Alastair in Wonderland

This past Saturday was the Mustang Children's Easter party. Kim's company is really good about hosting fun events for the kiddos on both Easter and Christmas. There may be a summer event too, come to think of it, but I think we are usually in Maine. This Saturday may well have been the greatest day of Alastair's young life. The event was hosted at a ranch up by the airport, and there were quite a few activities for him. These included an Easter egg hunt, a carousel, pony rides, a bounce house, paddle boats, a boat ride, a hayride, sand box and playground, and a petting zoo. Basically, heaven on earth for toddlers. Some highlights:

The 0-3 egg hunt was a bit of a mob scene, since every child had two parents with them on the field. Alastair was able to scoop up six or seven eggs and was rewarded by neat little trinkets, stickers, and mini coloring books.

Here he is examing a duck ring and a sticker. This year, Alastair will have a minimum of four egg hunts. He has been in training for about a week and is ready to clean up.


Alastair wasn't scared of the Easter Bunny at all, whom he called "Mr. Bunny." However, I would like to take this opportunity to make a public service announcement to all amateur photographers and Santa's/Bunnies: the best setup for a photograph is NOT facing directly into the sun. Sure, there is plenty of light, but is that generally a problem outside on a bright day? There really is nothing attractive about your subject squinting in misery into the sun and the whole scene is washed out. In fact, an overcast day makes for great pictures. The colors are brighter and everyone has their eyes open! This concludes the announcement.

Back to the blog already in progress...


They had a little boat ride for the kids that Alastair just adored, so much so that he rode it three times. Give this boy a steering wheel and he is happy!

And then...

I haven't been on a paddle boat in, well, I can't remember. So Kim and I took one out on the mini lake for a quick paddle. The best part of paddle boating is (and I can hardly wait for the comments from my mom and dad) is that both adults power the boat by peddling one set of pedals. So I could sort of half peddle and my legs moved at exactly the same speed as Kim, and he didn't notice! Until now, that is.

We also went on a hayride, which Alastair called the tractor ride. He is very big on tractors at the moment and tells me many mornings when I first open his door that he heard a tractor outside making lots of noise and beeping. When the hayride was over, he started to walk up to the tractor, which apparently he thought was the second part of the ride.

And finally here Alastair is on his pony/donkey ride. Kim claims that I way more excited about it than he is ("Look Tyler! The monkeys!!!") but that is an unjust allegation. I am trying to play the whole pony thing really cool. It was Alastair, not me, that refused to move a single inch in any direction but toward the pony ride at the rodeo. And it was Alastair that threw a massive fit when we told him we would come back at this ride when the line was shorter. That was ALL him.