Easter Egg Smackdown 2021

Fitting in all of our Easter traditions over a General Conference weekend felt a little crowded. I'm not even sure why because I don't feel like we have a ton of Easter traditions. We dyed our eggs on Saturday between sessions, which didn't take long at all (thanks to having so many little kids who blew through our egg supply so quickly—plop, plop, plop! and they were done!).

Here's Zoë with her egg that she ended up naming Bicker with Sticker:

Here're Miriam and Andrew hard at work:

Here's sweet Alexander...

And his egg, which he named, "Hyooman":

We held our Annual Easter Egg Smackdown 2021 in the morning, right after the kids discovered their Easter baskets and completed their egg hunt, and just before settling in (with egg salad sandwiches) for a session of General Conference.

Here are a few of Rachel and Miram's eggs being showcased:

Miriam really liked her yellow egg, "Do You Want to Meet Anger?", becuase on the other side of that happy-faced egg was an angry face.

The first eggs called up to compete were Blue Owly (Alexander) and Sheep Sheep (Benjamin). In retrospect, it was a terrible idea to have Alexander go first. He lost and because he hadn't quite gotten into the spirit of things, he began sobbing his little heart out.

After getting some loves from various big people, Alexander began to feel much better about losing his first round, and after watching so many other exciting rounds he began to see the fun of this activity.

Here's Alexander still not...quite...happy...

Zoë was rather confident going into this year's smackdown because in her memory she was last year's victor (she wasn't; Alexander won). She was so excited to get in position for her first round that she ran down the hallway, slipped, and crashed down on her egg. She wailed about how she didn't even understand how she could have done this because she "did so well last year!"

We let her substitute her broken egg for a fresh one and ended up winning against Daddy, which made her very happy:

Here she is giving Rachel a hug of victory:

Here's Miriam feeling jubilant after beating me (or Alexander?):

And here she is feeling jubilant after beating Andrew:

Here she is taking on Benjamin:

And feeling jubilant about beating Benjamin:

Do you have any guesses about who wins this year's event yet?

Rachel's egg smashed Benjamin's "Ireland" (he fully intends on moving to Ireland when he grows up):

Here's Alexander getting ready to knock Daddy out of the running:

He did it! He beat Daddy!

Here are some cute pictures of the kids squaring off against each other:

Zoë was so excited after winning a round with "Grassy" that she was, once again, jumping around with her egg (something we've warned her not to do), and then she bounded up to the table, hopped onto the bench, slipped off, and...smashed Grassy.

We found her another substitute egg...

...which she reluctantly competed with (even though it wasn't green (pink is her favourite colour but Grassy was meant to be green)):

In the end Miriam and Rachel—and their eggs "Are You Ready to Tie Dye?" and "The Hulk"—went head-to-head against each other.

Here they are, winding up for their final fling:

And the winner is...

Rachel! 

Again. This is, like, her third time winning. So we'll have to let someone else win next year, like Zoë, who still believes she won last year (no one tell her, okay?) and Benjamin, who has yet to win at all. It might also be about time to let Andrew eke out another win...

Overall—despite a few moments of tears—a fun time was had by all. 

Grandpa asked why we keep doing this every year when "all it does" is make the children cry. But, see, it does much more than simply make the children cry (though I admit that it usually does have that effect on at least one child). It teaches them good sportsmanship and they keep insisting on doing every year...so they must like it? 

Rachel even boiled the eggs for this year's event (because Andrew and I have both been swamped with deadlines).

Here's the list of our previous winners:

2021: Rachel

2020: Alexander

2019: Aunt Katharine

2018: Rachel

2017: Miriam

2016: Miriam

2015: Me

2014: Me

2013: Miriam

2012: Andrew

2011: Rachel

2010: Me

2009: Patrick Q. Mason

2008: Me