Easter in an Egg Shell

Easter morning.

The annual family Easter Egg Hunt is by far Jim's favorite family tradition.  I honestly didn't care about the egg thing growing up- the only child, any "hunting" I did was sort of...lame. 

Jim cares. a. lot. about the whole process of it- the amount of eggs (a ton), the quality and quantity of candy that fills them, waking up early to hide them everywhere, and then also hiding tons of loose candy all around the house, on top of shelves, inside things, everywhere.  (Even on the tops of picture frames,etc.  I'm just sure that one of these years, especially as the hunt heats up as the kids grow, something is going to get broken.)  He says he and his brother would still find hidden eggs months after Easter, they were hidden so well at his house.  It's aaaaall about the competition.

For instance, this year, on Saturday morning I mentioned that I'd bought the Easter candy the day before.  He asks how much I bought, and what kinds.  Then he reveals that he purchased candy himself, like, 2 weeks ago.  Because I always under-buy. 

So, this year found our kids waking up with the sun, dressing quickly in their spring dresses, and running upstairs with their crazy slept-on hair to see if they could get up yet and start the hunt.  (We noticed later that Lily had already helped herself to 3 or 4 eggs while we were sleeping.  She "cleverly" nested the eggs together and hid them inside a much larger egg, which she made sure to "find" herself, only to open it later in front of us, totally "surprised" to find an egg with lots of other eggs inside of it.  Nice.)

Hudson gets a two minute head start.  He's young.  Gets overwhelmed easily.  The girls waited like poised lions for the clock to read "7:40" so they could pounce on the pastel plastic prey they'd spotted throughout the house.

Every year we use the same Easter basket and decorations, and our kids collect their eggs in grocery bags, not new baskets every year.  We like to re-use.  We fill the eggs with an assortment of Easter "standards"- lots of kinds of jelly beans, and chocolate candies that are store-bought, mass-produced, poor-quality, and absolutely not fair trade, because it's impossible to find FT chocolate in-store for kids on holidays, and too expensive to order it, and it's so important to Jim to do it this way.  Traditions, you know.

Our kids absolutely love it.  They'll be hunting for Easter eggs every spring until they go to college.  Maybe even after that.