We had planned our San Diego vacation without really looking at the calendar, beyond Max's birthday, so we didn't realize that we would be gone for Easter.
We traditionally do an egg hunt with my sister's girls at our parents house, and we didn't want Max to miss out entirely on the Easter fun, so we had to get a little creative.
Not wanting to deal with the usual Easter basket filler (normally a book or game, some candy, and a toy or two), we only bought a few things that could also be easily transported snacks for the baseball game we were headed to later on Easter afternoon.
A package of Peeps, a bag of cotton candy, an Angry Birds plastic egg with candy… just a few token items to be Max's Easter “basket,” or pile, since I certainly wasn't going to try and smuggle an actual basket into my luggage.
I was at Target before our trip and found these, pre-filled candy Easter eggs! Perfect! I bought a bag of 12 eggs, and stashed them in my suitcase.
Late on that Saturday night, as Max slept in the bed next to ours in our hotel room, Jamie and I created a mini egg hunt in our hotel room. I even put a couple right next to him on his pillow.
Then, like our San Diego surprise, we put technology to use for us, and I received a text from “the Easter Bunny,” AKA Jamie. I changed his contact in my phone, so it showed up as EasterBunny, and he sent a text letting Max know that he hadn't forgotten about him, and to have fun at the Giants game. (Did you know the Easter Bunny is a Giants fan? He totally is.)
Eggs hidden, Easter treats arranged on the dresser, we went to sleep.
Early Easter morning, Max awoke us… “Hey guys! What if the Easter Bunny brought my basket and stuff here! Wouldn't that be great?”
I checked my phone and “found” the message from the Bunny himself, and after reading it, Max spent the next few minutes gleefully finding the eggs stashed around the room. (He wanted to send a return text and then discovered emojis… as shown above)
It was an easy thing to do, didn't take much, but it helped preserve this Easter tradition, even though we were away from home.
Thank you for the great ideas!