My 25th Birthday fell on Easter Sunday this year. For my birthday, I usually like to force my favorite things upon my friends. Therefore, my birthdays usually consist of food, drinking, and games. I enjoy a good themed event too and decided to integrate a little Easter into the birthday festivities. I decided to leave out the extreme preppy element instilled in me growing up and not heavily encourage my friends to wear pastels, but there was plenty of Easter left to go around.
Egg Dying
Who knew how much egg dying evolved? Not me. Instead of dipping into cups filled with vinegar and dye, we were rolling dyes and metallics around in our glove-covered hands to make tie-dyed, sparkly eggs. The best part was after it was all said in done, informing everyone that these eggs were not hard boiled and we would be using them for the "mysterious" egg toss.
Easter Beer Hunt
I'd always heard rumors of integrating alcohol into Easter egg hunts, but I still was not sure exactly how to do it. I heard about Jell-O shots (or regular shots) in plastic eggs, hiding beers that participants had to drink upon finding, and more. Ultimately though, I decided I wanted my guests living for the rest of the party.
Supplies (for 10 people)
25 beers (preferably green bottles for camouflage, we used Beck's)
25 little alcohol bottles (we used Kleiner Klopfer)
1 "golden egg", a small, special bottle of alcohol (we used Havana Club Especial)
10 buckets (€1 each at the Euro store)
Paint pens or permanent markers
Prize (in this case, an Easter mug filled with chocolate bunnies)
Ice (optional)
How It Works
A volunteer hides the items throughout the garden and entry area to the house. In the meantime, every one decorates their bucket. The buckets are used to collect their findings.
The hider, then explained the boundaries and the rules. Each beer and small bottle was worth 1 point. The gold egg was worth 3 points (although you can allot your own amount).
Let the hunters loose. When everyone is struggling to find more items, regroup and count found items to figure out how much is missing. You don't want any kiddos finding the booze later.
Our Easter Beer Hunt was particularly funny. Our hider did almost too good of a job, which was surprising given his small parameters to hide the "eggs" within. When we walked out ready to race, we found two children in the sandbox holding beer. Oops, that was two found! Otherwise though, we had to gather and figure out how many were missing. With the help of the hider, we were able to find the missing drinks. Then, you can dump ice in each bucket and everyone has their own party favor to drink for the evening or to take home!
Egg Toss
The Egg Toss was maybe my favorite part because egg tosses are apparently a pretty American activity. Everyone thought I was joking when I told them the eggs were in fact still raw and that they would bust open if not handled properly during the event. Everyone specially selected their tie-dye egg and partners and we lined up in the garden, initially about 1 meter apart. With every toss, the left line moved a step backwards. This continued as teams were slowly eliminated as they failed to catch their eggs. When 3-4 teams were left, we were out of room to move! That surely never happened as kids. We were at about 20 meters now - an intimidating distance for eggs hurling your way. So, we decided to make it even more interesting and use our non-dominant hands for tossing. That eliminated the rest of the teams, leaving one winner egg free and the rest of us cleaning up the mess (which was actually super easy on the grass, just scooping up the remains with paper towels).
The remainder of the day consisted of introducing more people to chile con queso (they loved it, naturally) and grilling up some burgers. Simon was the winner of the day, winning the egg toss, Easter beer hunt, and eating 4 burger patties... although I got second in everything (well, not burger eating) and you know what they always say...
First is the worst, Second is the best
and by they, I mean fifth graders and playground politics.
Burger Porn
I may have chosen to skip out on the beer festivals this year (see 2012, 2013), but dang it sure was a good day. I never thought birthdays were supposed to get better with age, and maybe that haven't gotten better, per say, but they've sure stayed consistently on top. It's days like this that make me so thankful. I moved abroad knowing no one, and while it can be sad to realize that most people at my last birthday party are no longer here (expat life), I'm all too thankful for the new people in my life that made this day perfect.
I'm feeling good about 25.
19 comments
happy 25th - looks like you had a blast! that burger looks amazing!
ReplyDeleteThat all looks like brilliant fun, but I'm particularly envious of those burgers. What I wouldn't give for a decent burger. Anyway, happy birthday :) Wow I feel old.
ReplyDeletehaha this is awesome!! happy 25th birthday alex! I want to come over and play this.
ReplyDeleteHow fun! Happy birthday!
ReplyDeleteLooks so fun! What a great idea. Want to plan my 29th birthday this summer? I always do something lame like, "ok, come to this bar and buy me a shot" and, "oops, you came? I don't remember."
ReplyDeleteLooks like a blast! We introduced my hubby's co-workers to KC-style BBQ ribs, baked BBQ beans and Buffalo wings for our Easter luncheon! :-)
ReplyDeleteYou sure do know how to have fun Alex! Happy belated birthday wishes to you :)
ReplyDeleteP.S. I LOVE the new blog name!
What a fun birthday party, hope you had an awesome birthday!
ReplyDeleteHappy birthday! I love the beer hunt! At our college, the beer bunny would come and hide Milwaukee's Beast in front of the common area. One of the few Sundays you'd actually find people coming early to brunch services.
ReplyDeleteHappy birthday!! Looks like you guys had great fun!
ReplyDeleteHappy happy belated birthday! I am happy that you had a fantastic celebration!
ReplyDeleteHappy belated birthday! I love the beer hunt idea - looks like you had a great day!
ReplyDeleteI love the idea of an Easter beer hunt! You always have the best parties.
ReplyDeleteThrowing raw eggs sounds messy to me ;-) In my grandparent's town, there's a competition on Easter Monday that involves rolling eggs down a hill, but those eggs are definitely hard boiled! (One of the other games is called jarping and involves hitting each others eggs until one breaks... definitely not something to be done with raw eggs!)
What a freaking fantastic day! What can I do to be invited to your 26th birthday party? Happy belated Birthday, dear! Hope you had fun in Heidelberg this weekend!!
ReplyDeleteAlles Gute zum Geburtstag! You are definitely a girl who knows how to throw a party. Looks like you all had a great time, hope 25 is the best year yet! :)
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely you're invited! I just wish I knew which city it'd be in...
ReplyDeleteAnd did not make it to the #hbergmeetup sadly, but may be around May 9. Will you be there?
hahahahahahahahaha this is why we are friends. I totally would have done this had it not been Easter Sunday and all the bars closing at midnight. And that little fact that I spend wayyyy too much time at the pub already.
ReplyDeleteHappy belated birthday, that looks like so much fun! I love your the way you incorporated easter to your celebration. Mine falls near christmas, maybe this year I'll be more creative like you were! :)
ReplyDeleteHappy belated birthday! Looks like you had a blast.
ReplyDelete