Making Our Easter Eggstra Special: A Sensory Filled Easter Hunt

This post on Making Our Easter Eggstra Special: A Sensory Filled Easter Hunt was sponsored on behalf of H-E-B. All opinions stated are my own.

I remember 2 years ago when Easter was swiftly approaching and I sat in Addie’s hospital room, depressed. The PICU room Addie was in overlooked the front of the hospital where kids from the community were having an Easter egg hunt. I so desperately wanted Addie to be able to participate in the hunt but she was stuck in her hospital room, and she had finally come off her paralytics for a couple weeks. I cried. I wanted Addie to have an Easter egg hunt. I wanted Addie to get a picture with the Easter bunny. I wanted our family to experience holidays the way other families did. We had spent Halloween, Christmas, New Years, Valentine’s, St. Patrick’s Day, and now Easter in the hospital. It wasn’t fair.

The Child Life team came to our room every so often to see if we wanted goodies for Addie, and I had a heart to heart with one of the sweet staff members. I told her my hopes and dreams and even how I “felt stupid” for wanting Addie to get an Easter bunny picture just like all my friends’ kids on Facebook. I wanted us to have some normalcy somehow through all the craziness of our situation. Addie had been in the hospital since August and we were oh-so-tired of hospital life. A few days later, I found out the Child Life team had taken the bunny costume to be dry cleaned so it would be perfectly clean for our girl. They let us know they would be coming before Easter weekend to visit Addie, and so Mathew and I decorated Addie’s hospital room and got all dressed up to have pictures with the Easter bunny.

It was wonderful. It made hospital life SO much easier to have something so silly as the Easter bunny bring some normalcy to our lives. I will forever be grateful to the sweet woman that took the time out of her day to get the costume cleaned and then she dressed up just for us.

Since that Easter in 2015, Addie has been home for what will be 2 Easters now. Last year we didn’t have an Easter egg hunt, but this year, I have big plans for our girl. We are making our Easter eggstra special by having a sensory filled Easter hunt! I ran to our local H-E-B because they always have everything I need for my fun ideas. I’ve been a customer at our location for 8 years (and a loyal H-E-B customer since I was born!) so I know many people by name. Before I grabbed my groceries, I went to the floral department and asked a sweet partner, Leticia, if she could blow up 12 balloons for me in fun Spring colors and I would come get them once I was done grabbing my things. It was no problem and I went off to shop of our sensory filled Easter hunt.

Addie doesn’t do chocolate because of her epilepsy, and I wanted to get things to fill her eggs that would be so much fun for her senses since she’s getting her cochlear implant in just a couple weeks! Plus, it’s also great for her occupational therapy and fine motor skills. I grabbed fun puff balls, finger paint, and Model Magic in the art aisle. I went to the baby aisle and got Addie’s favorite- Plum Organics puffs, hit up the Seasonal/Easter aisle for cascarones (aka confetti eggs), plastic Easter eggs, and a fun book, and then went to the Entertainment aisle to get Addie a Peppa Pig DVD. Then, I swung myself around back to the Floral aisle and grabbed my balloons. Leticia had just bagged them all up!

H-E-B is my favorite because I can get everything I need all at once and quality is top notch. The partners are always incredibly friendly at every location, and I got all the fun things I needed without having to go somewhere else for our sensory filled Easter hunt.

At home, I filled the plastic eggs with fun all my different sensory filled Easter goodies (I also had some rice that I scented with Young Living essential oils and food coloring), and hot glued the balloon strings to the eggs. We placed them all over the yard for Addie to get. You might be wondering why the balloons. Well here’s why- Addie isn’t mobile outside other than being in her stroller because we have to have something hold her ventilator and all her cords. My thought process was- the balloons are BIG and easy to see with all their bright colors. She could grab the balloons as we wheeled her by in order to allow accommodations for her to do it more on her own.

I couldn’t be more pleased with how it turned out. This was our test run for the hunt (I wanted to make sure my plan wasn’t flawed!), and I’m excited to see how Addie enjoys it on Sunday. I think it’s going to be so incredibly special for her not only to be able to grab the Easter eggs herself, but to get all the fun goodies inside to touch and explore! I’m so glad H-E-B had everything I needed to execute this awesome idea!  I will probably cry with joy for my sweet girl to be able to participate in this sensory filled Easter hunt and really enjoy a holiday in such a unique way. This is such a difference from that Easter 2 years ago. We didn’t get an Easter bunny picture yet this year, but we’re hoping to later this week at a special egg hunt the local kid’s therapy place is holding! Make sure you’re added on my Instagram and Facebook to see that picture whenever we take it!

Here’s a little close up of Addie’s basket for Easter. Lots of fun goodies, and all from H-E-B. She’s going to LOVE everything! We plan on doing more arts and crafts projects together too, so this basket will be such a great way to start implementing that!

What will you be putting in your child’s Easter basket? What do you think of this fun sensory filled Easter hunt with balloons?

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