Happy Easter everyone! No matter how you celebrate it, we hope you'll get outside and enjoy bit of time having fun with your little one(s). There aren't too many things kids enjoy more than hunting for prizes (& making a mess) and here are our picks of creative and fun ways to do it this weekend. If the weather really doesn't play fair, then most of these can easily be adapted to an indoor setting (but hey we really hope you'll tog up and go out anyway!) 

	1. Easter Scavenger Hunt Hide clues around the house and/or garden that can be followed one by one, leading little ones ultimately to the location of their 'Easter basket'. We like hiding our clues on rolled up bits of paper inside blown eggs (or inside little plastic egg cases* that can be opened).  The creative among you will have fun making up riddles, but the less inclined might like to download these 20 free printable hunt riddles (what we do) from Simply Fun Families . Older kids will be able to follow written clues, but if your hunt is aimed at toddlers then an easier alternative is to take pictures of your hiding places and have those as clues.
	2. Egg Rolling For this traditional & highly entertaining activity, you'll need a couple of toddlers or kids, a grassy knoll/hill/slope, some colourful decorated hens eggs and some little prizes to put up for grabs.  This one is a great leveler if you have kids of different ages and the premise is simple - Each player lines up their egg atop the hill and then pushes it so it rolls it down. The egg that makes it the furthest  (and remains intact mind you) wins.  Lots of fun can be had decorating eggs before hand and whilst the jury is out on whether or not boiling is allowed, the purists won't approve - raw is more fun anyway.
	3. The Golden Egg  Paint one egg gold and hide it especially well, the finder of the golden egg wins an extra prize. This one is best for older kids or where all hunters are of similar age and stage and a little competition will be enjoyed.
	4. Colour Coded Eggs Unlike the golden egg, this one is handy if the hunters are not the same age, and ensures very little ones don't come out of the hunt empty basketed at the hands of an an older sibling who is the veteran of a few more hunts!
	5. The 'Damage Limitation' Egg Hunt Cadbury won't thank us for this but here is an idea to avoid or at least dilute the chocolate content of an egg hunt - perhaps reserving that for the final 'find'. Pre-fill colourful plastic egg cases* with little treats like plastic animals, dinosaurs, marbles, balloons, stickers, temporary tattoos etc then decorate and hide as usual. If anything we've found that these are easily as well received (if not more so).  Older kids may enjoy a twist whereby 'bunny money' is hidden in each egg, which can then be spent in the 'bunny market' on little trinkets.
	6. Easter Egg Discovery Box One especially for pre-walkers and younger babies.  Again for this you'll want a few of the plastic egg cases* – each filled with interesting objects that little ones can discover on opening the egg and put them into an empty egg box ready for those chubby cute little hands to discover

*These plastic egg cases are easily found in supermarkets and pound shops and can then be used again and again. One post-easter idea is to use these in a 'snack hunt' for little toddlers who will really love hunting for them and when presented this way even usually uninteresting snacks such as chopped cucumber, blueberries, Satsuma pieces, raisins etc, suddenly become very interesting. We trialled this on a couple of 2.5 yr olds this morning and they thought it was the best thing ever!