Our Easter 2014

I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter!  Ours was quite busy, but very nice.

We started Holy Week by talking about what Palm Sunday was about and doing a little craft.  Morgan was sick, so we didn't make it to church that day and I wanted to make sure the kids knew what it was all about.  They also watched a couple of their 'Jesus' movies and we started a Holy Week devotion from FaithGateway Family.

Palm branches made from the kids' hand cutouts.

We continued the devotions throughout the week and did a few more crafts.  (After doing the craft Palm Sunday, they just assumed that they were going to do a craft every day, so I didn't think it'd hurt to plan a some more!)

Jesus ascending into heaven craft.

Jelly Bean Poem that the kids made and handed out to friends.

Easter Lilies made from a cutout of the kids' hands.  We also discussed the symbolism of the Easter lily.

 

On Maundy Thursday my parents' church hosted a 'Seder Meal'.  Their Pastor wanted to do it to show us some of the Jewish customs that would be typical of Passover.  Never being to a Seder meal before, I have to say it was very interesting!!  I won't go into detail, but I have to tell you about Blake!  In our church the children have never taken communion, so when Blake saw the grape juice, he asked "Is that Jesus' blood?"  I thought it was pretty good for him to make the connection.  He then proceeded, throughout the duration of the 2 hour meal, to spill 'Jesus' blood' twice!  LOL!  It wasn't so funny for me at the time, but I could laugh about it after we left...and when he said he brought home one of the tiny plastic cups so he could always remember how he spilled them. ;-)

We had intentions of making it to the Good Friday service, but I'll tell you about that day another time, so we'll skip to Saturday.  We finished our devotions that day and went through our Resurrection Eggs.  The kids still love doing that every year! :-)

Sunday, the kids woke up and I went and threw the breakfast casserole in the oven right away so it would be baking while the kids looked at their baskets and hunted for eggs.

What the Easter Bunny brought this year.

Two very excited little ones!

The casserole was done at the perfect time for us to put together our Resurrection Rolls and throw them in the oven!  Unfortunately, Jesus (the marshmallow) never left the tomb (the crescent roll)...I'm assuming it's because my marshmallows were old.  :-/  The little mistake gave us a good laugh and the rolls still tasted amazing as usual!

We got ready for church after enjoying breakfast.  (I somehow missed the annual picture of the kids together in their Easter outfits...I only remembered when they got into their pajamas that night.)  Our church switched things up a bit this year and had an Easter egg hunt along with a carnival!  There were bounce houses, balloon animals, cotton candy, games that they won prizes at and even a little magic show.  I only know all that because the kids excitedly told me everything about it!  And from what I hear Jesus was still at the center of the celebration, which is awesome! :-) Rich said he enjoyed the service and I spent the morning in the nursery...which was pretty much packed!

We left from there and drove 2 hours to my sister's for Easter dinner.  The kids enjoyed another Easter egg hunt, shooting each other with Nerf guns and we all celebrated my niece's birthday as well.

We finally made it home about 6:30 and enjoyed some quality family time playing a game Morgan got in her Easter basket, "Farkle Around".  I didn't realize how competitive our family is!  LOL!  It was a BLAST though! :-)  The kids also spent a little time watching a new movie before bed.

And that's about it for our Easter this year!  I hope everyone had a blessed Easter as well! :-)

Our Easter in an 'Egg'shell

We had an eventful Easter weekend this year.  We actually didn't get our decorations up until the Wednesday before Easter.  We made the Embroidery Floss Eggs that night as well, but didn't fit any more crafts (at home) in after that. :-/

 

Good Friday was the busiest. Morgan was sick, but Mattie did her best to help her feel better.

 

While Morgan slept, Blake went with Rich to the library to make Easter Origami.  He made (clockwise from upper left) a chick, an egg holder, an egg and an Easter basket!

 

I was pretty busy during that time too!  ;-)

That afternoon, I read the Easter story from The Jesus Storybook Bible...from Jesus' arrest to his resurrection.  We also went through our Resurrection Eggs and then did an activity that I read about in Thriving Family magazine.  The kids each tried dragging a log to feel what it may have been like for Jesus to carry his cross.

They also hammered nails into wood and imagined what it would have felt like to have it go through their hands.  (Morgan mustered up the energy to make it outside for this.)

Later on we dyed Easter eggs that I successfully hard-boiled!  (For some reason hard-boiling eggs is something that I've struggled with...turns out I just had to follow Betty Crocker!)

 

Saturday I was sick, but Rich and the kids went to my parents' so Rich could help my dad with a project.

 

Easter morning the kids woke up and discovered the Easter bunny had been here!

They quickly looked over their Easter baskets and then proceeded to hunt for some Easter eggs!

Emptying their eggs to see what was inside.

After that, we made Resurrection Rolls and ate breakfast bake.  The kids then got ready for church and posed with their gifts from Rich and I...their very first Bibles!  They were excited to be able to read from 'real' Bibles like adults do ;-)

We then took the 2 hour trek to my sister's house, after church, for Easter dinner and an Easter egg hunt.  We were blessed with some wonderful weather so they could have the hunt outside this year!

