(Cheap) Easter Family Fun!

I love my family! Not just my hubster and kiddlets, but my first family-parents, sisters and brother.Getting together ALWAYS results in a good time.Easter is no exception.  I wanted to share a few of our traditions with you just in case you need a little somethin'-somethin' to count down the minutes until the bunny arrives Sunday morning!  Have an Easter Egg Hunt... (duh!) 

Ours happens very much like our Christmas Candy Cane Hunt.We use (and re-use) the plastic colored eggs. Everyone is assigned a "color" to hunt, and we're all given the same amount of eggs.The older you are, the harder your eggs are to find.We usually have 2 of the adults hide the eggs while the rest of us are busy dying a few hard boiled ones. That way, it's still fun for the "big kids" to hunt, and the two hiders to laugh at us. 

The best part...hunting for the "Silver Egg"!
(I'm not sure why it's not gold?) It contains cash, good old-spending cash. And it's fair game to all.  

SO MUCH FUN!!!Once the eggs are all collected and our bellies are on a sugar high we move on to... The Egg Decorating Contest!This is my favorite, I seriously look forward to this ALL year.Here's the basics: Gather a collection of odds and ends from around the house. The plain to the odd, anything goes.(Buttons, feathers, pipe cleaners, glitter, markers, crayons, yarn, thread, fun foam, felt, stickers, tp tubes, tissue paper, candy, toothpicks, q-tips, clay, fabric scraps, etc)   Add to that a few basic crafting standards like glue (hot and cold), scissors, markers, paper and pencils, and the like. Everyone gets one hard boiled egg. One. That's it.You brake it or crack it, no matter, that's it, you get one!

Set the timer for 30 minutes and then GO! Use the supplies you gathered to quickly create the most amazing EGG you've ever seen. Again, anything goes so long as you incorporate the egg into the design. This has a tendency to get a little crazy and a lot competitive at our house. I'm talking first come, first serve at the supply table, trash talking, egg breaking craziness! Oh, but it's fun. My dad offers a running commentary on each others designs as well as the time, and also serves as the official judge. Once we're out of time, the real craziness begins. We each get to present our creations, kind of a little egg show-and-tell which always includes more trash talk, explain a little if necessary, and {kiss up to the judge}! Then we're kicked out of the room to leave the judge to his decision making.  Award Ceremony is next...we are divided into age groups. The 18+ group, the tweeners 12-17, and the little peeps 2-11. My dad comes up with some seriously lame titled award for each of us. Kinda like if you made a dinosaur (which I did one year) you might end up with the "Dino-mite Diddy of an Egg!" award (which I did, thanks dad !).We all moan and groan with each award cause they only get worse the longer it goes on... they are printed out onto certificates so we have a little souvenir of the event and are "officially" signed by the Easter Bunny!You can find some cute FREE ones HEREBut then come the big ones...An Over-all Grand Champion! (one for the kiddies and one for the "BIG" kiddies)This just gives you bragging rights, but it is SO worth it. The funny thing is my sisters and brother are so talented, that this is seriously a HARD competition.One year my brother made a fish using a Dr. Scholl's gel foot pad! He even put it in a bowl. We've  made fairies, Mr. Potato Head, Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum, baskets with flowers, Dora, a horse with a rider, frogs, birds, and you should see what the little ones come up with. Oh how I wish I had access to pictures of them. They are amazing!  Give it a try. It's a super fun way to spend an evening with your family!Happy Crafting...