Easter Sunday April 21, 2019

Today was Easter Sunday 2019.  Ever since I was a small child, we had egg hunts.  My dad was really into being the Easter Bunny.  We would color eggs the night before and then in the morning we would search for our basket and the colored hard boiled eggs.  He was very clever in choosing the hiding places and sometimes they took a long time to find.  When my sister and I had families of our own, the tradition continued.  I have to admit, I wasn't a very good Easter bunny but my dad continued the tradition for his grandchildren for many years.  My daughters then picked it up for their families.  Now our grandchildren are ages 9 to 18.  My daughter hosted brunch and all I had to do was show up.  I was pretty sure the egg hunt tradition was over forever.  Then last week our daughter called and asked if we could help with a big kid egg hunt.  We were to buy 5 four packs of Sprecher soda and buy 5 gift cards.

The weather was perfect.  Sometimes Easter Sunday is cold and snowy.  This year it was sunny and the temperature was near 80 degrees.  This made the egg hunt plan a lot easier because most of it could be outside.

The first thing we did was eat an awesome brunch.  It seemed strange to just show up pretty much empty handed, but I loved it.  I know when we are gone, the family tradition will continue.  We were missing my son in law's family this year as they had other plans.  As families increase, it gets harder to have everyone together.

Our daughter even made an awesome Pinterest cake which really did look as good as the original.  Usually when we try to copy a cute idea, it bombs.  This was great and tasted good too.

Then the instructions came.  At first the older kids just went along with the whole idea to be pleasant, but soon they got into it just as much as the younger kids.  Each kid had a color assigned to them.  The first egg was hidden inside the house.  They had to find their color egg.  Inside the egg was a QR code.  They needed to use their smartphone with a QR reader installed.  Our oldest quickly downloaded her own reader and she was off and running.  I had a reader on my phone so the others who needed it had to come to me.

When you scan this QR, this is what it said.  All the QR's were different. 

This one was Jack's so off he went to the fire pit.  My son in law made this fantastic fire pit that looks like a fire breathing dragon.

Things were moving so fast, I'm not sure where they all went running off to.  Melissa ran out the front door to the mailbox and the rest of them scattered.  With the first clue they found another egg with a second clue.  The second clue took them to an empty soda pop carton.  From there they had to check the yard and fill their carton with Sprecher sodas.

Jack has his carton

 

Ewan found his empty carton. 

 

Sam found his carton under a rock. 

 

Dylan leaving no rock unturned.

 

They looked everywhere and eventually every egg and pop bottle was accounted for.

 

Melissa, the least competitive of the group, was the first to finish. 

 

The youngest and the oldest grandchild sampling what they found. 

 

Grandpa with all five grandchildren.

It was a great day.  I thought our days of happy egg hunts were over, but I was wrong.  This will be a day to remember.

Thank you Heather