It's Friday, Y'all! (Egg Hunt)

TGIF!! This has been a long week for me. It was just a busy one in general, plus I've been busy getting things ready for our egg hunt tomorrow. And speaking of, the weather has decided to turn cold again and it's only supposed to be in the 40's tomorrow. UGH! So if you have a second, please say a little prayer for good weather for us. We'll have a bunch of chilly little kiddos trying to find eggs otherwise!

But real quick, before I start with my 5 things about the hunt, I wanted to quickly share two things.

A friend of mine introduced us to Miss Patty Cake and her 'eggstravaganza' DVD a few years ago, and my kids absolutely LOVE it! I think you should definitely check it out. While Miss PattyCake herself can be a bit "silly" looking, the content of the video with the songs and message is really good.

We also have a set of Resurrection Eggs which is a really fun way to teach the story of Easter to your kiddos. They are never too young to hear the Word of God and the true meaning of Easter! I love finding ways to plant the seed.

Okay now onto my Egg Hunt details! We have hosted an egg hung for the past 6 years. This will be my 7th year. It started out with some of our Sunday School friends/kids who were all around my daughter's age. As it evolved and grew, I started limiting it to our smaller group of friends with the exception of one of my best friends who lives across town. But last year (since my daughter started Kindergarten), I felt it was best to include neighborhood kids that she goes to school with. After all, these will be the kids/families we will be around for the next 15 years or so.  So this year we have included our original small group of friends (who have been with us from the beginning) and also a ton of new neighborhood kids. I think the last time I checked, we have 27 children coming! (Hence the reason for the almost 400 eggs!!!)

~ONE~

I rarely do any sort of decorating or games for the hunt b/c I feel that the hunt trumps everything. However my friend found me these adorable little yard signs one year and I do love using them.

I also picked up this pack of cute photo props. I'm hoping despite the chaos and number of kids, we can slip in some cute pics of the kids with their masks/ears on.

 ~TWO~

Every year I look forward to the food. I don't typically plan the hunt during meal time, but still provide light snacks and a few desserts. And I always I love when I can find "Easter specific" food; cotton tails, bunny/carrot mix, bunny marshmallows.

Obviously the desserts are my favorite to make and this I have something new I will try. It involves a ton of peeps! I can't wait to fix it!

~THREE~

I've gone back and forth with what types of dishes to serve the food on and to have for the guests. This year I borrowed all of the colorful/plastic serving pieces from a friend. Then I based the guests' paperware on the beautiful napkins I picked up at Hobby Lobby. 

~FOUR~

The biggest endeavor is stuffing all of the eggs. As I mentioned earlier, we stuffed almost 400 eggs this year. My kids were such good helpers! We knocked it out in a few hours (obviously we had quite a few distractions).

~FIVE~

And b/c I LOVE looking back at past years, here are the pics from my kiddos from our first year through last year.


2009
 When we started my daughter was almost 18 months old.

2010

 2011

2012
My son was only 2 months old, so my good friend offered to host at her house this year. He stayed with me in the BJorn.

 2013

2014

So there you have it! A complete run down of our annual egg hunt. I am so excited about tomorrow, just praying for sunshine. We can handle the cold with jackets as long as the sun is shining and there's no rain/snow!!

And if you haven't already, be sure to check out Wednesday's post with a few options for Easter basket goodies for your kiddos!

As always, my fun link ups:

 Darci, Liz, Natasha, and Christina.

Erika, Narci, and Andrea.  

 Hill Collection.

Have a wonderful weekend!