If you are one of those parents who look for any reason to throw a party (I'm not), you are most likely counting down to Easter. So you are going to let your child have a party. What do you do for it? Classic theme Easter egg hunt. With a bit of a twist.

Send out the invites for the children to be dropped off at around 2:00pm. Add on to the invites that parents are to be there for 3:30pm for the great Easter egg hunt.

This party will take a bit of prep time, but you can breathe a sigh of relief because everything you will need for it can be picked up at your local dollar store and/or supermarket. The day before the party, you will need to get the following:

• Cake Mix
• Cupcake Papers
• Icing Sugar or Pre-Made White Icing
• Food Colouring
• Eggs
• Cookie Mix (or the ingredients for a good Sugar Cookie recipe)
• Paper Bags
• Craft Odds and Ends (eg. bits of ribbon, tissue paper, beads, buttons, etc.)
• Glue
• Paint and/or Crayons and/or Pencil Crayons and/or Markers
• Easter Treats (eg. chocolate eggs, bunnies, marshmallow chicks)

Get all of these in an amount that coordinates with how many children will be there.

Bake the cupcakes and cookies. The icing can be made and coloured the morning of the party. The eggs can be hard-boiled the day before. Also, the paper bags can have a hole cut at the top of each side to use as handles.

On the day of the party, the kids will get to decorate the cookies and cupcakes. These will be for them.

Next, they will decorate the eggs. Do this before the bags so that they have enough time to dry. Food colouring and water works very well for a base colour, with pencil crayons or markers used to make pictures or designs.

Finally, the bags will be decorated. Each child should decorate one bag for their parent(s). Then have the kids hide the eggs and treats. NOTE: Watch carefully where everything is hidden. You don't want rotten eggs to be found by the smell two weeks later.

When the parents show up, they are the ones who look for the eggs and treats while the kids give hints. They can have their decorated bag to carry their loot in and then bring it home to share with the family.

This makes for a bit of fun and has activities to keep the children busy the entire time they are there!!

Happy Hunting!!

-Submitted by Amanda Pepin