Easter with three kids
What a lot of childless people or people raising just one kid don't understand is that with each additional child, the amount of effort expended to keep track of them increases exponentially. Even people with two kids might look at Bonnie and me and feel some sense of empathy based on their own experience, but they don't really get it. They can't.
So we spent Easter at Bonnie's aunt and uncle's house in Foxborough, which is about an hour's drive from us. It's been a few years since we've had the chance to do Easter with them, since we've been going to my own grandmother's house for the past few years. The kids put on their Sunday best and we climbed into the van, and off we went. The Easter Bunny doesn't give our kids much candy, instead preferring some small trinkets and gifts; crafty things or toys. Too much sugar is just asking for trouble.
That, of course, did not stop our kids from eating lots of sugary stuff when they got to Andrea and Bill's house. So they were running rampant throughout the house and the backyard; Bonnie felt uncomfortable enough with it that she summoned James into the house so she wouldn't have to keep an eye on him out there.
Things were relatively under control until almost the time that we left -- James had been cooped up long enough and yearned to go outside; we allowed it, as long as he agreed to stay in sight of us. James was playing with his sister and another girl in the driveway, rolling a ball back and forth between them. But at one point I had to go to the van to exchange some packages with my brother-in-law, and Bonnie had to say her goodbye to our hosts.
By the time we recovered our children less than two minutes later, we found them in the backyard. James was jumping up and down in a mud-puddle up to his ankles, spraying his brother and sister with splashes of mud. As they were holding their Easter bunny gifts. In their Easter Sunday best.
Just a rotten way to end an otherwise okay day. But kids will be kids, I suppose. Meh.