Easter Egg Hunts at Home

This year, Easter is different than ever before. Here are some creative ways to enjoy Easter egg decorating and  hunts at home with your own family:

Decorating Eggs

Hard-boil and Decorate Eggs without a Kit:

Step One for each of the ideas below: Hard-boil eggs and dry them completely.

Tip: Use a whisk, slotted spoon, or tongs to add and remove eggs from the dye. You may also wrap hands in plastic wrap or plastic bags to keep from dying fingers. 

• Crayon Wax Resist: Draw on the eggs (at room temperature) with crayon before dying. The dye will not adhere to the wax and your design with show.
• Food Coloring: Mix 1/2 cup boiling water, 1 teaspoon vinegar and 10 to 20 drops food color in a cup to achieve desired colors. Repeat for each color. Dip hard-boiled eggs in dye for about 5 minutes. Then, dip and dye.
• Kool-Aid: Pour contents of one envelope of kool-aid drink mix into a bowl. Use a separate bowl for each color / flavor.  Add 2/3 cup water to each bowl and stir to dissolve. Then, dip and dye.
• Shaving Cream and Food Coloring: Spray foam shaving cream into a cupcake tin. Place several drops of food coloring into each cup and swirl it with a popsicle stick or toothpick. Then, set eggs in the cups, swirling several times, until completely coated. Allow eggs to sit for 10-15 minutes. This could be a great time to read an Easter story or sing Easter songs while you wait. Then, remove eggs and rinse with cold water. Pat dry.
• Goofy Eggs: Decorate your eggs with Googly Eyes, Stickers, glued on colored feathers or pom poms from your craft supply collection!
• Wooden Eggs: Order wooden Easter eggs online from a craft store or Oriental Trading. These can easily be painted for your holiday centerpiece.

Foam Eggs:

You may purchase styrofoam eggs online from craft stores or Oriental Trading. 

• Decoupage: Mix 2 tbsp. glue with 1 tbsp. water. Tear colored tissue paper into small shapes. Using a paintbrush, lay a piece of tissue on the egg and paint over the tissue lightly with the glue mixture (as you would Mod Podge). Continue until egg is covered. Let it rest and dry on a baking cooling rack.
• Quilted Eggs: Cut scraps of fabric into small shapes. Using a metal nail file or end from a small butter knife, gently poke the edge of the fabric into the styrofoam working around each edge of the material. Then, lay another bit of fabric next to it and continue, until the entire egg is covered in miniature quilt squares. This clip demonstrates the process on a Christmas ornament, simply transfer the idea to a styrofoam egg: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvY0KPgNMeg

Paper Eggs:

• Construction Paper: Cut eggs out of construction paper. Cut out shapes with other colors and glue them atop the eggs for decoration. Or color with crayons or markers.
• Watercolor Eggs: Watercolor paint Easter eggs on white paper.
• Wax Paper Eggs: Shave crayons into a dish or onto paper plates. Lay out a sheet of wax paper and sprinkle the shavings onto the paper forming egg designs. Cover the paper with another sheet of waxed paper. Gently iron (using the low setting on your iron) the two sheets together so that the wax will melt. This clip demonstrates the concept: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDV-P0PWv6Q

Egg Hunts:

Hint: If you don't have real eggs or plastic Easter eggs at home, you might have some eggs in the children's play food from their toy kitchen set. If that doesn't work, kids also love to hunt for small stuffed animals or toys. Be creative.

Traditional Hunt: Hide plastic or dyed eggs around the house or yard (be sure to keep count), and let the children find them. You will find that young children enjoy doing this over and over again!

Follow the Clues: Cut out paper eggs. Write clues on each egg, so that egg #1 leads to egg #2 until they arrive at the final grand prize (perhaps a special dessert or recipe for a family breakfast). 

Color Coded Hunt: Designate a color to each child. Hide the oldest child's eggs in more difficult hiding spots, and so on. Then, have the children race to see who finds their eggs first.

Messages in the Eggs: Fill the plastic eggs with scriptures, encouraging notes, or additional clues. When they find the eggs and crack them open, the messages will be another great surprise.

Neighborhood Hunt: Encourage friends and neighbors to place paper Easter Eggs in their windows. Go through the neighborhood finding as many as you can.

Virtual Hunt: Ask family members to hide an egg or two in their home. Email one another clues. Then, connect on Zoom to see if you can solve one another's riddles and reveal the hiding spots. 

Online Egg Hunt Games:

• ABCya's Egg Hunt Game
• Primary Games Egg Hunt for little ones
• Soft School's Egg Hunt Game
• WimpyKid.com Egg Hunt

Local Chocolate Bunnies and Eggs:

Laura Little's: Starting today (3/24/2020) we will only be doing curbside pick orders! Call in your order, pay over the phone, and we will have it ready for you when you pick up. *WE ARE STILL DOING ONLINE AND SHIPPING ORDERS* The curbside is only changing for walk in customers. http://www.lauralittlecandy.com/easter.html

Order your Easter Bags from RMCF Union Station by noon this Thursday for home delivery on Friday or Saturday! Choose from three delicious ready-to-go options or create your own.

A $10 delivery fees applies, which will be used to donate treats to our First Responders. Delivery is available across the KC area and out to Johnson County, thanks to a partnership between RMCF Union Station and Legends locations.

To order, send the store a private Facebook message at http://m.me/RMCFUS. Include your phone number and they will call you back. Please do not call and leave a message on the store answering machine as no one will be there to retrieve it at this time.

Do you have more ideas to add to our list? Please share them in the comments below!

And, remember, parents set the tone for all holiday celebrations. We may not be celebrating with friends and loved ones this year, but Easter can still be a special and memorable time at home!