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Tuesday, May 7, 2013

Glimpses of our country egg hunt


I just love these little blue galoshes! Diego wears them everywhere! 

(Old news alert! I'm playing catch-up this week!)

This year I organized an Easter egg hunt that would help the children be unified, rather than competing against each other for eggs. I hate the competitiveness and greediness of normal egg hunts, so I made a way to encourage them to work together. It all has to do with the gold eggs (more at the end of the post).

Here are glimpses of our Easter egg hunt this year. I spread 100 eggs around our property while the children were at school. The school bus pulled up and dozens of noses were pressed against the bus windows, looking at the colorful eggs scattered in the yard. Our Littles were so eager to hop off the bus and begin the hunt. 

The children had a wonderful time and did a great job working together to help each other find eggs. 




At first Diego thought the eggs were just pretty toys to collect, which he dutifully did. He giggled each time he discovered another colorful treasure.




Then he finally opened one. And discovered the sugary goodness inside. 

He lost interest in any other eggs and the world paused for him while he licked out every last speck from the sugar-coated marshmallow chick inside. From then on, he 'got it' and ran laughing from one patch of grass to another, searching for more treats.

 Cutest thing ever.


Matthew found several golden eggs this year, and generously gave a gold egg to each sibling. 


At one point Daniel was disappointed that he didn't have as many eggs as everyone else. Matthew quietly went around the corner, removed several eggs from his own bag and hid them. Then he came running back with excitement and yelled, "Daniel! Look over there! No one found those eggs yet!" 

Daniel was SO excited and Matthew watched with a small smile on his face while Daniel scooped up each egg. Matt didn't see me watching from across the yard. Oh, my heart melted!


I wanted the children to work together as a team this year, so I made a puzzle with clues to lead the children to the baskets. Each large egg had pieces of the puzzle. The gold eggs held the most important parts of the puzzle with the key words of the clues. 


It was neat to watch the children pool their pieces and work together to solve the mystery. Each child contributed to the solution, then they read the clues together and ran away to fetch the prizes. 


It was a delightful day! I hope your day today is full of joy!

2 comments:

Lisa said...

So I'm curious - what did the puzzle say? ;) This is such a fun idea! Matthew is such a sweetheart. I love your family, Renae!

Unknown said...

Drat- it was so long ago I don't remember what I wrote on it. Something along the lines of this: "Happy Easter! To find your baskets, do NOT look in the kitchen or the music room or the library or the bathrooms. Check the game room and help each other find the prizes!"

My thinking was that having several rooms mentioned in the puzzle would prevent them from running to the first room they pieced together in the clue. It forced them to finish the puzzle together before solving the mystery. All the baskets were hiding in my art closet in the game room.