Adult Easter Egg Hunt: The Only Way To Do It

How my Mom changed Easter

It must have been late high school when everything went array and my Mom started to get a little lively with the Easter festivities.

Mom was a teacher so she has that natural teacher sparkle about her.

She has this way of making something simple (like a hunt for Easter eggs) into something you end up writing a blog post about.

Exhibit A: A collection of eggs with numbers written on the bottom.

She numbers each egg chronologically, starting at 1 and ending with whatever was the total amount of eggs dyed that year (usually around 36, sometimes 48, and yes, it’s a lot of egg salad to work through in the days after).

The numbered eggs get hidden randomly.

We’ll get to those numbers and what they mean in a second.

My dad (simple guy, huh) hides the eggs, usually inside the house. The last few years he’s let the grandchildren help and that adds a level of chaos that is *chef’s kiss.* Kids hide eggs really well.

We are typically an inside the house egg family (pipe down you outside hunters: I’m in Seattle. Ask me how many sunny Easters I remember from my youth…).

Quick side not: Egg hunting is a varsity sport to me. I am the Monica Geller of egg hunting. It’s always been a full-contact event between my sister and me – and to be honest, it’s because she’s really bad at finding eggs and #jealous of my skills.

Over the years, many more adults have joined our Easter egg hunt, like my husband’s family, my best friend’s family, etc.

I’m still elbows out.

Egg Hunt Rule: You can only find a set number of eggs

There is ONE rule for our adult Easter egg hunt: you can only find a per-determined amount of eggs.

Based on the number of eggs dyed divided by the amount of people playing (plus the wind speed on a Tuesday) and my mom tells us the number of eggs we are allowed to find.

It’s usually 10-12. Once you find 12 you have to stop hunting.

What the numbers means

I know you’ve been wondering. What do the numbers mean on the bottom of the eggs?

Let’s find out.

Once you collect your set number of eggs, line them up in sequential order.

Get familiar with the random numbers on the bottom of the eggs because things are about to get REAL interesting with these eggs.

Pictured above are some of my eggs in order from Easter 2019.

At this point, I have no way of knowing what eggs have what number OR what each number means. You take what you find during the Easter egg hunt and hope…

You hope you don’t end up owing my mom money at the end of Easter.

Yup. You read that line right. Easter typically ends with someone paying my Mom for playing.

The eggs each equal a dollar amount

This is about to get interesting.

After the eggs have been found, after the eggs have been lined up, after you’ve gotten familiar with what numbers you have: my Mom pulls out “The List.”

This is the pinnacle of Easter. The unveiling of the list. She does it with such flair and pride each year. It’s a bit like that moment when the Grinch get’s a wonderful, awful idea.

That’s the same kind of smile she gets.

“The List” has every egg number and each egg number corresponds to a money amount.

Add 50 cents.

Minus 10 cents.

Double everything.

Lose half.

All you have is a prayer and a lucky Easter Bunny foot that you found all the doubles and none of the halfers and definitely a lot more pluses than minuses.

Is this starting to get clearer to you? I hope so. Let’s keep going.

In the random set of 12 eggs in front of you, a few bad eggs means you’re going to pay at the end of Easter. In fact, someone almost always ends up “losing” and having to pay my Mom money to play her Easter game.

We now all show up to Easter with cash or check, just in case. When I was 20, I paid her $1.12 in pennies to participate in an Easter egg hunt.

My sister had a five year stretch of paying for Easter. She started bringing cash along with a casserole.

Start calling out the numbers, and saying prayers

Mom begins with Egg 1 and starts calling out what her pre-made list says.

She says the egg number. The person with the egg identifies themselves. She tells you what The List says. “Oooh plus $1” “Oh I’m sorry, minus .40 cents.” “Uh oh, you need to give half your total to the person you’re married to.”

Each player has to keep track of their own winnings and losings – it’s an application of math that I’m pretty sure qualifies this as a hands-on activity. Thank goodness iPhones have calculators.

Whichever two people find the same egg are now in a head-to-head competition-activity for something like $5 or a Starbucks card or absolutely no prize and it’s just mandatory. I’m not kidding.

These games/activities are where Mom really shines.

Example: 2011 The Pig Egg.

When my sister and my husband each cracked their pig eggs open, they found a note inside with one line: “How does the little piggy eat?” If you know the movie The Christmas Story, you can guess what we had to do.