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“Egg”cellent Eggs – Exchanging Love and Appreciation at Easter Time

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eggcellent the very last with egg in correct poistion green basket bunney last entry

Eggs have always had a special meaning during Easter celebrations. A symbol of new life, new beginnings and renewal. Plus, of course egg hunts galore. I am adding a potential activity for your consideration –  “Egg”cellent Eggs – Exchanging Your Love & Appreciation at Easter Time. What a wonderful way to be refreshed and renewed by having your family members express how they feel you are a person of “excellence”. I am always searching for unique and fun ways to show love and appreciation. I find celebrations are a perfect time to do so.

“Egg”cellent Eggs – Exchanging Love & Appreciation

The purpose of this Easter activity is to provide an avenue for family members and friends to show their love and appreciation for each other through a fun Easter activity. The activity will center around how we view each family member or friend in the area of how they show their excellence (basically what we feel they are good at).

eggcellent basket and messages material

  1. GATHER MATERIALS.
  • Plastic Eggs – Use paper strips to enclose inside of plastic eggs special notes of how you feel each family member or friend is a person of “excellence”, what you feel they are good at. You will need enough eggs for each person to do a special egg for each person at the event. Colored markers and paper will be needed as well.  Note: In some ways using plastic eggs is the easiest way to do this activity, but “real” deal eggs can work as well

OR

  • “Real” Deal Eggs –  Using permanent markers will work to write your special word or words of how you feel this person excels. Eggs will need to be dyed before hand. Or one could use un-dyed eggs as well and just use markers to decorate and add words that you wish to attribute their positive attributes. You would want to have folks put who the special word or words are from.
  • Dollar store baskets can be purchased and placed at the dinner table for each person as name tags and an indicator of where to put the eggs that are created for each guest.  The reading of the eggs may be a fun activity to do when dishes are cleared and dessert is brought out or picked up from a buffet table. A sweet ending of a meal, opening up your eggs (or looking at the outside of your eggs) and finding out what excellent attributes your family or friends attribute to you.
  • Another option is to have a very large basket for all of the marked eggs in the center of the dining room table, a fun center piece that will double as an activity.

OR

  • The “EGG”cellent Eggs can be used as part of an EASTER EGG HUNT. This is another way to use these fun eggs. In this case the egg would need to marked on the outside with the person’s name so when they hunt they will be hunting specifically for their own specially made eggs.
  • A name tag attached to each basket if you are doing this as a dinner table activity. This can potentially also serve as place tags for who is to sit where if one wishes to do so.
  • Templates can be obtained on line. The sources used for my name tags are: bunny rabbit template at activityvillage.co.uk; chick template at bigliettidastampare.it   Both found on Pinterest. Having children create the name tags is fun way to involve children. Their own unique creations would be a wonderful contribution.

Note: This can be a relatively inexpensive project. I found baskets and eggs at the dollar store and then used left over ribbons, etc.    

eggcellent chick basket with message

 2. ACTIVITY DIRECTIONS 

  • Everyone pre-make their eggs at home before the Easter Meal or Event. And then put the eggs in the appropriate baskets set out when they arrive. And then at the designated time you have folks look at their special notes of appreciation and love from their families, finding out how they stand out as an excellent person in the eyes of their family and friends.

OR

  • The creating of the eggs and their messages can be done at the Easter Event and then eggs put in the Easter Baskets provided by the host. Another alternative is for each person to bring their own basket for their eggs.

eggcellent basket, small one with flower shape at top, close up of message

 

     3. INSTRUCTIONS FOR PARTICIPANTS

  • Advice those participating if they are to prepare eggs before they come to your Easter event or if it will be done at the time of the event.
  • Email or send a note to them as to what you want on or in their eggs. You might create a form that you send to them with the needed template to gather the information for their eggs. I find communication is critical for these special kinds of activities to go smoothly. It might go as follows:

____________, YOU are a person of “EGG”cellence!

____________________________________________________

____________________________________________________

From                                             Date

 

This note is to be filled in with the person’s name at the very top and then a note indicating what you feel they excel at or are good at. Some examples might be:  Adam, YOU are a person of “EGG”cellence! You are so very thoughtful and kind. From  Tanna   Date   April, 2015  OR  Jane, YOU are a person of “EGG”cellence! You really know how to make an awesome cherry pie!  From  Tanna   Date   April, 2015  OR   Aiden, You are a person of “EGG”cellence! You are so friendly to everyone.  From  Tanna   Date   April, 2015

  • Consider how young children can be involved. I might note that even young children who are not writing yet can dictate what they like about another family member. This is a wonderful activity to create positive, warm feelings all way around. If you have a baby or toddler you might image what they may say to another member and write it for them. For example: Daddy, You are a person of “EGG”cellence.  I love how you give me hugs and kisses. From  Amelia   Date   April, 2015 Or a preschooler could draw a picture to be included.

