Easter Egg Hunt

Easter is coming soon and while I resist turning Easter into another expensive and gift –laden holiday like Christmas, I still I want to make it fun and memorable. We try to do an Easter egg hunt, have a nice brunch and dinner and visit family.

I remember Easter fondly from my childhood, for me it wasn’t about the quantity of the chocolate, but it was about the colourful Easter basket, one special gift like a stuffed bunny, and finding shiny little eggs and bunnies hidden around our living room in clever places by my parents. So clever in fact, that you might get lucky and find one little lost egg behind a book on the bookshelf in June!

I also try to find one special thing for my son each year. Last year I searched high and low for a realistic looking stuffed bunny and after checking all the usual places I ended up finding one at Shoppers Drug Mart of all places. He loves it and still plays with it now.

This year I am looking for a foil wrapped chocolate Easter bunny to put in his basket. But not just any bunny.  There are lots of options at stores like Wal Mart, but none of them are quite what I want. There are lots of non-bunny options too. I don’t know if you saw the picture I posted on Facebook of the Chocolate Monster truck called “Grave Digger…” highly inappropriate for Easter if you ask me, but someone pointed out that bunnies and chicks don’t have much to do with Easter either. Anyway I digress…

I went on a little Easter hunt of my own on Sunday to try and find something that matched what I envisioned, I had no luck on the bunny front, but I did find some other great Easter ideas and treats that I thought I would share.

At Freak Lunch Box I found lots of great ideas for older kids who may be jaded about bunnies and chicks, for example; I bought my child’s cousins edible bugs and Pop Rocks. I also filled a bag with bulk gummy candy in sea creature shapes that I know my son will love. They had octopus, sharks, turtles, and fish.

Next door at Tval I found beautiful cupcake soaps that I bought as a token for my sisters in law, mother in law and teen niece. Tval did them up with ribbons for me and they are bright, pretty and very Spring –like.

At Home on Water I found lovely robin egg and bunny shaped soaps, a range of cute stuffed bunnies in every size and colour, and some specialty Easter chocolates. They also had pastel tea towels and some home décor items that were Easter-themed. I bought some of the tea towels for my own kitchen.

At the Newfoundland Chocolate Company there were locally made chocolate eggs and they did have beautiful chocolate bunnies that you can custom order, but they were a little too big for my purpose and too pricey for my budget. The largest was two feet tall and $100! Impressive, but it was a little too much chocolate for a 3 year old and a mommy with no will power. For the adults in your life there were gag chocolate bunnies named after politicians including Kathy, Danny and Joey. I sampled some truffles while I was there and bought some for my father in law. They were delicious.

If you have any Easter shopping tips I would love to hear them. I will post more about Easter in the days ahead…