Santa Rosa’s Spring Egg Hunt at Howarth Park offers hidden gifts for little ones

It was performance art Saturday on the softball field at Santa Rosa’s Howarth Park as about 400 colorfully dressed children with baskets ran, sat, stared, gawked and rolled around in the outfield grass where city staff had hidden kid-friendly holiday treasures.

And the parental paparazzi were ever- ready with their cameras.

Santa Rosa’s annual spring egg hunt brought families with children age 5 and under to the park to frolic and find gifts hidden in the grass and discover the little trinkets inside.

Soren Roeske, an 18-month-old Santa Rosa lad in plaid, was just as interested in investigating clumps of grass - passing the green stuff from hand to hand - as he was in the brightly colored eggs around him.

But Vida Brewster, wise at 2½, in a blue lace dress, expertly plucked plastic eggs from the grass and dropped them into her basket. Her technique was apparently improved compared to last year.

“She would not pick up the eggs,” her mother, Yesenia Rivera of Santa Rosa, said of the 2015 hunt.

The city’s Recreation and Parks Department holds the annual egg hunt a day before Easter to raise money for its scholarship fund that helps low-income families send their children to summer camp, swim lessons and other activities. Tickets were $8, and the event sold out.

Recreation coordinator Jeanne Pugh said the sunny, warm weather couldn’t be more perfect for the “very endearing” event.

“It’s great to see families out here - and Mother Nature must agree,” Pugh said.

Outside the softball field, children took photos with a costumed bunny, painted pictures and petted goats, including a prancing kid named Stubby.

Keoni Andrade, a 2-year-old, sized-up the towering white bunny waving at him and decided he was a friend deserving of a big hug.

There were three stages to the egg hunt, with the first two designated for the littlest children, age 2 and under, and the third for all children under 5.

Pugh had the honor of calling out “one, two three go” for the antsy hunters.

The eggs contained stamps, stickers, chocolate, whistles and other little trinkets.

As the second hunt was underway, Sophia Castaneda, 1, of Santa Rosa, shook an egg to the beat of her own tune.

Catherine Faith de la Toree Navarro, 4, knew exactly what to do, and she dashed around the field, fluttering in a white dress with bunny ears on her head, filling her basket.

“I see so many very happy faces,” her mother, Gabriela Navarro de la Torre of Santa Rosa, said.

You can reach Staff Writer Julie Johnson at 521-5220 or julie.johnson@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @jjpressdem.