Hunt with the Lions

                             It started last autumn when Pete agreed to take on the Annual Mercer Lions Club Easter Egg Hunt. The event has been going on at least twenty years and it is a great holiday activity for the children in the area.
A few months ago Pete was given bags and bags of plastic eggs to fill with candy, quarters and prize tickets. Thankfully, the dogs were there to help him.  All was going well; a few hundred eggs each day were filled.

Gracie stages her own hunt.

Then, when we were gone one morning, Gracie got into the eggs. Pete came home to find opened eggs strewn all over the house - it seems like she was trying to organize an egg hunt for herself.

Gracie takes out the Easter Bunny.
Easter 2010

She got rid of the Easter Bunny last year, so she took it upon herself to take on his role.











Eventually, all the eggs were back in order and the week before Easter arrived.  The dogs had another opportunity to help out when I started baking cookies for the event.

In the kitchen, waiting
for instructions.

Asher watched my
technique carefully.

Maddie Jo with a face
of flour.

The dogs had a fine time watching, but they wanted to be a little more involved in the taste testing.  Pete obliged them by letting them taste the frosting.

The finished product

On Saturday morning we loaded up the truck and headed over to the school, where the Hunt was being held.

The Bunny Truck

Pete in front of
Mercer Public School

Preparing the buckets
and baskets.

Preparing the bunnies
and cookies.

The Lions have this down to a science. Everyone helps to set up the refreshments - juice, hot chocolate and cookies, the billions of bunnies donated by the Minisans and hide the eggs.

Hiding eggs in
plain sight?

Now they're getting
trickier!

All this time I wondered why the Lions didn't have the Hunt out-of-doors. Last night's snow fall and the stories of kids hunting in snow suits in the early days answered my question.  Having the event inside was great and allowed us to segregate the age groups and assign each their own hunting grounds.

Here come the kids!

A bookish Easter Bunny

At 10:00 children and parents lined the school corridor waiting for the Easter Egg Hunt to begin. There were about a hundred kids ranging from just a few months to 10 in age. The older kids were polite and waited their turn while the little ones (ages 0-3) were escorted by an Easter Lion to the library - their hunting ground. The 4-7 year olds were allowed to search the corridors and the older kids had the wide open space of the lunchroom to claim as their territory  

More eggs than a
basket would hold.

Still looking for more.

The children found all the eggs within 10 minutes or so and then began admiring the loot and eating cookies.  Every child left with a stuffed bunny.

Counting the booty.

Choosing a bunny.

The end of a successful hunt.

Clean up went quickly with so many Lions to help.

Then is was time for the adult post Easter Hunt. The hunt for a sandwich and a good beverage.

Hunting grounds found!

Part of the Bunny Crew.

Thanks Mercer Lions Club!