The California Museum hosted its annual spring and Easter celebration on April 20.  The 2-hour event offered outdoor games as well as arts and crafts for those who wanted to stay indoors.  

The day was overseen by Eliza Van Dyke and Nick Banducci along with a few volunteers from Stockdale High School.

Kids of all ages were concentrating hard on making bunny eyeglasses to show off to their family and friends.

Caitlyn Tabbytosavit, the mother of Kenzlie, age 5, and Kennedi, age 4, said she found out about the spring and Easter event from the museum’s website and wanted to bring her girls so they could participate in all the Easter fun. 

Kenzie, who was anxious to model her bunny eyeglasses, stood proudly for the photo.

While the day was a success, both Van Dyke and Banducci admitted they expected many more kids to attend.  

“Parents and kids would come throughout the day but once they found out we were not having an egg hunt this year, many of them left, said Van Dyke.”   Just like any good leader, Van Dyke and Banducci were already thinking of different ways to make next year’s celebration bigger and better.

The low attendance didn’t seem to bother the kids that were there participating.  Take for example 2-year-old Sebastian Lopez, with his green smock on and paint brush in hand, he was all too excited when asked, “what are you painting?” the only word that was recognized was deer.  Thankfully his mother Julie Lopez was standing nearby to interpret the baby gibberish.  She explained they walked through the museum exhibits and Sebastian saw a picture of a deer and he wanted to re-create the image on canvas.

Citlali Patel, 18 and a senior at Stockdale High school said, “it was a safe environment for kids and she wished it was around when she was a kid.”  

Muskaan Singh, 17 and another volunteer from Stockdale High school said she was having a lot of fun with the kids in the controlled chaos.  

The indoor activities brought a father and son together through creative play with Lego’s.  Jacob Calderon and his 6-year-old son River Calderon were building an elaborate mansion out of Lego’s.  According to River, the mansion was going to have underground parking for his fancy car to park, also to include an elevator.