MCKEON EASTER FUN--why Lentertainment scoring was not done until tonight.

I apologize that I did not get the scoring done sooner, but it takes a serious amount of time to go through over 1,000 votes and attribute each one to it's proper contestant and I didn't have six spare, uninterrupted hours to sit and compile the results until this evening.  I was a little busy yesterday having some serious Easter fun and I have the photos to prove it. Here we are in the yard post Mass, pre Egg Hunt. Yes, Pete is making another face…trying to ruin another picture…Classic Pete.

As many of you know, every year, since our kids have been little, we have a highly competitive Egg Hunt, (think Hunger Games without any real blood shed) Similar to the Lentertainment contest, prizes are awarded for both quality and quantity.  The person who finds the most eggs gets $50.  Second place takes $20 and 3rd place gets $10.   Quantity pays, but hunting skills are rewarded as well.  Dave McKeon hides about 160 eggs, many are just tossed in the rocks on the beach or thrown in the prairie, but a few are very well hidden. These special eggs are worth serious cash so they have to be hard to find: there is one prize egg worth $50, 2 eggs worth $20, 4 worth $10 and 8 worth $5.  Yes, we blow a wad of cash on the egg hunt, but it is worth EVERY penny in pure entertainment value.  We have years of great Egg Hunt memories and it is an anticipated event.  Even when we are out of town, we have a big money hunt.  One year we actually hid the eggs in the exercise room and pool at the Four Seasons in Boston.  We had planned on hiding the eggs in the park across the street from the Four Seasons where we were staying (this was the year we took all the kids on Annie's East coast college tour--14 schools in 9 days--we have never looked at another college since--even though Pete and Nate were only in like fifth and sixth grade) The weather was freakishly cold, so I called down to the front desk to see if we could hide eggs indoors.  They said we could use the pool/exercise area but we had to be done by 7am. We hid most of them and then just threw the rest in the pool--needless to say, the early morning swimmers were not too pleased…typical McKeon holiday.  Good times, good times. 

 Here are the kids this year pre-hunt.  Posey seriously regretted wearing a skirt...

 The eggs are hidden in our yard, from the beach all the way across the road into the Prairie Preserve.  It's a lot of real estate and most years, some of the kids eventually give up. This year, all of the kids are broke, so they were hunting forever…(side note--it took us like ten years to figure out that we should NOT put actual cash in the eggs, because Dave could never remember where he hid all the money eggs and as a result, we often left $20-$40 out in the prairie somewhere.  Two years ago, we started marking the eggs and then handing out the cash post hunt…and this year, Dave took notes on where he his the money eggs so he could provide clues if the hunt went on too long.  One year, we had to take a break for dinner and then the boys went back out to hunt until dark…pouty Pete eventually found the last $20 egg) This year, though I pegged him as a real contender, figuring that since he can now move his arms and legs that he would be totally primed to do whatever it takes to scoop up all the eggs, Nate got shut out in both quantity and quality.  He only found a handful of eggs and only one had money it--However, it was an egg from three years ago that had a single dollar in it.  We were laughing our asses off.  Obviously, plastic eggs live forever.  Jack brought his friend Tim home for Easter and he cleaned up. Tim wisely wore long pants, he had a good stride and he was smart to draft off of Chris (who usually finds the most eggs) .  This year, Tim not only found the most eggs, he also found a few money eggs. I think he took $70 off of us...He most likely will NOT be asked back.

 Here are some action photos:

Nate, sucking it up in the Egg Hunt.

Annie scouring the beach.  Annie is not our strongest competitor. Usually once she finds any money she calls it quits and just comes in.  This year, she and her cousin Nora (both poor grad students) stayed until the bitter end. However, Annie did not land in the big money….again. 

That's Posey "Prairie Beast" McKeon on her way to finding the $50 prize egg. Mid hunt, she actually got stuck in a thicket out in the Prairie and had to be freed by her father, as the other competitors would not stop or slow down to help her. It's every man for himself in the McKeon Hunting world.  However, Posey once again showed them all. And though her legs look like they got caught in a thresher,  for the second year in a row she won the most money of any of our kids. A good time was had by all, but it left little time for scoring the contest.  See the next post for the scoring chart and the prizes awarded.