Irvine Park Eggstravaganza!

Last year we had planned on going to Irvine Park's Eggstravaganza, but Ang ended up going into labor with McKenna so we had to skip it!  This year, neither of us was pregnant, so we made it!  The boys and I picked up mom and Luke (of course!) and met Ang, Austin and McKenna there... the 8 of us had a great time!

First, we checked out the horses while we waited for Ang to get there.

When Ang and the kids got there, we headed over to the egg hunt!  The older boys grabbed their Easter baskets and sat and listened to the instructions before the hunt started.  They were great little listeners!

And then it was GO time!  Of course with the chaos of the hunt I lost sight of Austin right away so I didn't get any pictures of him during the egg hunt.  I managed to get one of grandma and Luke from a distance, but I only saw them that one time until the hunt was over!  Can you spot them?

And, Jack being Jack, most of my photos of him look like this:

See?

That kid has the best knack for knowing right where mommy is setting up to take a great shot and turning around and sabotaging my apparently not-so-well-laid plans!

I am lucky, though, that even though he has the need to not allow a good photo op, he also has the need to share every exciting moment with momma, and he does occasionally let his love for momma overpower his camera-shy-ness!

Sam enjoyed the hunt too!  Though, I didn't buy him a ticket to do it, so he just played along and we left the eggs he found there (they were only allowed 8 eggs per child, though they could get as much candy as they wanted)

Before we left the egg hunting area we tried to get a group shot of our egg-hunters... that didn't work that well, though!

After leaving the egg hunt area we let the boys check out their loot!  They got some great stuff!

We paused to take some pics, first grandma and Jack, then Austin and Jack, then grandma and Luke!

Next, we all got settled for a hay ride!

 

I sat on one side of the cart with Sam and Austin, and Mom and Ang sat on the other side with Jack, Luke and McKenna... Ang and I decided that this way I could get pictures of them and she could get pictures of us!  That worked great!  Ang got some shots of us...

 

...and I got shots of them!

(Jack's favorite part of the tractor ride, besides the actual tractor, was the speed bumps!  he would get so excited when he saw one coming and he'd announce it to everyone, giggling with giddy anticipation while he waited for the tractor to get there.  Then as we'd go over them he'd say "Wooooo-ooah!!!" and then he'd check with each of us to make sure that we felt it and that we enjoyed it as much as he did!)

After the tractor ride we took a photo op with the tractor...

After the tractor was lunchtime!  We had a fun, yummy lunch (which ended with one piece of Easter candy for Jack and one piece of Easter candy for me!), and then I tried to get a picture of my boys together.  Yeah, that didn't go so well.  After a million attempts, the only one that had both of them looking in the same direction and that both of them had a non-goofy grin was this one.

However, my favorite one ends up being this one!  it just cracks me up that Sam is grabbing Jack's nose and Jack is cracking up because of it!  Those boys love each other so much!

Then we tried to get a picture of the cousins... that went even worse!  First we tried to put some bunny ears on them, since it was Easter...

Then we just tried to get them to look!  Jack was such a great big cousin/brother and tried to get them to cooperate, if only because he wanted a hug from them.  Sam wasn't having it, though


Then we finally got a good enough photo!  It will have to do!

Austin and McKenna did much better with their shoot... they took way less shots to get good one, and they were much more cooperative with the bunny ears!

After our photo op, can you guess what we did next?  I bribed Jack with a train ride if he was a good boy, and he definitely earned that train ride!  He was so excited- he had been begging to ride that train all day long and he had been so patient each time I told him "not yet!"

All the kids had a great time on the train.  The boys knew that trains were serious business and they were enthralled the whole time.  McKenna was her sweet little smiling self and spent the train ride flirting with the gentleman behind her!

After the train we had one more event!  Pony rides!!!  First, we gathered around to park our strollers and pet the ponies that were at the fence.

And then it was pony ride time!  Luke was first because he was riding one of the little ponies.  The other kids had a great time watching him and the other ponies walk around the track!

Sam and McKenna may have been a little jealous if they had thought about it, but they were too busy enjoying playtime while we waited in line for their big brothers' turn to ride the trot ponies!

And then it was Jack and Austin's turn to ride!!!  They did such a great job and it was so much fun for them!  We hadn't initially planned on doing pony rides until we saw that they were trot ponies, so we went for it... and we were so glad that we did!!!  Jack was so excited when they said it was his turn!

Here is a video I took of him on his second trip around... he was having such a great time!!!

(that's Ang's voice... Austin was bobbing his head along with the trot and it was so funny!)

And here is a hilarious video of the very end of Jack's ride

We had such a great time!!!  We are definitely going back next year as long as no one is in labor!  Just look how tired Sam was from how much fun we had!