Children and Parents Find Spring Spirit at Egg Hunts : Festivals: Events in Thousand Oaks and Ventura bring out families to participate in one of the rites of the season.

As she waited for the whistle to signal the start of Ventura’s annual egg hunt Saturday morning, 5-year-old Devon Nishida clung tightly to her father’s legs.

But when it was time, she hunkered into position and appeared focused, even driven. The whistle blew and they were off.

Devon made a beeline to a purple plastic egg, plucked it from the grass and scampered back into the waiting arms of her father, Gary Nishida.

Devon was joined by scores of other children as they took part in Ventura’s Cottontail Canyon Day at Arroyo Verde Park. The egg hunt--as it was euphemistically called--was perhaps more a mad dash since the eggs were set on the grass in plain view.

The deal: One empty plastic egg to be traded in for one prize.

“I think it’s kind of socialistic,” Nishida, of Ventura, said. “No matter how many eggs you get, you only get one prize.”

On both sides of Ventura County, droves of families turned out for spring festivals where baby carriages were the most favored form of transportation.

The petting zoo at Arroyo Verde Park in Ventura drew long lines as children capered about, trying to feed baby goats, only to have their paper cups summarily snapped away and gobbled up: both the feed and the cup it came in.

But the kangaroos appealed most to Andrea Gonzalez, 7, of Oxnard. “I like that they hop. The parrot is pretty neat, too,” she said.

At Thousand Oaks’ Conejo Creek Park, Alyssa Anderson, 10, lounged under an expansive umbrella. As her mother and sister munched on hot dogs laden with relish, Alyssa mused about what to do.

“Probably, the face painting. It’s my favorite,” Alyssa said, smiling at the prospect of a painted bunny rabbit on her face.

This was Carol Trumpy’s first trip to the Thousand Oaks festival, and she marked it by bringing in tow five children: Two were hers, the other three belonged to neighbors.

“We wanted to give the kids something to do and keep them out of my husband’s hair,” Trumpy, of Ventura, said, laughing as her son David, 4, tugged on her arm and pulled her in the direction of the egg hunt for his age group.

Camel rides, sand painting and making impromptu Easter baskets occupied many of the children gathered at Arroyo Verde Park, which overlooks Ventura.

When 2-year-old Evan Spiessl of Ventura finished weaving strips of brightly colored construction paper through a strawberry basket--with considerable assistance from his mother, Lori--he politely and generously offered a single jelly bean to his older brother, Brendon, 10.

Just before the first egg hunt at Arroyo Verde Park, volunteer Patty Ritchie, who teaches sixth grade at Balboa Middle School, wondered what possessed her to help organize the egg stampede.

“I’ve never done this before,” she said. “I don’t know why I’m here, but I’ve had a double cappuccino and a cup of coffee, so I’m ready for anything.”

With painted faces and many wearing paper rabbit ears, the children all seemed to have had a grand time. And even the parents got into the spirit.

“Mom has the old buying bug in her, so that’s why we came,” said Alyssa’s mother, Sharon Anderson. “I love Easter. It kind of represents spring and everything coming alive. I just went out, actually, and bought a bunch of plants.”