Easter Egg Hunting

Growing up, the Easter Bunny never hid our eggs. He came the night before and left us a basket full of goodies. My parents and aunts and uncles always hid the eggs while we waited anxiously in a room. That is the same thing I now do with my son. If you hide the eggs in the backyard, maybe you could do it the night before. I'm assuming we are talking about plastic eggs? But then you may have a problem with ants getting the candy. See if a neighbor or family member will come over and hide them before y'all get home from church. Sorry girl, that's all I can think of.

Upon returning home from church, we usually act like we forgot to do something or my husband or I need to go look at something and one of us takes the kids on a little road trip. I usually say I'm going to start on lunch and my husband thinks of something to go do for 15-20 minutes. It's worked so far.

Look around for an Easter Vigil service (on Saturday night) that way you can hide the eggs in the morning before he gets up.

My children are 6 going on 7 and 3 going on 4. We've NEVER told our children that anything like Easter Bunny/Santa Claus is real because we don't ever want them feeling like they were lied to. Nor do we want them to miss out on the fun part of the make believe. So instead, both of my children know they can ask me a question and I will tell them the absolute truth. I have also told them that I don't mind "playing along" with them in something they think is fun.

At present the oldest is struggling with what she thinks is real but she doesn't REALLY want to know the absolute truth and has NOT asked me. Soooo...

We play along with the "game" of Easter egg hunts and leaving cookies for Santa/ hiding our resident Elf /placing out food for the reindeer and the whole Tooth Fairy business. If either asks me point blank if it's me then I'll say yes but it sure is fun to play and even more fun to think about magic being real.

I'm ready for it. We've danced along the edges of this conversation but I only go as far with it as the girls want. I've used the idea of magic to launch discussions about the "magic" that IS real like seeds sprouting, and new life, and Jesus being raised from the dead and the like. By comparison it seems even more fantastic sometimes then what the PLAY is.

Since you hide the eggs AFTER church then just do it while your son is changing into non-church clothing. Have your children go potty and wash up before they can do their Easter hunting and to draw it out a little longer-you can even have them HUNT their Easter baskets out inside before they can go out and hunt eggs. That should buy a little time. To draw it further-you could have them eat lunch first too.

My children have us rehide the eggs OVER and over and over...and when we finally stop they hide the eggs for each other.

For us-we have a lot of fun decorating eggs too. We always dye a least 2 dozen since we all like boiled eggs/deviled eggs and tuna or chicken salad. This helps the girls know that no giant bunny is showing up hiding the eggs since they had a hand in decorating the eggs.

Plus we have a Flemish Giant rabbit anyway and we've also got chickens so they're well aware of what comes from where and what the limits of these creatures really is.

I guess I'm just too much of a realist but then, we have fun with the idea of it all and "play" these things with just as much delight as our girls do.

Hope this might give you a few ideas to help out!

God Bless you all!

Last year my oldest was 5 at Easter. I did Easter baskets (well, left the baskets at home and did gift bags, LOL!) and the boys got those before church. After church we went to lunch and then came back to the hotel. There were so many adults that a few snuck outside and hid the eggs for the boys. I don't think we really said though that the EB was hiding them, they were just excited to go hunt for them.

The year before that we were in Bath, England for Easter and just did baskets. The hotel we were at did an Easter hunt with clues to look for letters and then decipher the hidden message and get a treat at the end. He had great fun doing that too.

As a child my parents would say that the easter bunny only had time to leave the basket and that he left the egg hiding to my parents.

So we never assumed that the easter bunny hid them. So we always waited patiently for our parents to hide the eggs.

My daughter is 14 now. Easter Bunny has always already been here when she wakes up.

I hid eggs at night but most everything wsa in her basket for her to go through and open eggs for prizes.

Do you have a neighbor or family member that could take care of it before you get home?

This is what we used to do: one of us would take the boys for a walk to look for bunny tracks while the other would hide the eggs. This was especially helpful when all my sisters and their kids of various ages went to my parents for Easter.

You heard so great Ideas here. The first thought that popped into my head was...TWO CARS to church. You get the children in the car together and then one of you "needs to use the restroom" so the other leaves with the children, because you cant be late to Easter Service or you will never find a place to sit! :)

I have five children,we have always done it with them first thing in the morning and opted for a later mass like 11 or 12. No one is allowed more then one small piece of candy, because it was to early in the day for candy. No one ever made a fuss, they were excited to even have candy before breakfast. M&M mini's are perfect. My husband has been using them for years as ways to keep little ones quiet in church or during family funerals.

Good luck, I am sure you will find the method that works best for you!

Well, maybe you could be putting the kids in the car while dad hides, or vice versa. We have told the kids that daddy was just taking forever to finish getting ready, and they never questioned it, but we have normally had to hide ours in the house, or in the back yard, so being in the car in the front does not matter. Or, do you have a neighbor that would help out. We have started asking the Easter bunny to come on Saturday, so that we can do all of the fun easter stuff, and then on Sunday, we can focus more on the reason for the celebration. We have 4 kids under 8 and it has been so wonderful to have all of that done before Sunday morning. Have fun!! ~A.~