Easter HuntingSidetracked Sisters

hunting There are lots of things to love about Easter – from the candy to the family dinner, but my favorite part has always been the Easter egg hunt. Growing up, Easter at our house was almost like a second Christmas. When we woke up Easter morning, we had to search the entire house and sometimes even the garage for our Easter basket. In our Easter basket was not just candy, but the eggs we had dyed in addition to a large stack of presents. The presents were usually a bunch of new spring/summer clothes.

Our Easter bunny was very creative in hiding our baskets and we never got any hints as to where it possibly could be. One time, it was hidden in a bench under all of the blankets. Another time, in the laundry hamper under the clothes. And yet another time, it was in the trunk of a car! It could take quite a while to find our baskets, but we always did.

After finding our baskets, it was time to get dressed up for Easter breakfast and church. If we had found our basket, there was usually a new outfit in there to wear to church. The church always put on a big Easter breakfast before the service. It was amazing.

Once I had kids of my own, the Easter traditions changed. In our house, we had a discussion with the Easter bunny and informed him that Easter really didn’t need to be quite as big as Christmas and we asked him to keep the gifts down to a minimum. Also, the Easter bunny had a much harder time hiding baskets at our house. There weren’t as many large nooks and crannies to accommodate the whole Easter basket. Instead, the Easter bunny made the whole gift into an Easter egg search.

hunting On Easter morning, when the kids wake up, they will find an empty basket on the kitchen table in the color they are assigned for the year. For example – if Bradley’s color is blue – his basket will have a blue bunny on it and blue Easter grass. If Jess is purple – her basket will have a purple bunny and purple grass.

Next to each basket will be a note from the Easter bunny. Last year’s note read something like this:

Time to get back to tradition. Finding your eggs is the mission.

This year your color is BLUE. To find them quick, you might need a clue.

You need to find 3 large and 7 small. Look high and low to find them all!

Happy Hunting!!

At this point, the challenge is for the kids to find their eggs around the house, but we limit it to just the first floor as we’ve discovered over the years that if the search is too hard, Bradley will just give up entirely! The hardest part is that if the kids ask for a clue on where to look, the Easter bunny doesn’t always have the best memory on where she placed the 30-40 eggs! It’s been just the last few years that she’s actually written a list and left it for me!

It’s taken a few years, but the Easter bunny has accumulated some large and small plastic Easter eggs in blue, purple, green and yellow and those eggs get used year after year to make this fun activity for the kids. The best thing for me is that even though my kids are now all over the age of 20 – I get asked – “We’re still doing the Easter egg hunt on Easter – right?!” At least I’m doing something right!!