Happy Monday! Did you watch the Oscars last night? We brought back our Pajama Glama Oscar party, but mostly just celebrated through red carpet arrivals and the first few speeches before the kids were off to bed, so I missed a lot. My favorite dress of the evening was Emily Blunt’s romantic dress, and while I didn’t see it live last night, I watched the “This is Me” song performance from Keala Settle this morning, and it was amazing.
Now that we have those important things behind us, we are diving into Monday with a little more motivation this week, knowing Friday marks the beginning of a nice long (and much needed) spring break for us. I’ve been working on a vacation (or staycation in our case) guide to Southwest Florida for about two years now and will get it up later this week. In the meantime, I have a fun candy alternative for the Easter eggs today. I have nothing against some good ol’ holiday candy, but we get so much of it–Peeps and chocolate eggs in the baskets–that the candy in the eggs was getting old–not eaten, thrown on the floor and basically a huge waste. Also, can we talk about how expensive candy is these days? Not to sound like a total grandma here, but back in my day, you could get bag of M&M’s for a dollar.
There are a number of candy alternatives for eggs–coins, erasers, scavenger hunt clues–but this year, I thought it would be fun to fill them with puzzle pieces they have to bring back to complete a puzzle together that will lead them to the hiding spots for each of their baskets.
You can have anything printed into a puzzle pretty inexpensively at places like Walmart or Collage.com. Most 8 x 10 puzzles are 100-110 pieces which is doable for kids, but you can get them printed into less–but bigger–individual pieces for smaller kids. You can also pick up any puzzle at the dollar store and paint over it with acrylic paint (prime it with white first) to write your message on it. To create a recognizable pattern that would make putting it together easier, I included rainbow stripes on ours, along with the hiding places for each basket.
I’m using larger eggs to make sure the puzzle pieces fit inside. Target sells a slightly larger Spritz brand egg that holds our pieces as well as jumbo eggs that can fit several pieces in one egg.
The puzzle adds a little more Easter morning fun and heightens the basket hunt anticipation.
If you didn’t catch it last week, I shared a list of 37 Easter Basket Goodies along with a few new children’s books to include this year.
And if puzzle pieces don’t work, I know I can also just scoop Nutella into all our eggs, pass spoons out to the kids and let them loose on the hunt for the best Easter ever.
Anyone else fill their eggs with something besides candy?
Happy Monday!
I love your puzzle idea! And don’t feel old because I remember when “king sized” candy was actually king-sized and for $1 too. (Around the same time gas was under $1). Thanks for all your fun ideas. Have a happy day, friend.
I stick change in there. Pennies, nickels, dimes. It’s money! So the kids love it and I just grab it from my change jar, no preplanning necessarily.
What a awesome idea! Our kids range from 7-16 so I love that this gives them a way to work together!
Quick question – how did you create your puzzle? I created one in PicMonkey but every time I try to order a puzzle, it gives me an error message that it might come out blurry. :/
I made mine in a Microsoft photo editing software, but you should be able to create one in any editing software that allows you to insert shapes/colors/text. Just make sure you save it high quality if the puzzle is going to be 8×10 or larger.
Love your Easter baskets!!! Where are they from???? I’ve been using the same baskets for my girls for 11 years!!! Each basket has their names on them so I feel like it’s tradition and yet I think I’m ready for a change.? Also a little jealous you already have their bakers filled and ready to go!!!!!! I’m jealous!!!!!
We’ve put pieces of papers with numbers on them (starting with one to ??)
and then once all the eggs are found the goodie box is pulled out. Starting with #1 that person gets to pick from the box and we go through the numbers. Most times the prizes are things from the dollar store or target which include bubbles, kites, styrofoam airplanes, stickers etc.
Can’t wait for your guide! We head to the Ft. Myers area next week. We’re leaving MN behind for a long weekend! It will be my son’s first time to the ocean and on a plane!
Stick a $20 bill in the “golden” egg and all of a sudden the teenagers are pretty engaged in the hunt as well haha…..
Legos. My kids are crazy for legos. I go to the used lego store, fill up a big bag, and load up the eggs.
Love the puzzle idea! I bought some small squishies on Amazon and plan to put them in eggs.
This is the neatest idea! Love a treasure hunt AND puzzles. Will have to do this <3 Xoxo, K&E
I often put non-edibles in the eggs. Tattoos, stickers, hair accessories, etc, and then a few bigger ‘gifts’ in their baskets (a beanie boo, a book, etc). They also get some candy, because I am a little stingy with sweets throughout the year so don’t mind some extras at holidays.
I’d love to see what Lainey is reading these days. I too am a children’s book lover and have to sneak in the hardcover/non-chapter reads for our 6th and 3rd graders. Typically reference a ton of sites to see what’s popular by Lexile level or guided reading level and during my volunteering within the school library I try to sneak in peeks of what seems to be of interested for the kids. Just curious on her likes as I know you too are a children’s book lover. Has it been more tough with chapter books are they’re growing. I used to be able to pre-read all of our 6th graders books, but she’s too fast now (& I fall asleep too easily). One of her latest, which I was surprised she continued reading was ‘The Hate you Give’… I saw it on the Today show a younger girl telling her Dad he should read it, and immediately checked it out at the library. Some of their reads at that level are pretty tough topics to handle, but I feel it adds to her having empathy. Maybe that her world is truly not how others are experiencing things. Just curious, that’s all!
We have a Sunshine State Reading list for the state of Floroda with 15 suggested books on it for her grade level, and our school does a huge incentive program for kids who read them all. While I love the program, -‘d we’ve been exposed to some great books on it, it does keep her from reading other great titles because she doesn’t want to “waste” her reading on books until she’s read all 15 on the list so she can get the incentive. That said, if you Googke the sunshine state reader list for 2017-18, that’s pretty much what she’s been reading, and there are several she’s loved.
Sorry for all the typos. ????
We like to fill eggs with legos! All of our kiddos love them.
This is a fabulous idea!! I just ordered my puzzle:) What a great alternative to candy!