Easter Egg Hunts

Every year I try to do an Easter egg hunt for the kids, it might only be a small one around the house whilst it buckets it down outside, but for the most part we try and make this break a bit of fun. Obvs this year is a wee bit of a challenge having no garden and a house that is upside down BUT we’re still going to give it a go!  Its something I fondly remember doing as a child and is a great way to capture the imaginations of your little ones (and their friends too – why not!). My childhood home had quite a large garden and my parents always used to throw Easter parties for all of their friends and their children to come round and enjoy some quality time together. We’re working our way towards that but at the moment we aren’t quite there! As children we would all be given a basket, usually one my Mum had made (SO not me, I’ll grab one from Asda/Tesco thank you bye.) and we were sent off to do an Easter egg hunt in the garden, while the adults would either watch, join in or enjoy some beers and a buffet. It is one of my fondest memories and I will never forget finding little creme eggs (did you read my post about making your own here?) in my Mum’s rockery, or little treats at the top of the slide.

So I wanted to share some of the things I will be doing this year to give you some ideas of what you can do for your Easter egg hunt.

•  Invite your friends, Easter is a social time!

Make a bit of a social event of Easter weekend, if you have lots of friends with little ones there is nothing more fun than having them round for an hour or so to enjoy an Easter egg hunt. You don’t have to do it at home – we used to grab a group and head up to the local forest – it was lovely and we would just have a little play, hide some eggs in a small enough area that we could police it, and spend the day with other adults. For the win.

• Make (or buy) little felt bags for the kids to carry around.

Its so much fun to make these with kids, they aren’t hard to do and really do cost pence to make. When I say make, I do mean buy the kits – I wouldn’t have the foggiest how to make one from scratch completely, but the boys are pretty self sufficient and they do get a kick out of the little bag making sets you can buy. They don’t have to be big either which means the kids are going to be able to carry them easily and you don’t have to buy eleventy billion eggs.

• Choose different types of Easter treats

You can get so many different types of Easter treats nowadays, everything from mini eggs to marshmallow chick. Choose a variety of different things, but don’t make any of it too big. It won’t fit in your little ones bag, and it will end up biting you on the backside later on when the kids have a chocolate overload. Why not try a few little things that aren’t chocolate or sweets like mini felt chicks, or little schleich lamb figures. On that note, be hella aware of who you invite and their needs. Absolutely no one wants to be the dick that didn’t check and invited a child who has an allergy to chocolate then forgot to prepare for that. I would feel horrible if a kiddo rocked up and had a dietary need that I hadn’t planned for so it’s worth checking. God knows parents of children with allergies to dairy must find Easter horrendous.

• Hide in plain sight

Make sure all of the chocolate is hidden in plain sight, don’t go hiding it under rocks or anything like that, you may well forget its there and you can guarantee that one hot, sweaty day in summer your child will find it and eat it in all its mouldy glory because kids are GRIM.

• Safety first

When you are setting up the garden, hang little treats, tie them to plant pots or put them in the summer house but be really careful to avoid ponds, unstable areas, nettles, sharp bushes, rose beds or anything where the kids can catch themselves or hurt themselves. I know that is just common sense but it is so easy to get carried away and put treats all over the garden – my husband once put a treat up really high so the boys could see it but couldn’t reach it – it was only when they got frustrated and upset that he realised he’d put it there! I guess my point is that as adults we kinda don’t look at life from a kid’s perspective so think short and nuts.

• Don’t be a spoil sport

Its Easter, you’ve set up an Easter egg hunt, you’ve waved chocolate under the kids noses – don’t expect that they will take it well if you tell them they can’t eat any chocolate until after lunch. A friend of mine once came to an Easter egg hunt and wouldn’t let her kids eat anything until after lunch (the hunt was at 10am) – they’re her kids so no one said anything, but those poor little munchkins watched everyone else’s kids tucking into a (limited) amount of chocolate while they had to sit and wait. It wasn’t fair and its not a good idea – you can imagine the hysterics that evolved. Talk to your friends, if they have a chocolate rule (like I do… maybe… sort of… no, that’s a lie) respect it, organise a party for after lunch or tell all of the children they can have two pieces and nothing more. Whatever. My point is don’t be a spoil sport, organise with the other parents what is going to happen and get everyone to stick to it!

That’s it! May your Easter Egg hunts be fabulous and the left over chocolate plentiful for you to “help” with after bedtime…

Harriet x