It was so good to be back “home” for this event. Although we’re super grateful to M-Sparc for hosting us, we do need a bit more space most of the time. Wheldon was our home between 2017 (after Switch launch) until 2023, but we lost it due to a change in Dylan’s job circumstances. Thankfully we still have a link to the university, so with a bit of negotiation we ended up back where we wanted to be in the first place, and have managed to secure the venue for most of 2025!
The funny thing was the last time we did an Easter Egg Hunt, we were in the exact same venue, and one little blue egg was never found! Six years later, I joked that if anyone found the original blue egg, they could win the whole case of eggs! (I knew this was virtually impossible 😉 )
This time we simplified the egg hunt. Fewer eggs, an easy mode and a hard mode, and limited to 12 of each. With one special little printed Yoshi.
To start the Easter Egg hunt, you had to present a “Yoshi” item.
There were a fair number of Yoshi plushies, a lego Yoshi, a figure, and a Waluigi plus Mario plush made an appearance too. (And our big Shy Guy joined in for the fun too!)
(Pictures taken by LJProductions)
We had a group photo just before we started, with all the Yoshi things! (There were a few latecomers who missed the photo too, but our Dewi joined in and was ready to go with my Yoshi egg!)
The Yoshi egg pouches contained little creme or dairy milk eggs, and were designed for the children to find (of which there were 3 young ones doing the hunt!), and the adults were encouraged to find the hand drawn eggs. (Hard mode)
Some of the adults weren’t listening, and grabbed the Yoshi pouches. But once they’d grabbed one that was their prize! (The tiny eggs!)
I did give everyone a second chance once everyone who wanted to take part had found something.
The kids all got 2 pouches each, and most of the adults bagged two eggs as well. The last egg remained hidden for another couple of hours! People were looking around every inch of the room, and it wasn’t until I walked past and found it myself that Liesel raced over to see what I was looking at and bagged the last (double) egg prize! The best/worst thing about me hiding stuff, is I always forget where I’ve put them! (Yes, yes, I know I could take photos/write a list, but what’s the fun in that?!)
2025 was the year that ALL the hidden eggs were accounted for, the photo above proves it!
We had gaps in between everything today, which gave plenty of chance for catch ups, and games in both rooms. We saw some freeplay Mario Party, some Mario Kart and some Smash, amongst other things.
The league today was based around Yoshi and running, so round 1 was “Yoshi’s Mountain Race” from Mario Party Jamboree.
Those who were used to platform games found it generally easier, but the 3D angle made it tricky for some! It was nice to see the younger ones having a go, and we had a couple of new people enter the league this time too.
After another gap of freeplay (where a full game of Mario Party was enjoyed by the kids and one of the mums), We introduced round 2 – Runbow! (My leggings were a hint!)
It was a manic 15 rounds, where we had 3 groups of 6.
The first game, Drn dominated, but the other two groups had a bit more spread of a score.
It was nice to see a “lurker” give the league a first go too in the second round. He actually ended up coming top of his group!
One clipped highlight was Drn (who loves to use the items) swapping to their disadvantage!
There was no tie breaker needed this time, as Drn was the only person to score the full 10 points, winning themselves the darker green dice (in the name of Yoshi, obviously!)
We finished with the usual group photo, credit goes to Finn 🙂
Our next event is on Saturday 17th May back in M-SParc, but we’re happy to say most of our events for the rest of the year will be back in Wheldon <3