Tuesday 8 April 2014

The Egg Hotel and Hospital

At Easter my children's school have an Easter Egg Competition. Not with chocolate, but with boiled eggs. The whole school take part and it gets really competitive. People have even had to be disqualified because their eggs were clearly entirely the work of the parents...

All of the children from year 1 and up make a huge pun-fuelled diorama, complete with boiled egg characters. I'm proud to say we've previously had 2 class winners - The Abominable Eggman and Egg-Cercise - both of which then sat on a shelf in the living room for just slightly longer than I could bear before we were able to discretely remove them to the bin.

Because my 2 little ones are in the Foundation Stage of school they don't have to make a stunning miniature land of 'L-Egg-O' or 'Egg-citement' just yet, but still effort is expected, by not only the school, but the other pupils. The little ones in Foundation have to decorate their egg and then take it to school and care for it for a whole week.

So on Sunday night at about 5pm when we suddenly remembered, it was all systems go....

The 5 year old wanted to make Darwin - the goldfish from 'The Amazing World Of Gumball'.

Colour blindness may have played a weeny part, he actually spent ages getting just the right colour for his fish...and painted it egg-coloured. Brilliant.


He drew a very sweet little face and then some overly-large teeth which did confuse us a bit, but hes very happy with it. An empty Ferrero Rocher tub and some tissue paper and voila, a tank.


Our 4 year old is a bit of a breakeriser. He can think about things in a different room and they're already broken. The idea of him caring for a boiled egg for a week isn't a reassuring one. He wanted to make a Ben 10 egg, and my partner immediately had a plan.

A cut down Pringles tube covered in Duck Tape was perfect protection. The lid even fits beautifully, and a Ben 10 logo using white Duck Tape coloured in with felt tip. Job's a goodun.

Pringles Can Craft Ben 10 Treaure box

 Inside, nestled in bubble wrap. Ben 10 Egg himself....


So off we went to school, I carried them all the way. I gave them back to my children inside the school, as they were going into class. Delivery successful...

The precious eggs spend the time children are working in the Egg Hotel, where they also spend their nights. At designated times the children take their eggs with them and hold them carefully, or carry them to a new location. It's a great exercise in being careful. Should any minor disasters happen the eggs have to go to the Egg Hospital, where they have plasters very carefully applied by a teacher. The parents are charged for visits to the Hospital and stays in the Hotel, and the money goes to charity. Last year cost me 65p.


This year, with 2 eggs to worry about I actually cheered when found out that both eggs survived Monday unscathed. It was short-lived.

By the end of day 2 today we have had 3 visits to the Egg Hospital and in spite of his protective case, Ben 10 was looking decidedly shattered. I think by Friday I'm likely be taking home 2 lumps of white boiled egg and a handful of plasters....but at least we'll have a cool Ben 10 pot for storing treasure......I hope....

UPDATE - Here's how the week ended

Mini Creations


34 comments:

  1. That's a lovely idea, egg hotel and egg hospital sound so cute! Your boys looks so proud of their creations and I hope they survive the week. Fingers crossed it doesn't cost you too much this year!

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    1. I think I'll be looking at £2 at least Fiona, if it carries on like today it could even be £3 :D

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  2. This is so interesting!
    I also love to used duck tape! they are great for lot of craft!

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    1. Duck Tape is brilliant, I love it. It can fic just about anything and make just about anything :D

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  3. What a great, fun idea! Can't believe you got them to school in one piece! My son's school have an 'egg' day earlier in the year where they have to take in a decorated egg and then make egg carriers to be dropped from a great height! It was very 'egg'citing!

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    1. Boom boom :D
      I'd almost rather they did that - they'd probably have more chance of taking home something resembling an egg! :D

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  4. What a fun idea!! What great eggs x

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    1. Thanks Kim - they're certainly very different! My boys have some strange ideas at times :D

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  5. Great eggs and your kids look really pleased with their creations! it's nice that they genuinely did them themselves too - I did laugh at the idea of competitive parents taking over, as I know some like that too!

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    1. The parents really need their own competition, maybe then they'd let the children do their own :D
      Thanks for your lovely comments!

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  6. What a great idea. :-)
    #minicreations

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  7. What a fab idea! I love how he painted it egg coloured! Ben took his Captain America egg in this morning with high hopes as he claimed his class prize for a batman effort last year!

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    1. The egg-coloured egg is hilarious. He was so careful mixing his colours. Best of luck to Ben! :)

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  8. Brilliant works boys! At our school the kids had to take the eggs in and do their creations in class because of parents doing them instead! #minicreations

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    1. That's definitely a good idea, although some of the eggs that a 4 year old has supposedly made do make you really laugh, because they're so clearly not don by anyone under 15 :D

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  9. Great idea, and I love your boy's eggs, very creative! I hope they make it to the end of the week relatively intact... :) #MiniCreations

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  10. So creative and great little creations here that your little ones have made themselves. It's so hard as a competitive parent myself not to jump in and do it for them. Or at least so of it. hahahaha Glad you resisted. Go you. Hope they make it through the week! #minicreations

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    1. Thanks Jenny - they did survive, they did really well :D

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  11. That's a great idea. Our school don't do anything nearly as fun. I love the work breakeriser for you 4yo

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    1. Hehehe....we've called him a breakeriser for the last couple of years, but I was wrong - he did really well! :D

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  12. I love this! It's clear that your boys came up with the ideas all by themselves and how much fun that they have to look after it all week, Hope it doesn't get too expensive!

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    1. It wasn't too expensive, they were stars, and they really enjoyed it :D

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  13. Awww so cute! I love how they love and are proud of their works! #minicreations

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    1. They are really proud - trouble is, the eggs have survived the week and I won't be allowed to throw them away now! :)

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  14. Lovely. Fantastic ideas. :)

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    1. Thank you, I think it was genius of the school to think of it :)

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  15. What a fun idea and great on the Easter theme #Minicreations

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    1. It is a fun idea and a lovely lesson for the little ones :)

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  16. That's brilliant! What a great idea, although Monkey would be a disaster area too! Off to get the update!

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    1. :D It's amazing what they can pull out of the bag sometimes!

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  17. Lucas says - What an awesome idea. I love Gumball and the Ben 10 egg is soooooo cool!
    Grace says - I am loving these so much - great idea x
    Thanks for linking to #minicreations

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    1. You're welcome - thank you for hosting, it's a great linky :)

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