Easter Egg Hunt--AZ style!

The boys got to stay overnight in Duncan for Easter Eve and so just Eddy, Zaynzley and I went to Stake Conference for church. I wanted to get a picture of Zany in her dress and she kept insisting I take a picture of her back. I finally cooperated with her so she cooperated with me. 

Zany's back.

Zany finally turns around for a photo.

Eddy and Zany

After our stake conference, we changed and loaded up and went to the Germaine Homestead where we did the Easter baskets. Since I always had a chocolate easter bunny when I was a kid I feel like I have to have one for all of my kids.

McCoy to chocolate bunny: I am going to demolish you!

We have always gone to the Germaine's for Easter.  Our tradition is to dye eggs and then hide them on their large property.

The light was terrible for a photo but everyone colors on and dyes the eggs.

Pre-Hunt Group Shot

We hide them all over the desert so it takes quite a while to find them all.

Nona usually provides a few eggs with a $5 bill in it and they are hidden with the other regular eggs. Last year one of the five dollar eggs was never found. Ashlee went to hide an egg this year and in the hiding place she was going to use she found the five dollar egg from last year. She left it for the lucky finder. See Quinton  in the top of the photo that's him finding the $5 egg. Nona gave them a clue to it's location and Quinton raced off ignoring the other eggs. He was pretty happy to get a money egg (he actually got two $10 bucks baby!). 

Archy finds a egg by himself.

Declan counts his eggs to see if he reached the limit. We divide the number of eggs by hunters so each hunter got five real eggs and twelve plastic eggs.

Eddy tells Archy: No really Archy, I just want to look in your basket. Bwah ha ha ha!

Quinton was sporting the basket either Ashlee or I used  as kids; we both think this basket was ours. It has these little Avon basket ornaments that we fought over as kids.

Zany finds a egg in the Irises 

I believe in the Easter Bunny with the baskets of candy and small gifts, egg dying and hunt as a fun element of Easter but I also want to include the more important spiritual aspect of the Savior, Jesus Christ. I like to do a program for Christmas and I decided to do one for Easter since we really hadn't had much in the way of spiritual FHE's leading up to Easter. I found a pinterest Easter activity that suited my needs. Using twelve plastic eggs you place things in them (for example a small stone, thorn and red fabric) that refer to the last week of Jesus's life and then read small paragraphs about them as you open them. It was really neat and got the kids involved since they couldn't open their egg until it was their egg number.

Gathered for the Easter Program

I also had the kids earn their Reese's Peanut Butter Eggs this year. In our clan, the Reese's Peanut Butter Egg is the most desired Easter treat we don't even do Cadbury Eggs. I made special eggs that had various tasks they had to perform relative to their age. Zany held pictures of Jesus as we talked about him. Archer sang "Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam," McCoy read some scriptures, Declan read an Easter poem, Quinton read a story and gave his testimony. Frankly, I just cut things out of the April Friend Magazine and put them in Easter eggs with instructions. They were all happy to have parts in the program; it was really casual.

Declan reads his Easter poem.

We had a lovely time spending the day together. Ashlee will keep her eye out to see how many eggs we missed finding as she goes about the homestead. Don't worry all the money eggs were found this year.