5 years 7 months 26 days

Day 2064. It had been after 2:30 am before I actually got to fall asleep. And so I was very tired this morning. I had my alarm set for 9 am, but I didn't want to miss the Easter egg hunt. Randy had hidden the eggs downstairs last night. I had put a little toy for each one of them in a plastic bag each and put them on the dining room table.  They could use those bags to put the eggs they had found inside.

Emmy and Tammy were sleeping next to me. Emmy woke up first, as usual, then realized it was Easter Sunday and time to look for the eggs. When Tammy heard "Easter egg hunt", she woke up immediately and abruptly sat up in bed and got up. They found their bags and toys and started playing. Sammy had received a little rabbit that walks and talks, and they were all enjoying playing with it.

Soon they came back to us because they wanted to go downstairs to look for the eggs. I didn't want to miss it, so I got up and opened the gate for them and went downstairs with them. They ran off and started picking up the eggs and putting them into their bags. Tammy had the most; she was determined and looking everywhere. Randy was helping Sammy. Most eggs were made of chocolate, small and large ones, but there were also 6 plastic eggs with toys inside.

After I had taken some pictures, I returned upstairs and to bed but they came a few more times. My alarm went off at 9 am, but I was already awake. I got up and got ready to leave the house.

At 9:30 am we all left and took the subway out of town, all the way to the final stop. I had found out about that Easter egg hunt in the paper for our district. It was organized by the socialist party; probably as advertisement for the elections in Vienna next Sunday. We still had to walk a bit from the subway to get to the park where the even was taking place.

We got there just before the event was to start at 10 am but kids were already running around the park and looking for Easter eggs. Our kids joined in. We then figured out that we were looking for red cut-outs of eggs, not real ones. Tammy found one, then Sammy/Randy. Emmy was disappointed that he couldn't find any but then he did. Tammy also found a second one. As they were unable to find any more, we went to the table where you could exchange them for real eggs. They each got a red hard-boiled egg. They also got some other advertising stuff like candy and little wind-catchers.

Next they went on the little jumping castle they had there - all three of them. Then Tammy wanted to do the drawing and starting coloring an egg.  I got Sammy and put him on the floor to draw with chalk. I helped him draw a Mickey. Emmy still wanted to jump on the castle. Randy got himself a coffee, and they also had free croissants. They even had hot chocolate for the kids that they enjoyed.

We had done everything there and went to the playground that was right there. Sammy went straight on the round swing where Emmy soon joined him. It was so cute watching them have so much fun together. They kept saying "higher" to me, but Emmy also said "no more". Tammy was on a little merry-go-round, also with another girl, then went on the trampoline.

After a while I suggested we'd go home, so we walked back to the subway and took it home, where we arrived around 11:30 am. I went straight to the kitchen to make lunch. We had Easter ham, and I made mashed potatoes which I make rarely. Once it was done, we all sat down to eat. Tammy is not much into meat, so she wouldn't eat the ham, while Emmy ate only the ham and didn't want the mashed potatoes. Sammy ate both and said how much he loved it. It was really good.

After lunch, we still had some time. I ended up lying down, setting my timer to 25 minutes which wasn't very long. I ended up sleeping for maybe 10 minutes. Then it was time to get up and get ready to leave again.

At 2:20 pm we all left and walked to the subway, taking it in the opposite direction and getting off at the third stop already. We then still had quite a long walk. It was a sunny and warm day. We all had short-sleeved shirts and sandals on. Then we finally arrived at the harness racing track. It was 2:45 pm. We had two free tickets from when we had taken the tour there a few weeks ago, so we didn't have to pay any entry fee. We walked in and headed to the "info point" as that was where we were supposed to gather for the Easter egg hunt at 3 pm. There was just a sign there but no people. Other people also stood there with us. But 3 pm came and no person showed up. We finally followed the others into the building and found out that the meeting point was actually inside. We had missed the explanation of how this was going to be done and went outside on the other side of the building where there was a huge crowd of kids and adults that were ready to go hunting. Every child was allowed to find six eggs - plastic eggs that had stickers inside. They then had to get the stickers out and return the plastic eggs to the lady. Emmy had six eggs quickly, but Tammy never found more than three. Sammy had maybe four or so, thanks to Daddy's help.

After we were done, we tackled the second egg challenge. They had ten papers with a picture of an egg with a pattern hung up all over the place. The challenge was to find them all. Tammy was very focused and determined to find them all, and so we got starting on our search. They had to draw the pattern on a piece of paper, and as they were rather complex, I did the drawing for them. One was right there, and there were more outside, on the windows. We knew there was one upstairs inside, and we found it. Two more were outside upstairs. We sure did a lot of walking. But then we couldn't find any more.

We then headed to the jumping castle - one much bigger than the one in the morning - and the kids had lots of fun there. Emmy was doing a headstand there, all by himself. Tammy came off first, and we went to the marketing stand of what would be AAA in America where Tammy could pick a few gifts. Sammy and Emmy got some there as well. There was face-painting as well, just like in the morning, but they were not interested in that today.

Tammy wanted to find all the ten eggs, so we left again and walked back. Wherelse to look?!? We then went to the info point where Tammy wanted to ask about the tenth picture, and she did. The lady told us where all the pictures were, but we had found all those she mentioned. Then she told us there was nothing to win anyway. Tammy still wanted to find it. She said, "You don't ever give up." I agreed with her and told her that her attitude was really recommendable but that we had to stop looking.

Emmy still wanted to see a race, and as one was about to start, we stood by the fence to watch it. And I walked up a few stairs to get some good pictures. There were Easter bunnies walking around that were handing out colored hard-boiled eggs. We encountered them twice, and both times the kids got eggs from them. The second time I also took a picture of the kids with the Easter bunny. Then we left to make the long walk back to the subway.

It's dandelion season, and there were seeds everywhere. The lawn was white from them in some areas, and the concrete covered with them. Inside the subway station, the floor was covered as the wind had blown them inside. It looked impressive, and Tammy wanted to get a hold of them right away. Then we got on the subway and rode it home.

By 5:15 pm we were back home. I was pretty tired. The kids were somewhat hungry, so I warmed up some fries and chicken nuggets, then started cutting up their fruit and gave it to them. I lay down a little bit for a short rest. When they had stopped eating, I took them downstairs for piano practice.  Back upstairs, it was time for the bathtub, then we got them ready for bed. By 8 pm they were all in bed, and I went to the kitchen to get myself something to eat. After having eaten, I started working on the many pictures of the day. Now it's going on 1:30 am, and I still have to take care of the kitchen.