Wednesday, March 5, 2008

Whine-Free Egg Hunt

For great winter and holiday ideas check out the participating posts at Scribbit's Winter Bazaar.

"Mooooom, Cookie is getting all the eggs and she won't give any to me."

"Cookie, you are only supposed to find the ones that aren't on the ground."

"I know mom, but he keeps walking right past them."

"Pablo, that was an easy egg, you are supposed to leave those for Sweet Terror to pick up."

"But, mooooom, she's not even looking. She is just sitting over there eating jelly beans."

Sweet Terror, after eating her jelly beans, screams in an ear splitting shriek as Monster Man snatches an egg right by her foot.

"Monster Man!"

"Sooooory. Here, Sweet Terror."

She grabs the egg and promptly sits down to eat its contents. Then Monster Man start complaining that she didn't say, "Thank you."

My eyes have rolled so many times at this point that they hurt. I need a whistle and referee shirt to play this game. Two years ago, after getting so disgusted with my children and the whole Easter Egg Hunt drama that I almost canceled Easter, I had an idea. This idea has completely changed our egg hunts and have made for a fun, peaceful hunt. What is my miracle trick? Color coded Easter egg hunt. We buy several bags of the colored plastic Easter eggs and fill each color with an equal amount of candy and little things like chapstick, a wind-up toy, etc. Now, each kid gets assigned a color

Cookie=Purple

Pablo=Blue

Monster Man=Green

Sweet Terror=Pink

Mom=Yellow

Dad=Orange (or whatever color is left)


Now, not only does this guarantee that everyone gets an equal amount of eggs, and that no one gets an egg unfairly snatched from them, but it also makes the whole hiding thing a lot easier for the Easter Bunny and more fun for the kids too. Depending on the age of the child, certain colored eggs get hid at different difficulty levels. Sweet Terror's pink eggs are just thrown on the grass in plain site, and not even that far from each other, while Cookie's get hid up in trees and under things and are in every far reaching corner of our lot. I like to put special things in DSSH's eggs and hide them throughout the house, with a difficult clue in each egg to help him find the next one. DSSH loves me and so he just puts my eggs in a basket on the table so that I can eat them while taking pictures of everyone else. =)

I gotta tell ya, this has made Egg Hunts with toddlers SOOOOOO nice. Tune in tomorrow and I will tell you how I get the kids to pick up the hard boiled eggs too (Yes, my kids are so spoiled that they refuse to pick up the real "yucky" eggs so they have more time to find the candy filled ones).

20 comments:

Ally said...

Excellent! Thanks for sharing this. I only have one egg hunter right now, but will have twins hunting in a few years. Now I'll have a strategy. :D

And knowledge is power, after all!

Mo said...

Genius! My kids are at that age and I'm tired of all the fighting...

Anonymous said...

hmmm...yummi....,i`m hungry mom...,maybe ice cream not a bad choice for now.

Anonymous said...

!!! EGGSELLENT idea! (sorry - had to do it!)

Montserrat said...

We started this a couple of years ago too! It is so much more fun for the kiddos and much less stressful for me. I'm interested in hearing how you get them to also pick up the hard-boiled eggs.

Anonymous said...
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Ice Cream said...

ACK! I really don't want to have to moderate my comments or get one of those word verifiction things but this Jason guy keeps spamming me. Sometimes Blogger lets me delete comments and sometimes not. Don't bother clicking on his link at all!

Sheila said...

That's a great idea!

Anonymous said...

color coding is a great idea!

Unknown said...

We do the same thing. It does work great!

Kim @ TheBitterBall

Annie-Savor This Moment said...

I'll be back to see what you do about the hard-boiled eggs!

Jennifer @ Fruit of My Hands said...

Good idea! We've never actually done an egg hunt, but this is a great idea for a big family!

Wendy said...

Fantastic idea!! With four small kids, this will be perfect for us. No more whining!
Thank you, thank you! :-)

Scribbit said...

When I hosted an egg hunt several years ago I did this with the cousins and it worked like a charm--especially because I could hide the younger kids' eggs in easier places and the older kids' eggs in tricky spots.

Amber M. said...

What a FABULOUS idea! I have dreaded egg hunts since I was little so I have avoided them with my kids, but this may just be the most perfect solution EVER! Thanks!

Shannon said...

This is a great idea. . . one you know would only come from a mom ( :

Code Yellow Mom said...

BRILLIANT, BRILLIANT, BRILLIANT. And we are just at the "he got more" stage around here...This idea is going into action this year at our house!

Tama said...

WOW! I never thought of that. What a good idea. Unfortunately for me it comes too late. At 11 and 14 years old, my kids are more interested in the "gifts" than finding the eggs.

Anonymous said...

Oh, what a fabulous idea! Thanks in advance for the headache this is going to save me from! :)

An Ordinary Mom said...

Color coded easter eggs ... what a simple solution!