 

This above note format is intended for if you use plastic eggs. If you do dyed eggs you will want to have folks only do a word or phrase on the egg and if possible who it is from on the egg. For example:  Very Friendly. From Tanna   OR   Thoughtful. From Tanna  OR   Great Cook. From Tanna.

  • Let them know if you will provide a basket or egg holder or if they need to bring this.
  • If you have them bring their own basket, advise if they need to put their name on it or if you will be doing this as the host.

eggcellent basket message instructions

4. CONSIDERATIONS FOR RELUCTANT PARTICIPANTS

  •  If you feel you will have some folks who will be uncomfortable doing this activity, you could provide a choice of something they might feel more comfortable doing. For example: You could give the choice of doing the “EGG”cellent Egg for each of their family members or friends OR they can bring a small edible or non edible treat to put in their family member or friend’s basket. If this is done as an egg hunt, they will need to put their treats in plastic eggs.

 

Notes:

1) You might check out my post on Cooperative Egg Hunts that I did last year for this blog. It is a yearly ritual that I personally am involved with

2) In addition you might check out next week’s post in which I will talk about a natural egg dying activity. This is an old traditional activity that many no longer do because of plastic Easter eggs. This post will go back to the very old school way of dying your eggs with natural plant-based dye. So stay tuned for next week’s post.

Best wishes for a lovely Easter, filled with love and appreciation for one another!

A Cooperative Family Egg Hunt – A Great Message and So Much Fun

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easter egg cooperative hunt pic

 

What is a Cooperative Egg Hunt? This is something I created many years ago with my own family and have continued to do this year after year. I had never liked the competitive rush out to grab all you can approach, so I decided we should try something else. And we did and we still love it! I might add this can be used for all ages, including adults.  It is a bit more work, but so worth the effort.

Here are the steps to creating this new way of hunting Easter Eggs.

  1. The group counts the NUMBER THAT WILL BE HUNTING and then decides HOW MANY EGGS each person will PREPARE FOR EACH of their FELLOW HUNTERS. For example: You might have 10 people hunting (hopefully all ages!) with each person putting together 1 egg for each of their fellow hunters.  The ending result is that each person ends up with the same amount of eggs.  In this example each person would come up with 10 eggs.
  2. So this could be traditional real eggs or it could be candy filled eggs that many folks do OR it could be that you choose to do an alternative kind of egg, such as small healthy treats or toys in the eggs or if adults are involved some small items that they may find fun. Example a tea bag, nail clippers, hair ties, batteries, etc  . I might say JUMBO Eggs do tend to work best. Another alternative may be that the egg holds a note in it that says to go see another hunter for their prize. This works well when the prize or treat is too big to go in the egg. This opens the door for lots of fun things.  The dollar store is great place to gather gifts.
  3. All the eggs prepared can be the same or individualized by the age or by the sex or by the specific person.
  4. Each participant marks their eggs with all of the names of their fellow hunters.  So everyone is specifically looking for eggs that have their name on it.
  5. Of course  you will need someone to hide eggs.
  6. This is cooperative in that when someone can not find one of their eggs they have all of their fellow hunters who can give them clues or straight out tell them if they become desperate as to not being able to locate all of their eggs. It is so much fun and heart warming to see the young ones at times help the adults find their eggs.
  7. Of course thank yous are nice at the end. Folks can mark their eggs with a to and from to help with this.

 

 

easter buckets

 

 

 

So what you have is a peaceful, exciting hunt with no pressure and no crying or upset with someone who does not get enough eggs. You have folks helping each other. And you have an opportunity to make the eggs carry whatever kind of message you like – one that stands for healthy treats or for maybe garden gloves, a box of crayons for creative expression, etc.

I hope you will give this a try. It is wonderful tradition that I love each year. And one that all can participate in and enjoy together.  Happy Easter!