Assigned Egghunt

As a mother who strives to be fair (which I understand is an impossible mission and I also understand that not everything can nor should be fair, but when it is possible, I try), I have always struggled with the egg hunt tradition for Easter. I love the concept, but it is always so unfair.

The older kids are held back as they watch the youngest of the 'older' kids running around a head of them, grabbing all of the eggs possible, leaving only the ones that take a cheerleader pyramid and fifteen minutes to grab. And heaven forbid an older child grab an egg just hanging out in the middle of the lawn, tempting, almost taunting them til they pick it up. Immediately, an adult from the side lines will start lecturing about "those ones" being left for the babies. Which the kid will respond by looking completely innocent, losing valuable hunting time or will just ignore the adult entirely and grab up all of the eggs possible, having already made the decision, probably while being held back, that it will be better to grab and go and deal with the disappointment from the parents while he has a basket full of chocolate.

Then we have the wee ones who are completely oblivious to anything happening around them as mom is getting considerably frustrated trying to get them excited and grab some eggs so that they can steal the candy later and hopefully get some cute snap shots of their "first egg hunt".

So in an attempt to avoid all of the chaos, I decided to try a new egg hunt method. I assigned each child an egg color and the child can only pick up their color.

Each kid would get the same amount of eggs and they could be hidden according to age. No more holding any one back. No more frustration. You could easily even fill the eggs according to age, but I opted to fill them all the same so each kid got the exact same candy. No more disappointment when you only got one of your favorites while the kid next to you got a whole basketful.

I will admit though, I was pretty nervous how this method would work out for the wee ones. Will this add to the frustration for them and mommy?

I am happy to report the answer is no. This was easy for the young ones to grasp as well. It only took a few eggs before the babies knew what to look for. And if they did pick up someone else's color, they would hunt down the owner to put it in their basket. :-)

Of course, this only works for smaller groups of kids as there are only so many colors. But it was awesome to see it play out so flawlessly. I would definitely recommend doing your hunts this way. I know, I will be doing my future hunts this way from now on!

Pics to come. Hopefully. I was using my dad's camera as he wasn't able to get out to watch the kids. His back is in such disrepair that he can't stand. So I am waiting for him to send me the pics.