 2000 eggs to be found, I don't know if that's true or not, but seeing the amount of eggs that all the kids had, I wouldn't be surprised. I went with Rachel, and Steven with Hannah. Rachel had so much fun, of course this is her second egg hunt this week, so she's a professional now, skipping the eggs that were broken and empty.
After all the eggs in her area had been found, we went and found Hannah and Daddy, and then settled on the grass in the shade to bust open the eggs! Rachel managed to get 22 plastic filled eggs.
What followed the egg hunt was unbelievable. The invitation had asked if you wanted to participate in the gift raffle to please bring a little gift, etc. After talking to the Mommy hostess, she said anything fun from the dollar store would even be fine. We provided a plastic egg with play dough and molds. Again, the kids were divided up into age groups, and boys and girls. Each kid was then given a raffle ticket. And group by group, raffle numbers started being called. The first thing raffled off at the start of each age/gender group was a brand new bike that had been donated. In addition to the bike, there were gift cards to McDonalds, and cash. Through the afternoon, donations kept being made into a box and at the start of the raffle, there had been $800 donated to raffle off to the kids. There was also the prize blanket where a prize could be chosen. Essentially, every child left with something. Rachel won the chance to pick something from the prize blanket. She chose a gift bag with a giant bag of Starbursts inside. LOL. She was so happy.
The raffle took a while, following the kids raffle, there was a raffle for adult prizes which included some beautiful anniversary clocks and $50 gift cards to restaurants, etc. Unlike both our children, we left empty handed from the raffle.
At this time, it was after 6:00, and we'd been there since 1:00, the kids were dirty and tired and we decided to skip the pinata that came after the gift raffles. We gathered our things and said our goodbyes and home we went. The girls had sooo much fun and were so tired when we got home. Rachel fell asleep shortly after being put to bed.
Today was a very fun day with all the 'traditional' things associated with Easter.
And while the Easter Bunny, the egg hunts, and the candy is a lot of fun, it's not the true meaning of Easter, and tomorrow we will go to church and celebrate the real meaning of Easter...Christ dying on the cross and rising from the dead.
We started off our day by making our way to the lion exhibit. This exhibit was very impressive last time and we all were anxious to show Daddy. Our experience last time was awesome as our visit to the park was on a weekday and not a lot of people were there, today, it being a weekend and Spring Break for much of Southern California, there were a ton of people. We had to be patient to make our way to the front, but we got to see the lion family and that was fun. After the lions we did the tram ride again. Rachel isn't too big of a fan of this. I'm not sure why, but she gets kinda antsy and bored. Towards the end of the tram ride, the animal trainers were out feeding the cheetahs and that was cool. 
We had lunch on a patio that overlooked a playground area. So after the girls had finished eating, they went to play for a bit. And here Rachel demonstrates a family trait of sticking her tongue out when attempting to do something that takes some effort. LOL. 
After lunch we set out for a long walk to some of the exhibits that are off the beaten path. It was a nice walk on a dirt trail that led us to some areas that overlooked the valleys of the park and some beautiful scenery. At one part of the trail we crossed over a wooden bridge.
Along our walk, we stopped at the elephant viewing area where we could see the African elephants up close. There have been about three elephants born over the last year. Rachel and I often check in on the elephants via the elephant web cam. So it was fun to see them in person. With these four elephants, we referred to the smallest elephant as Rachel, and the next smallest as Hannah. 
In addition to Hannah 
There were quite a few places on our walk today where you could look out the telescope, And for some reason Rachel was attracted to them at every stop. I took this picture when we stopped to observe the gorillas. 
The park closed at 5:00, so we as we made our way towards the exit, we stopped along the way to do a few fun things as well as take a look at the pretty birds. 
Rachel did not want to leave and was pretty sad as we were heading out. She loves seeing the animals. We're making plans to go to the San Diego Zoo and to Seaworld in June, when Steven takes a few weeks off for vacation. So she has something to look forward to as far as seeing the animals again soon. We stopped for dinner before hitting the freeway for the long drive home where the girls scarfed their dinner down. Apparently all the walking had caused them work up a good appetite. And despite all the walking and all we'd done, Rachel was bound and determined to 'play a game' when we got home. Knowing that she'd fall asleep at some point on the way home, I told her if she stayed awake all the way home, she could stay up. She was fast asleep shortly after that! LOL. We had a wonderful day together as a family, enjoying all the animals and the beautiful day, and look forward to another day like today!
