Children ‘egg-cited’ about a good old-fashioned egg hunt

Story and photos by Sharon Harrison
The smiles were big, the sun was shining, the eggs aplenty, and the air felt giddy with excitement as a plan was hatched for the many families who came out for the egg-streme sport of egg hunting.

There was a lot of scrambling happening this Easter Sunday (postponed from Saturday due to the forecasted rain and thunder), maybe a little eggs-ray vision required too, at the Picton Firefighters’ Association annual Easter egg hunt for those who decided to hop on over to get some fun and excitement.

It mattered not whether folks shell-ebrate Easter, because a hare-larious time was had by all in the community. And that’s no yolk because there were no rotten eggs to be found anywhere (none broken or cracked either, that were spotted), only good eggs.

The great hoppening took place at the Crystal Palace at Picton’s Fairgounds as it does eggs-actly every year just in time for the Easter celebration with two separate Easter egg hunts.

Within the safety of the fenced area of the playground, the littlest children, up to five years of age, got to search first, with a little help from eggs-perienced grown-ups. The second event followed shortly after on the nearby grassed area beside the palace for those children 6-11 years old who eagerly demonstrated their eggs-pertize.

While the air was a little cool early Sunday morning, it was a much brighter day for egg hunting than Saturday where many of those flocking to the fairgrounds also took advantage of casting a vote in the advance polls at the community centre beforehand for the upcoming federal election (where there were indeed line-ups).

They hopped ‘til they dropped as children gathered and clutched chocolate eggs in high-speed fashion, where the legs of young participants were in egg-celeration mode, until there were no more shiny foiled-wrapped eggs to be found in the egg-clusive spring egg-stravaganza.

And when it was all said and done, the children taking part marvelled at their egg-squisite chocolately haul, delighted for the tasty results, where all the participating children were declared eggs-perts in the art of Easter egg hunting.

The bring-your-own-basket involved more than baskets where the creativity extended to a variety of colourful egg-collecting vessels, such as upturned millinery (hats), an assortment of plastic buckets and pails, as well as baskets, some tin, some fabric, others made of soft plush. Even the flap of a jacket or a sweater worked in a pinch, or cupped hands worked for a few, for those who didn’t remember to bring a basket (there are always a few).

Local families came out in droves bringing grandkids and children, nieces and nephews and cousins, as well as grandmas and poppas, friends and neighbours too. And the local firefighters made it ‘egg-stra’ special bringing along a big fire truck for the kids to climb in, along with Sparky the fire dog, and an ‘egg-stra’ Sparky (a young pup in training perhaps) who were happy to pose for photos, or offer a hug.

As the children raced around getting lots of ‘eggs-ercise’, some feeling momentarily ‘egg-spired’ by the sudden rush of energy, where at the end, no one came away with egg on their face. And no child was ‘egg-nored’ as there were basketfuls of eggs for everyone to poach, and all appeared to have a cracking good time on this totally ‘egg-ceptional’ morning of fun.

Making the day egg-stra hoppy, the eggs-aggerated shell-ebration came with egg-stravagent prizes too for a few lucky winners who were clearly very egg-cited and hoppingly egg-static for the win (in addition to the acquired stash of chocolate, not insignificant in some cases) on this most eggs-cellent and sweet holiday weekend.

Donated by local businesses, the prizes came in the form of two bicycles and a pull-along wagon for three lucky prize winners – drawn at random just after the egg hunts were completed.

Delightfully egg-splosive in their response, the prize recipients were egg-stremely pleased for the brief, but egg-hausting hunt for all things shiny and chocolate and edible, as every bunny appeared to have a good time in this favourite egg-stra special annual tradition, deemed the hoppiest Easter ever.

Easter egg hunts were held in communities across the County over the weekend, including Northport, Wellington and Milford.