Easter Sunday

Easter is very different here to back home and I do miss the gathering of family and the big Sunday roast and eating way too much chocolate (although I can do that quite well here!) Luckily we have a great playgroup and Easter is one of the event where we get a good turn out. So, although I am not spending time with my family we do have a good time and I think the kids will grow up remembering the egg hunts in the park. But first, we have our own hunt in the house, the night before hide clues around the house, each clue leads to the next...
If he figured them all out he gets the....Chocolate egg that I made (used two old tofu packages as molds, works a treat!)
and then it is off to the park. This year the cherry blossoms were in full bloom so even though we went to the park early to bag a good spot our usual place was already taken and there were big blue tarps laid out under most of the cherry trees. We managed to find a spot and then spread all of our belongings out to try and hold the place for the rest of the group.

All the kids had bunny ears, although some of the little ones were not impressed with them and as usual, trying to get a group shot is virtually impossible, I am sure there are a couple of kids missing from this one and no one is looking at the camera lol.
Then time for the hunt, in the park there is a squirrel enclosure so the kids and half the adults go and look at the squirrels, whilst the rest of us hide the eggs. It is always amusing since the Japanese don't do Easter, they must wonder what all these nutty people are doing hiding day-glo eggs in the bushes :o)
The kids are getting good at finding the eggs, I think next year we will have to hide them a bit better since they swept the area and found all the eggs in about 5 minutes this time.

Once the egg hunt was over, it was time for football and Ebi-kun and A were at it all afternoon, there were tears at the end because they were both over tired but still wanted to play. I joined the playgroup when Ebi-kun was about 6 weeks old and it was a god send since I didn't know anyone else with kids and A was one of the original members of the group, Ebi-kun has always known him and I hope it is a friendship that will continue in years to come, of course they are best buds at the moment because they are both football mad!
I didn't actually take any pictures of the cherry blossoms, it was cloudy and really cold, the kids didn't seem to mind, you can see a few trees in the background of the above picture. Everyone appeared to have a good time and Ebi-kun has already asked when is it Easter again!