You’re cooped up.
We all are.
But Easter is coming!!!!
The traditional Easter Egg hunt with the whole neighborhood is out the window. Not even the annual egg roll on the White House South Lawn will be occurring this year. (Also what the flip is an egg rolling competition…. Does anyone really do this with their family? Because I would love to learn more!)
This is Cassidy here writing today. I wanted to spice up the adventurous spirit during Easter this year. I had imagined a whole big group of friends. Big golden eggs hidden precariously with various traps and mazes to get to them. No footing is sure as you trapeze through the journey. Maps and trails to find the way to the ultimate treasure just around the river bend, and once you crack open the egg at the end of the adventure you find the ultimate treasure of…. of a few quarters mixed with jelly beans… (Okay we just finished watching Disney’s Onward and maybe I’m a tad bit in the questing mood.)
Anyways, my plans were foiled as our good friend Quarantine (we’re pretty close now… haha punny) decided to make a visit instead. So, I decided I wanted to make use of our dark basement apartment. Instead of the typical Easter Egg Hunt, I planned a different adventure instead. A Glow in the Dark Easter Egg Hunt.
I saw the idea on Pinterest first, as shown in the photo below.
Now, Merek didn’t even know about this adventure I had planned. The Easter Eggs had been purchased, the candy was to be stuffed, and the eggs were to be hidden throughout the day all over our living quarters. The plan (if executed to the correct degree) was to sneakily have hidden all the eggs throughout the day, and when the lights go off at night… voilà! The world would become aglow with glowing eggs filled with Merek’s favorites. Starburst Jelly Beans, Cadbury Mini Eggs, and Reese’s Eggs. And as homage to my childhood, maybe the “big winner” eggs would even have some quarters in them.
Supplies Needed for a glow in the dark egg hunt:
- Plastic Eggs – $7
- Basket of some sort (we are still a poor young couple, so a large salad bowl worked well for us)
- Various candies and possibly even larger prizes (again, young poor couple here)
- Glow Sticks
Now, glow sticks don’t last for too long. In fact, a quick Google search educated me on the typical life expectancy of about 12 hours. So—being stuck in quarantine, it’s a game in of itself to set up for this task. You have to break the glow sticks, fill the eggs, hide the eggs (from all around your house), and make sure the lights go off and the search commences…. All within the 12 hour time frame.
Here’s what my day planned day looked like below:
7:00AM – Get out of bed, get ready, got some good breakfast in to power me through the day.
8:00AM – Begin working from home
9:00AM – Water Break = Checking on Merek to see if he is fully immersed in schoolwork. He was, so during my water Break, I made sure materials were ready for quick prep (all unnecessary packaging removed and recycled, in the outdoor bins because #1 I didn’t want him to see, and #2 I needed to see the light of day. It was cloudy.)
12:00PM – Announce Lunch Break to Merek. I really wanted him to eat with me, because then I knew he wouldn’t be in the kitchen later.
2:00PM – Another Water Break = Start cracking glow sticks and stuffing eggs. Started with 10 at a time. Quickly stuffed (took about 10 minutes), and started hiding eggs (took about 5 minutes). This long water break was too suspiciously long. Need to change strategy.
3:00PM – Water Break #2 – 7 eggs this time.
3:45PM – Water Break #3 – 7 eggs again.
4:30PM – Needed Merek to get out of the room he was studying in, to hide some in there. Asked him to come water break with me.
5:30PM – Merek needs a bathroom break, I hide eggs while gone. Mwahahaha.
6:00PM – Time to make dinner. Strategically, this was his night to make dinner. Finish stuffing and hiding the remaining eggs while “working late” on an “important project” and a “long phone call” which means he can’t come in the room.
8:00PM – Dinner is done, and lights go off for a movie. It was a movie he didn’t want to watch, so he’s looking for an escape. I hid the Nintendo Switch in our dark room… THE QUEST BEGINS.
Wasn’t it a miraculous plan???? Well, guess what happened instead:
8:55AM – Roll out of bed and work for the day
5:00PM – Finished work stuff, and finally had a chance to start stuffing eggs. Merek walks in around 5:20PM and instantly is suspicious…HA.
Here’s a few things I learned along the way:
- REGULAR GLOW STICKS ARE TOO BIG FOR REGULAR SIZED EASTER EGGS. You have to wind up the stick multiple times, and to try and fit that in with candy… it was hard enough that I stopped after about 5 glowing eggs.
- They also didn’t glow quite as cool as portrayed in the photo from the Pinterest pin shown at the top…
- That being said, it was fun to walk into a dark room and see the glowing eggs (all 5 of them). Maybe just buy oversized eggs if you are going to do this!
- It’s a bit tricky to hide things around a person you are with 24/7 in a basement apartment.
- Things never go according to plan! (Noted from my schedule above!)
Ultimately, it was a fun idea, just wasn’t probably executed as well as it could have been. 🙂 If any of you test out this hunt, let us know if you found a better way to stuff the glow sticks!
We hope that you all have a wonderful Easter holiday, and do something adventurous and exciting this weekend!
Backyard Buffs 