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What's new with Ashleigh?
This is a very busy time of year for our family. Earlier this week, I mentioned some of our favorite traditions, new and old. However, no Easter would be complete without our favorite tradition: the egg hunt.
As a child, we spent every Easter at my grandparent's house. They lived on about an acre of land, so there was plenty of room to hide plastic eggs. I think we were told we could only find a certain number, but that may be something I started when I had children of my own. The eggs were filled with chocolate eggs and jelly beans and other candies that I stopped enjoying long ago.
We would also participate in egg hunts at my church or the town green. We would stand behind a starting line while the adults threw chocolate eggs all over the grass. I remember the first time I saw that, I was disappointed. My relatives took such care hiding the plastic eggs, why couldn't they? (Of course, there were a lot more children at these public hunts, but at six, I didn't understand that.) However, there was no limit to the amount of candy we could find and my brother and I always competed to see who could get the most.
I cannot remember the origins of this tradition with my own children. I just remember one year, we started hiding plastic eggs. One year, we tried ones that had been prefilled with toys. The children were very disappointed and we vowed never to do that again. One year it was a scavenger hunt, where they children had to find a certain number of each colored egg (three blue, two pink, one gold, etc). I think the Easter bunny did an egg hunt one year. That was the year we got a new camper and it took the kids a while to find the eggs hidden in it.
Last year, we had Easter at my brother-in-law's and I volunteered to do a hunt for all the cousins. My kids helped me fill eggs. I kept one empty of each color and the kids all drew them from a basket. That was the color egg they had to search for. Since my eldest niece is in college, she volunteered to hide the eggs and the little kids had a lot of fun looking for them all. We all got in on the fun when we lost an egg. (Still never found it!)
This year, my kids insisted on another hunt. I put my middle daughter in charge of it. She helped pick out the candy: a different kind for each kid. We bought the jumbo plastic eggs and picked out stickers to mark each child's eggs. We're bringing them to their grandparents' house to do after Easter dinner. As for who's hiding them? We're not sure.
One year, we had the children hide each other's eggs. We're thinking of doing that again. Or maybe Daddy or a grandparent will hide them. We may do it inside or outside. The possibilites are numerous and I'm looking forward to this tradition.