Your hunt is over for ways to use plastic eggs

Published 1:30 am Sunday, April 9, 2017

Plastic eggs are no yolk.

There are many more uses for these ovals of delight than as a mere jelly bean container.

Put messages, clues or cash inside for a hunt that’s a hit. Get crafty and make something flashy. Or something boozy. You can use the shells to make Jell-O shots … which might be egg-xactly what you need after a day with your Peeps.

These do-it-yourself ideas are from our Easter egg hunt on the Internet.

Hunts

Mystery: Put clues inside the eggs that lead to a bigger Easter treasure.

Puzzle: Put jigsaw puzzle pieces inside. After collecting, try to put the puzzle together. If there’s a piece missing, the hunt must go on.

Color coding: Does one kid always wind up with more eggs than the other? Make it fair by letting each only pick up their assigned color.

Glow: After sunset, have a glow-in-the-dark hunt. Place a bendable glow bracelet or fake tealight candle inside each egg. All ages will have fun playing in the dark.

Fillers

Candy is dandy, but you can also put in fortunes, riddles, money, Legos, toys, jewelry, character erasers, silly bands and heartfelt messages.

Crafts

Many eggs come with tiny holes that make it easy to string the shells together for garlands and ornaments. All you need is your imagination and maybe a hot glue gun.

Cut a round frame from cardboard to festoon with eggs and Easter grass for a festive wreath.

Coil the eggs into the form of a whimsical snake. Add googly eyes and a felt tongue.

Glue eggs to make little pigs, mice and other animals, using craft foam for ears and pompoms for tails.

Make a diorama of family members. Personalize by pasting faces from photos.

Wrap eggs in colorful fabric scraps, papier-mache, pearls, ribbon and lace for Easter decor.

Garden

Put a dozen half shells in an egg tray and fill with soil to grow seeds or sprouts.

Jewelry

String eggs together for a showy necklace. Insert hooks to wear as fancy-dancy earrings. There’s a color to go with every outfit.

Storage

Keep change in eggs in the glove box for parking meters and vending machines.

Use the eggs to store necklaces to keep from tangling in your jewelry box.

Snacks

Hide eggs in lunchboxes to surprise your kids with tiny snacks: Goldfish crackers, raisins, nuts or gummy bears.

Use the egg shape to mold crispy rice treats.

Toys and games

Put something shaky inside the egg (such as uncooked rice or beans) for maracas. For handles, put the egg between two spoons and wrap with decorative tape.

At bath time, toss eggs into the tub and let kids turn them into boats and scoops to splash water.

Have races with an egg on a spoon. If the egg falls, there is no mess to clean up.

Use colorful eggs filled with goodies for party favors on birthdays.

Education

Using a Sharpie, write a number on each egg half and have kids do the math by adding, subtracting or multiplying both sides. Give jelly beans as rewards for correct answers.

Place small trinkets under several egg halves for a memory game of lifting one and finding the matching piece of the other.

Write a capital letter on the longer side of an egg and lower case letter on the smaller. Have your youngster practice matching the two together.

Do the same with matching words: Break apart eggs and have kids put two words together to make compound words. Example: Lady bug. Rain coat. Drum stick. Door bell. Cup cake. Older kids can have fun making silly words out of words that don’t typically go together.

Jell-O shots: Adults only, of course. How do you get the gelatin and liquor into the eggs? Buy the ones with tiny holes. Spray the inside with canola oil to prevent sticking. Let the gelatin mixture cool for 10 minutes. Fill egg with a funnel. Refrigerate until firm. Enjoy.

Year-round fun: When my sister and I were kids, we hid Easter eggs for each other even when it wasn’t Easter. Whenever we were bored, we’d pull out the plastic eggs and Easter baskets. We’d start in the back yard and, when all of the good hiding places had been exhausted, we moved on to the front yard. If the weather wasn’t great, we would hide eggs in various rooms of the house. If either of us couldn’t find a particularly well-placed egg, we’d give each other clues. — Sara Bruestle

Adult fun: Three years ago, in a sentimental moment in the Easter aisle, I bought a bag of plastic eggs to hide for my grown-up children. Instead of candy, I put in cash — $1 bills, fives, 10 spots and 20s. I hid the eggs around the house and let each collect four to spread the wealth. They were just as competitive as twenty-somethings as when they were kids. They had a blast comparing their finds, though the younger son was not so happy that his older brother scored twice as much money as he did. He mumbled about it several times during the year. The next year they were excited to do it again. Big brother secretly put a $100 bill into his own egg and younger bro fell for the trick with a pout that was priceless. They are talking about what this year will bring. Maybe I really will put a $100 bill in an egg. — Andrea Brown

Reader ideas:

Judith Swanson: I put catnip inside and my cats go wild playing with them.

Katie Carlisle Conner: I make bath fizzy bombs, they are perfect size and help pack the mixture.

Marcia Coomes: My dad put in lottery tickets and numbers that went with numbered gifts.