Just like my mama, I find joy in celebrating the holidays with some extra special little markers. Even though our family didn’t make pretend with the different characters of celebrations (ie. Santa, the Easter Bunny), we would always wake up to things hidden around the house on Easter for us to find. Who cared whether a egg-toting bunny left it or not, chocolate is chocolate, man.

This Easter, as our tradition holds, we will be heading up to my husband’s family cabin on the Sunshine Coast – no power, no cell phone service, no internet, just straight up relaxing and interacting face-to-face with my little family.

Because of my draw to celebrate holidays, we have been carrying out our own silly attempts at Easter hunts before the little one came along, but now that she’s a walking, squawking, toddler who’s full of personality and bursting with delight, I want to be able to offer her her first Easter Egg hunting adventure. Now, I realize she’s a bit too young to be setting up an elaborate riddle-guessing, note following, hard-to-find hiding game, but I think she’s at the perfect age to place a few brightly coloured eggs around the environment and show and tell her what to do so she can understand that we’re trying to find these eggs. She already has a huge comprehension of what we say to her, which is very evident by the way she responds to what is said to her and within ear-shot of her, so I’m feeling pretty confident this could be successful if executed correctly.

Everybody has their own feelings about what is appropriate for their little ones and when, and we’re all “right” when it comes to what we decide for our own families. For me, my 1.5-year-old is not old enough to be munching down on chocolate and marshmallow peeps, so I had to think a little creatively about what kind of “treats” to hide for our Easter hunt.

I found this pack of 12 coloured, plastic and hollow eggs at Superstore for $1.

I plan on filling some (or all?) of them with different “toddler treats”, then placing them in different visible hiding spots around the main room of the cabin for our little munchkin to find (with some direction).

Here are some of the ideas I have for what I will be filling the eggs with:

Healthy Treats for a Toddler Easter Egg Hunt

• Blueberries
• Halved grapes
• Halved cherry tomatoes
• Cucumber chunks
• Cheese chunks
• Whole-wheat Goldfish crackers
• Annie’s Honey Bunny Grahams
• Happy Puffs or Toddler O’s
• Raisins
• Cashews

I’m really looking forward to this first Easter egg hunt with my little lady. I can just see her face bursting with excitement over finding a surprise egg – then finding the yummy treats hidden inside!

Does your family have a special Easter tradition? What kind of treats and treasures will the Easter bunny (or Easter Mommy) be hiding for your little ones?

Previously published at The Big To-Do List.

Hannah Spray is an Early Childhood Educator turned Mother, writing and raising her toddler on Salt Spring Island, BC. On her blog, The Big To-Do List, Hannah shares her thoughts and experiences of positive parenting and natural lifestyle, with a commitment to uplift and empower families. With a knack for ruining recipes and being skilled at the art of the rush clean before guests are expected, she fills her personal time playing guitar and ukulele, knitting, getting crafty, and thinking about the long list of things she’d like to see, do, and write about.

Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/TheBigToDoList
Blog: http://thebigtodolist.com