Children fill their buckets at floating Easter egg hunt

Families gathered 1,000 plastic eggs containing toys and other prizes during the floating Easter egg hunt Saturday at the Prairie Lakes Aquatic Center in Des Plaines Saturday.

Open to children ages 1-10 and their parents, the event, held in the splash pad, the wellness pool and the lap pool, was the first of its kind for the aquatic center, which opened last summer, said Aquatic Manager Matt Hartnett.

The Easter Bunny didn't seem to be bothered by the warm, humid conditions and waved to kids from the deck at the wellness pool as they gathered eggs and filled their buckets. There were enough eggs for each child to gather 20-25 eggs, Hartnett said.

Amanda Neal of Des Plaines and her daughter Ada, 4, gathered a bucketful of eggs in the wellness pool. She said it felt great to be able to get out of the house and be around other people.

"It was so much fun, amazing," Neal said. "There were so many fun eggs."