#EggsEverywhere ! Hop Along to your nearest National Trust Property for Chocolate Hunting Fun this Weekend.

Easter is early this year, but the weather is looking promising, should you wish to go egg hunting at the weekend. Cadbury have paired with The National Trust once again, to put on over 300 hunts across the country. Use the hunt locator on their site to see where your nearest event is being held.

It just so happened that we decided to take a spin to Mount Stewart today, one of the Northern Irish National Trust properties hosting a hunt. Their festivities run from Friday 23rd until Monday 25th, and for £1 each, your kids can take part in the lake lapping adventure. The parents get quite competitive at things too, as I remember from previous years! 

Bunny hadn't visited yet, but we had a nice visit and made a little video to share with you.

Coincidentlly we had planned to make our own treasure hunt for viewers of the Smix Brix YouTube channel. My friend Pamela had told me about an app that uses augmented reality called Aurasma.

How it works is person A takes a photo of say the harp, while standing at the red hand. They add the augmented reality aspect and save to Aurasma's database. Person B will come along, open their Aurasma app and stand where they've been told to stand, and point the screen's searching circles, which hopefully will circle in, then they will have the same augmented reality animation or video pop up on their phone. It's sort of like a trigger to make your device play a fun little gif or character.

The device you are searching with has to be online as it were. A non-sim iPad wouldn't work unless you somehow can connect to wifi or someone's phone's tethering. The video above will show you exactly where to stand, and what to point your device at to view the surprise animations. 

So Mount Stewart is a lot of fun this weekend. You may well bump into us again, as we will be back for the Cadbury hunt as usual.  also if you haven't been in a while it's worth going to see the house renovations. Touring the grand house is included in the entrance price.

Here are the M&S 2016 Easter Egg Wonders, to save you Hunting. Cosmic Eggs, Giant Bunnies & a Disney's Frozen Castle Shaped Egg You'll Want for Yourself!

A good proportion of my hits this week come from people searching for  Marks and Spencer's Easter products and finding last year's blog post. So I'm rushing in this blog post with this year's Food Hall bits and bobs so it's up to date. 

There are kids' eggs, fancy pants grown up eggs, even dairy free eggs and hide & seek hunt kits. Let take a look at everything from my visit to the Sprucefield store during the week. 

The fancy eggs, with the crowning glory, the limited edition, £40, purple and gold, regal  chocolate Cosmic Egg. 

I chose the coffee egg for my Dad. Even when I was a child I remember him often buying these little mocha bars of chocolate from M&S, when the only Food Hall was in the city centre M&S in the 80s. 

The passion fruit ganache eggs are out of this world. Slightly bigger than a Creme Egg, but with a scrumptious filling of tropical creaminess. 

Families with allergies to consider can pick up these dairy free eggs alongside the traditional chocolate ones. 

The kids' eggs I chose to bring home were the apple shaped Colin egg, and the chocolate orange Flavour carrot. I'm not always keen on M&S's plain milk chocolate, but the Orange zested version is delicious. 

I also picked the Egg Hunt kit which is on offer right now, half price at £5. 

Here are the other kids' eggs in store. 

There are plenty of egg sets for planning a garden Easter egg hunt. 

Also various sizes of chocolate bunnies to chose from. 

I spotted many Easter items amongst the biscuits and buns. M&S always have a wonderful selection of fancy hot cross buns each year. The fudge ones are a must buy, and the addition of mini mocha hot cross buns this year is a stroke of genius. The offer is two for £2.50 and you can mix and match flavours within that.

Personally I haven't gotten into the way of sending Easter cards, but if you do, M&S have a bright and breezy range to choose from. 

Some more biscuits to choose from. I also imagine there will be Easter themed cakes closer to the actual Easter Sunday. 

Finally, the M&S website also has some non-food gift ideas for the celebrations.

Cadbury Creme Egg. Wrapped in Sausage Meat. Deep Fat Fried. And Created in Northern Ireland.

Millers' Butchers in County Fermanagh here in Northern Ireland have concocted this bizarre recipe that sounds so peculiar that it might just be delicious.... 

Take a Cadbury's Creme Egg, wrap it in sausage meat & deep fat fry that thing. 

Would YOU try one? 

Image thanks to @orielgirl1

Cracking Easter Eggs from M&S, & One of them Tweets!

M&S always have amazing, unique Easter eggs that stand out from the rows of branded eggs elsewhere. There are fabulous Frozen and Star Wars eggs, as well as lots of jellies and sweeties for any kids who don't like chocolate. The grown ups' eggs are something special though. The 'egg garden' with butterscotch, raspberry and pistachio flavours was my own pick. 

30 eggs for your Easter Sunday afternoon egg hunt

These were our choices to take home. I just love the soft pink chocolate of the Frozen egg. 

My Easter egg garden! 

You can even eat the little blue flowers

My son's choice, as he's DJ crazy. 

I teased you in the title, and yes, M&S have a tweeting Easter egg this year. It doesn't post tweets, but it does chirp like a chick when you open the top. Inside are chick & egg sweets that taste like orange versions of Percy Pigs. Very cute novelty.

Cinnamon Waffle Chocolate & Free Personalisation of Easter Eggs from Thorntons

Thorntons are known for their luxury Continental selection, but in our household they are also known for the yearly chocolate bunny my Dad still buys my brother & I to this day, with our names decorating them. Thorntons Easter Eggs all include free personalisation in store, but you can also place an order online to receive some Easter treats this week.

These basic eggs are suitable for all the family and are only £3 online, with a further 20% off this weekend.  All can be personalised for free.

If you desire something a little fancier, these toffee and fudge eggs are only £5 online.

And how about a raspberry cheesecake egg? Or cookies & cream, or cinnamon waffle? Chocolate connoisseurs can also pick up a banofee flavoured egg, all with 20% off right now.

If you have lots of family to buy for, the Thorntons site has special, money saving collections of eggs, one of which is down from £40 to £20 at the moment.