Small Bears' Easter Egg Hunt

The day after having our baths, we put clean clothes on and looked forward to more adventures.  Grizzly and Polar were planning to take us on a little boat journey but first, on Easter morning, they had a treat for us.

'Because you were such good bears when you had your baths, we've got you some little chocolate Easter eggs,' Polar said.

'We've hidden them in the garden,' said Grizzly.  'Let's see if you can find them all - there are four each!'

We skipped outside and Polar gave us a little dish to collect them in.  The smaller bears wanted to have first go hunting for eggs and scurried away, leaving me minding the dish.

Soon Hanley Bear was back, carrying a small blue egg that smelled of delicious chocolate.

'Polar or Grizzly hid it in a pot of thyme, thinking the herb would hide the smell of the chocolate,' said Hanley.  'But bear noses are too clever for that, duck!'

Endon came back soon afterwards.  His first egg had been hidden in some mint but he had also sniffed it out.

They soon found another egg apiece.

'It's your turn to search now, Sonning!' cried Endon.

I decided to see if there were any eggs near the pond.  Sure enough, there was one tucked in amongst the dwarf comfrey and another in a little stone pot full of moss that looked almost like a real bird's nest!

'See if you can find any more!'  I said to Endon, when I got back.  The little pot already had six eggs in it, but there were six more to find.

Endon ran all the way down the path to the vegetable plot, sniffing for chocolate eggs all the way.  He found one hidden among some forget-me-not flowers, which were the same colour as the foil on the eggs.  Another was up on a big rhubarb leaf!

Hanley thought there might be more eggs hidden in the herb garden.  His keen little nose found one, even though it was in a pot with a very scenty lavender plant.  Then he found another in the little bed under the pear tree. 

'That's all of ours found,' Hanley Bear said.  'Just two of yours to go now, Sonning!'

I ran around the rest of the flower garden but I couldn't smell any chocolate eggs except the ones we had already collected.  I thought I could still smell something coming from the vegetable beds, so I went to look.

I found one in between some lettuces.  The hardest one to find was hidden in the leaves of a big leek.

'We've found all of them!' we cheered.  'Let's tell Polar and Grizzly!'

When we got indoors, we had another surprise.  Our lovely friend Gecko had sent us an Easter present!

When we opened it, we found a packet of seeds for some pretty red, white and blue flowers, and a lovely old Ladybird book about making pottery.  Hanley Bear was so thrilled with the book, which included lots about Stoke-on-Trent, that he started reading it to Endon straight away.

'Can I plant our flowers?'  I asked Polar.  'When they're blooming, I want to show them to Bertie, the RAF bear!'

'Not today, little Sonning,' she said.  'We need to find a space for them in the garden.  When the daffodils have finished, in a few weeks' time, there will be a good place for them and some other pretty annuals, and you can sow the seeds there and help me to look after them.'

But, before that, we had another boat journey to enjoy!