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Every year we get together with our friends and neighbors and have this crazy Easter egg hunt for the little kids. It's fun but a little like dropping a cat in a dog pound. Couple of high points.

- In the past we have used our yard entirely. This is good because we have a big yard with a lot of places to hide eggs. This is bad because I find eggs all summer. Also bad because it's harder to manage. So this year we used our yard as a staging area, where the kids would get ready, the parents would mingle, and we would hang out after. We used our neighbors yard, who are also very good friends, to contain the scavengers.

- In the past we have had an issue with the older kids finding the eggs that were out in the open, and with faster legs they got to them quicker. The younger kids while too young to get upset had to really hunt for them. Kind of fun in a twisted way but we changed things a little this year. We told all the kids that they could only get a specific number of eggs. For the parents that chose to ignore this, they let their kids get more and then gave them to the other kids who had less. All fair.

- Call it what you will, but it's a pretty crazy event. Older kids were lined up at the gate like steroid-injected horses at Belmont. They wanted to go. The younger ones knew the benefit of a plastic egg and kind of staggered around until an adult pointed one out.

- The rest of the afternoon, which was 70 beautiful and sunny degrees, was spent with the kids getting hopped up on chocolate and sugar, juice boxes and junk food, while parents drank beer and wine and talked about how long of a winter it was.

- The first year we did it we had like 25 kids. This year was more like 15, which seemed a much more manageable number. Next year I am shooting for 200, with gold coins or real pearls in each egg. And my 10 person helicopter will land on my helipad to wisk me away.

- Overall a good time. It was fun to have our first party of the season, which will be followed by (and I am guessing here) about 12 to 15 more. We have a lot of parties, either at our house or friends' houses. It's what you do when you live in a tiny shack in an expensive town with three little kids driving you nuts. You bring the party outside, increase the amount of alcohol consumed and have at it.

- One funny/scary thing. With all the adults there each parent is basically responsible for their own kids. At one point I had to take Emily inside and Patti was feeding the newborn. I came out later and couldn't find Ethan, our 20 month old. I looked and looked and finally went out front. There he was across the street playing in our neighbors yard. We are the last house on the end of a dead end so little risk but scary still the same. He started in the back yard. He realized that he would not get through either gate. He opened up the three season porch door or was let in by an unsuspecting person, he climbed up set of stairs, down another, opened up another screen door, and made his way across the street. Ethan is going to be trouble. And I have to now realize that we are outnumbered by children. It's going to be a long, long summer.