Planning The Egg Hunt

The Easter Egg Hunt is on!

"Eggciting!"

This will be our 3rd annual Neighborhood Easter Egg Hunt! 

As I prepare to host this fun event again, I'm reviewing the previous gatherings for what has worked, what ought to be avoided and different ideas to try.

In fact, I keep a handy dandy notebook for Entertaining in which to stash ideas, printables and thoughts that are fresh in my mind while planning a party, and after one is over.

I refer to this Entertaining binder often for planning gatherings.

So, I'll share with you some of my thoughts on what I plan to keep, or change up,

and new ideas I hope to try for the egg hunt this year.

For more thoughts and planning, which I jotted down about our first annual

Easter Egg Hunt, read Hosting the Egg Hunt.

 

To Keep:

Provide a rainy weather just-in-case date.

We didn't have one scheduled for the first egg hunt, and we needed it!

Due to schedules this year, the just-in-case date will actually be for the afternoon

before, so I'll have to be all ready to go ahead of time if the weather is grumpy.

Plan on an hour for the hunt. 

Forty-five minutes is about right for our group for the hunt itself.

We pad the front a bit for late comers and add a bit on the end for mingling and

refreshments, giving us a scheduled two hours from front to finish.

Provide lots of seating.

A large blanket spread on the ground on top of a painting drop cloth is perfect.

The drop cloth keeps out the dampness from thawing springtime soil.

 
Provide brown lunch bags & markers.

After the egg hunt the kiddos (and parents) empty the eggs into the brown bags

with their names on it. This worked well for keeping the goods straight between kiddos!

To Update This Year:

Decorate the bags with colorful name labels.

Talk safety up front.

A brief reminder to  stay out of the enclosed pool yard area,

and that there are small inedible items in some of the eggs such as bouncy balls.

The game of guessing the amount of jelly beans in the egg.

This is just as much a competition for the adults as the egg hunt is for the kiddos! 

The help of our awesome neighbors.

The neighbors help by purchasing candy and filling the eggs,

bringing treats to share and lending a hand at the egg hunt.

I've even had a thoughtful neighbor pitch in a couple of bucks, and one neighbor in particular has proven invaluable with providing non-candy egg fillers, food, ideas,

and assistance with making it all come together.

 

 To Change Up:

 

Hide eggs without any help from assisting neighbor's kiddos.

Those kiddos had an edge on the egg hunt market during the hunt and couldn't help

being the kids they are and using it, bless their hearts!

To do:

Hide the eggs early enough that those coming over a bit

early to help with the last minute touches won't be in on the egg hiding part.

Give the older kiddos (say 8 and up) a challenge in the hunt.

Previously, we have tried to even up the hunting field with the rule that the older kiddos couldn't hunt and gather eggs below knee level.

This was so our group of little egg gatherers would have eggs to find.

However, I'm not sure how well the older kiddos actually followed the guideline. 

To do:

Make the egg hunt more challenging (and more fun, too!) for the older children by integrating a challenge into the hunt. I'm not sure yet what this will be, but the ideas of a scavenger hunt, a puzzle hunt, hunting in teams, clues and a mystery to solve are all turning around in my head. Something doable, fun and challenging will come to mind soon!

To Try:

Sign up list for names, phone and email.

We previously ended up using a tiny piece of notebook paper.

To do:

Design and print a cute list to put on a clipboard for capturing this info.

Spray paint clipboard white.

Wrap a pen with ribbon and attach to clipboard.

Implement an activity or two with prizes for the kiddos.

 This will be helpful to fill the 20 minutes or so while families arrive until the hunt begins. The activities could continue or take place after the egg hunt too.

To do:

I decided on three games (going with classics this year).

3-legged race, pin the tail on the bunny, and the bunny hop pillow race.

Gather items to ties legs together (bandanas or colorful ribbon) .

Gather small throw pillows.

Mark race beginning and ending lines in a fun way.

Draw large bunny on white craft paper and hang on garage door.

Make bunny tail with cotton balls and paper plate.

We love getting the neighborhood families together to kick off the season of kids, bikes, trampolines, swimming, and games of tag. It's kind like an ice breaker after the chill that keeps us inside too much during the winter months. After the egg hunt, the usual friendly wave in passing seems easier to turn into a bit of conversation, or a summer barbeque invite, or a play date for the kiddos.

And that's what a neighborhood should be like!

It feels good to be intentional about it!

Happy Easter!

He is Risen!

Inspiration? Parties and Linkies? I'm having fun with this post right over here ... join in!

You may be interested in reading about hosting an egg hunt in a previous year: