Easter Eggs

Coins, small toys like the kind you can get at the party store for party favors, jacks and balls and dice to play with, small barrettes in the girlie ones, matchbox cars fit nicely. We have a 2 year 10 month girl and a 5.6 year old boy. I have some eggs that are boy eggs (footballs, spiderman) and some that are girls (pretty pony ones I found) so those get more gender specific items like the hair bows or little motorcycles. Everyone can have a matchbox and the kids can always trade items. We have a hunt with their cousins every year who are a bit older. They are more happy with the coins finding the occassional dollar (DH usually puts a 5 in one of them as the surprise egg) and the candy. My littler kids like getting the cars and other toy items.

I would think like you... use the little trinket type things. Sometimes the stores have party favors that would be small enough to fit in eggs (our Hobby Lobby has a whole selection of individual party favors). I remember as a kid doing egg hunts and loving the eggs with coins in them (usually just a quarter). If you are Christian or even just want to do the Easter story you can usually find what are called "Resurrection Eggs" (I got a set to use with my daycare kids one year). It's a dozen eggs filled with an item that is used to tell the story of Jesus' death and resurrection. The year I used them I had those and then filled additional eggs with a lifesaver each. We then sat down as a group and went through all the eggs and retold the Easter story.I was thinking like you, too, that every one gets too much candy! I'm not against candy, but every year DH and I try and decide what to do. This year I thought I'd use fruit instead of a lot of candy (course, we still have our chocolate bunnies and a special candy each - me: cadbury creme eggs, DH: peanut butter cups, DD is still too little at just a little over 1). I was going to fill some eggs with the gerber puffs as well! Great minds think alike! :)What about trail mix for the older kiddos? That would be another healthy treat. Or depending on if you use bigger eggs, you might be able to stuff in a silly pair of socks. Not that it will help you this year, but maybe for future years you could look at Oriental Trading Company (PM for the web addy or just google it). They have a wide variety of little things for goodies that would probably fit in eggs and their prices are pretty decent (just watch the S&H).Good luck! And I'd love to hear what all you finally decide because I think DD will be old enough next year and I'd love to have an egg hunt with her and her older cousins!

Good thread, Stork, I've been wondering what to do w/ H's eggs. His nanny showed up this morning w/ an Easter basket for him. She'd put his favorite cheese crackers (which, coincidentally, are shaped like bunnies) in all the eggs. He liked that, but was TOTALLY fascinated w/ the little windup hopping chicken and egg toys. "Hop, Hop, Hop!"

Am I the only one that uses the real dyed eggs to hunt? How old fashion am I?

Nope your not, we do too. :DBut this year we can not get to my mom's to do the family egg hunt and our church decided to do their egg hunt Sunday morning during Sunday School. :eek:So we decided not to do an egg hunt this year, we do not have the yard to do one anyway. We will go Saturday to the community one at the park, so the kids will be doing two egg hunts, which was better than last year when we did like four.

We use several dozen real eggs, but also have some filled ones, too. When we have had todders at home, we have filled their eggs with Cherrios. Sam

We are having our Easter egg hunt on the beach. I've never tried that before so hopefully the eggs will hide well in the sand?? Plastic eggs only, of course. N is only 17 months so I"m thinking some of her favorite snacks will go in the eggs...fish crackers, fruit snacks, and I might sneak in a few jelly beans :) Wishing everyone a Happy Easter!

Too cold here for Easter egg hunts this year. :(

We use colored eggs and have some plastic ones too. Have you considered puting nothing in the eggs? My little one is happy just to hunt for the eggs. She doesn't know that there could be something inside. When she does get treats of any kind, she is relentless about wanting more, so I try to be careful about when they are given. If you're more comfortable giving treats, the fruit gummies seem to be a hit and they're not too bad. I like the sticker idea too...I think my daughter would be happy with things like veggie puffs too. Anyway, have fun!