Easter

The egg, the symbol of new life.  At this time of year new life is springing up everywhere.  The daffodils are finally out, there are lambs in the fields, and at the Nurtons last weekend I saw the first of the duck eggs.

We have an annual Easter egg hunt here at Magic Cottage.  It is always so much fun and quite chaotic.  After all the children have arrived it is the job of one adult to sneak off, to the end of the track, and place the empty basket there for the children to find.  Once in place, another adult suggests that perhaps the Easter Bunny is in the area, and that the only way to know for sure is to take a walk through the woods to see if there is a basket anywhere.  All the children then go off in search of Bunny’s empty basket, a sign that the eggs have been delivered.

The empty basket, strategically placed at the end of a track, has to be picked up by the children before the eggs ‘appear’ – it’s Bunny magic of course!

The children are escorted by a few adults, whose pockets are full of shiny chocolate eggs, the children are told to keep their eyes peeled along the way to see if they can spot either the bunny or the eggs, but of course there aren’t any eggs, as they don’t appear until the basket is in their hands – this is how Bunny magic works!

The adults who are walking with them discreetly throw the shiny eggs behind them as they walk, whilst the children look ahead in anticipation!

It is amazing how quickly the children get to the end of the track and find that empty basket, and in that time the rest of the adults are running around the garden and woods of Magic Cottage hiding eggs in all kinds of nooks and crannies – it’s hilarious.

As we hear the children coming back we frantically throw the last few eggs on the ground and act normally, as if nothing has happened and try not to look too out of breath!

They arrive excitedly, with calls of –
‘The bunny’s been’,
‘We’ve found the basket’,
‘The eggs started to appear along the track as soon as we held the basket!’
Everywhere they look now they can see the shiny eggs and the further adventure begins.

How many are there?
How will they know when they’ve got them all?
What if there is just one more hiding?
They look a little harder, for a little longer and even the very last one is found.

All the eggs are put into the basket, they have to be returned before they can be shared.  The children love to count them and share them out.  Bunny Magic says that the more you share, the more you get, and so you can eat one or two along the way but the more you get into the basket, the more you will have, and the more you will take home with you at the end of the day.