Toadly Good: Glow-in-the-Dark Easter

A Toadly Eggcellent Time

Working at Michaels Arts and Crafts can be very dangerous, but oh so fun! For example, Spring and Easter are a thing of the past and Summer is here! Wait...no, that's not right. Easter is this weekend, Spring has just begun. But if you want some cute decor or some pretty spring flowers you better hurry because there isn't much left. At Michaels, we are always one holiday or season ahead of the calendar. I get all excited that Easter, Halloween, Summer, Christmas or Spring is finally here, but really it isn't. I still have to wait for months to be able to actually decorate and celebrate. But it gives me lots of time to plan and scheme. Weeks for a creative seed to be planted and then grow into something nearly uncontrollable. Plus I'm an extreme procrastinator, so I start out knowing that I still have loads of time to plan and purchase. Suddenly the time to decorate and party is now and it is too late! Everything is gone...all the good stuff anyway! Thus is my Holiday life most of the time...okay fine. Thus is my entire life most of the time. *sigh* Someday I will break my habits of procrastination...

I was getting ready to write up a post, to mildly flaunt my little weekend get away to sunny, warm St. George. Then I realized that Easter is in just a few days and I haven't done anything to celebrate its wonderfulness! I couldn't let that happen so here I am posting about something old and already done. But so worth doing again...next year.

A few years ago I did an Easter Egg Hunt with my roommates and neighbors. Now doing an egg hunt for a bunch of college students needs to be a bit unique so it is fun... something a little more age appropriate. Eggs, candy, prizes...in the Dark! I give you a Glow-in-the-Dark Easter Egg Hunt!

I started out with Krylon Glow-in-the-Dark Spray Paint and plain, plastic Easter Eggs. (I'm sure you can find them at a Dollar Store, but I got mine at Michaels...I'll be honest, I get almost everything at Michaels.) I just spread them out on the grass and painted a layer. Let it dry, then sprayed another layer. Probably three or four times. I wanted these babies to glow! When everything was dry I stuffed the eggs full of candy. Some eggs got special treatment and were stuffed with numbered pieces of paper. The numbers corresponded with a prize. These prizes were clearance treasures and the 2/$3 section at Michaels. The Dollar Store probably would have been smarter. But what can I say? I'm hooked...

My original plan was to do this at the park, but who knew who would walk by and pick up an egg. So I ended up doing the hunt in our apartment. I kicked everyone out and went to work. First I covered any source of light; windows, the oven and microwave clocks, everything. When I was finished the only thing you could see was black. That is until I put the eggs out. It looked so cool. I wish I would have gotten a picture, but really that wouldn't have done anything. So just imagine it. Black with specks of color. SO COOL! I hid most of them in plain sight, others they had to look a bit.

When everything was in place I let everyone in. It was a mad house and a little bit dangerous! Everyone was rushing to get the most eggs and they ended up running into each other because it was so dark. The hunt was over in minutes. But the party lasted lots longer as everyone opened their eggs to see what candy they got. They were surprised to get paper and excited to learn it meant toys! Like I mentioned in a previous post...good sports!

I wish there were better pictures to show the prizes and stuff, but I didn't have a blog or anything back then, so it's mostly just the people and all the fun. The prizes were completely random and to be honest, not at all age appropriate. But don't we all just want to be kids some times?