Making Easter Memories

Easter, which falls on March 23 this year, is a wonderful day that offers many opportunities to make special memories.

Every Easter Sunday after church, you’ll find a group of 15 to 20 family members and friends gathered at Kathryn and David Waldrep’s home in Dallas, Texas, for Easter brunch and an egg hunt in the back yard.

The beloved tradition began when the Waldreps’ three children were young. Kathryn fashioned an adult-size Easter bunny costume, ears and all. While she and friends set out the food, another adult dons the costume and hides the eggs all over the yard, while the kids pretend not to peek. And these aren’t just young kids, mind you. Kathryn always has plenty of extra Easter baskets decorated for the teenagers and young adults, too. Hidden among the marshmallow rabbits and chocolate delicacies are plastic eggs containing prizes such as coupons for free sundaes at a local ice cream shop and gift cards to a local Christian bookstore.

Easter, which falls on March 23 this year, is a wonderful day that offers many opportunities to make special memories. Here are some fun Easter ideas you can adopt as your own family-friendly springtime traditions.

Hidden treasure
Keep young children busy while you’re making preparations for Easter Sunday by sending them on a treasure hunt inside your home. Use a marker to number eight plastic eggs, 1 through 8.

Give your child a basket and a written clue for the location of egg No. 1. The clue might read, “Where does Dad like to sit when he reads the paper?” The first egg would be under Dad’s favorite chair. The egg under the chair contains the clue that leads to the second egg, and so on. An older sibling can read the clues for a preschooler. Have a small prize as a reward when all eggs are found.

Be an Easter bunny
Early Easter morning, deliver treats in an Easter basket to a neighbor’s doorstep. Include goodies such as chocolate eggs, breakfast cinnamon rolls or hot cross buns. Keep the recipients guessing about the identity of the neighborhood “Easter Bunny.”

Surprising eggs
Fill plastic eggs with small toys, candies or little pieces of paper with messages like “Do your best rabbit imitation” or “You win the giant marshmallow bunny.” Put the eggs into a big basket and have everyone choose one. This can produce a lot of laughter and silliness.

Egg roll
Host an egg roll like the one on the White House lawn. Give each person a dyed hard-boiled egg and a wooden mixing spoon. Participants place their eggs on the starting line, and when someone shouts “go,” they use their spoons to push the eggs toward the finish line. The eggs must not be hit or batted. Anyone whose egg breaks is disqualified. The first egg roller to arrive at the finish line with an intact egg wins.

Cracked up
Before preparing dishes with hard-boiled eggs, invite a friend or family member to help you. Each of you holds a hard-boiled egg and taps it against your opponent’s egg. If his egg cracks or breaks, you win it; if your egg cracks, he takes it. The person with the most eggs wins—and the loser makes the egg salad.

Bunny cake
Enlist children to help you create a bunny-shaped cake. Bake two cake rounds of any flavor. After the rounds cool, place one on a large board or cookie sheet. Cut rabbit ear shapes from opposite sides of the other round, and use the remaining cake in the middle to form a bow tie. Place the ears on either side of the top of the intact round, and the bow tie across the bottom of the rabbit’s head. Frost with whipped topping and decorate with jellybeans, coconut shreds, licorice strings, sprinkles and other candies.

Kathy Peel, a Dallas-based writer, offers family management advice at www.familymanager.com.

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