On the way home, we stopped at Rich's parents so we could see them for Easter and finally made it home around 8:00 that night!  We we tired, but happy for the wonderful time we spent with family, the warm weather and remembering the amazing gift Jesus gave us! :-)

Embroidery Floss Eggs

I have to thank my sister for sharing this idea with me from the Better Homes and Garden website.  She knows the oodles of floss that I have from all the cross-stitching I've done! ;-)

 

Embroidery Floss Eggs:

What you need:

*Water balloons

*Embroidery floss in desired colors

*corn starch

*water

*flour

 

First, I blew up the water balloons.  I tried using my own air until I turned blue in the face.  Then I turned to a foot pump that we have from an exercise ball, which worked wonderfully! 

 

Next, I combined 1 cup water, 1 tablespoon corn starch and 1/2 cup flour in a storage container.  I put the lid on and shook until there were no lumps.

 

The kids and I then picked out the floss colors we liked for each egg.  I cut 1 yard of each of four colors for each egg that the kids made.  (I think you could probably use another yard or two if you'd like.)  The floss then soaked in the flour mixture until the kids were ready to wrap them on their balloons.

 

Morgan carefully wrapping her balloon with floss.  As you can see, there are newspapers down as it gets quite messy!

 

The kids each made 3 eggs.  They had to sit and dry overnight.

 

The next morning, I handed the kids a pin and watched as they excitedly got to pop a balloon!

 

We then dug the balloon out of the egg once it was popped...

 

...the finished Embroidery Floss Eggs!

 

On the Better Homes and Gardens website they made garland, but I liked the idea of hanging them from our light fixture. :-)

The kids had a BLAST with this project!  They LOVE getting messy, especially right after taking their baths! :-/  (Mom isn't as big of a fan, though-lol!)  They LOVED popping the balloons and they absolutely LOVE their finished eggs!

Melissa & Doug Easter Shop and Giveaway

 As many of you already know I really like Melissa & Doug toys!  The kids have several of them and play with them on a regular basis.  So of course I'm excited about the giveaway they have going on to win $200 worth of their toys from their Easter shop!  I'll be entering and best of luck to you if you enter too! :-)

Click on the picture to enter.  Ends March 20th, 2013.

Easter 2012

We had a lot of fun this Easter!  We started out on Good Friday by going through our Resurrection Eggs and remembering what Jesus did for us.  We also read the kids' book "The Best Thing About Easter".  After that we went to an Easter Egg Hunt at Rich's grandmother's farm.  There were 11 kids searching for 200 eggs all over the place...under trees, on tractors, in shrubs, etc.  All but 1 egg was found and the kids would still be looking for it if the adults hadn't refilled and hid an egg for them to find, so they'd think they found the last one-LOL!  Of course Grandma had all sorts of goodies to snack on and we had a nice afternoon with the family :-)

Saturday I wanted to do a couple crafts with the kids for Easter, so we made bunnies from their hand/thumb prints and carrots from their fingerprints. (Found on Inner Child Fun".)



We also used a loofa to make some chicks...Morgan got ahead of me and ended up making her chick a little different....I'm thinking it's a turkey chick... :-)   (Also found on Inner Child Fun.)

Easter morning the kids woke up every 45 minutes starting at 1:30AM all excited to see if the Easter Bunny had come!  Of course he had...and he was in bed trying to sleep!  LOL!

After they checked out their baskets, it was time to hunt for the eggs that the Easter Bunny had filled and hid for them...they're ready to go! :-)

And they're off!

We attemped to make Resurrection Rolls again this year and unlike last year, they were actually a success and the tomb was empty!  (The tombs were also very tasty!)  Next year I'd like to try to make Resurrection Cookies too...they're actually what I was thinking of doing when I cam across the rolls last year.

These Easter outfits may look familiar...they're what the kiddos wore to my sister's wedding last June.  I had adjusted the straps on Morgan's dress to make it fit last year and I didn't have to adjust them back, so I think it'll still fit for at least 1 more year!!  Getting 3 years out of 1 dress at her age makes me super excited-LOL!  Blake is wearing some khakis instead of black pants and we took off his vest....it's dark and didn't go well.

We went to our church's early service, which was PACKED, then came home and flew little kites the Easter bunny had given the kids.  Then we went to Rich's aunt's house about an hour away for Easter dinner.  The kids got their own little baskets that they had to find and then had another Easter egg hunt!  It was a really nice time and a great Easter!  We still have one more Easter celebration to go at my sister's house this coming Sunday and we're all looking forward to it! :-)

Easter 2011

I apologize ahead of time for the long post, but we had a lot of fun this Easter! :-)

The eggs the kids made out of marshmallows.

Blake's entry into the newspaper's coloring contest.

Morgan's entry into the newspaper's coloring contest.

Morgan couldn't wait to get me an Easter present, so she and my mom picked me up some beautiful flowers when we went shopping last week :-)

We dyed Easter eggs.

Morgan got this little toy from someone at school and I had to take a picture...I actually got all the balls in the holes! LOL!

The dessert I made for Easter day.

The cake I made from the leftover batter from making cupcakes....I'll tell you more about the cupcakes in a bit :-)

What the kids woke up to...the Easter bunny spoiled them with what is mostly winnings of stickers, books, a couple movies and stuffed animals. :-)

Hunting for Easter eggs.

Blake carrying his like when he carries real eggs in from the barn...can't let it break! ;-)

Ready to watch TV for the 1st time since lent!! (With one exception...they watched The Jesus Movie the 1st week of lent.)

Ready for church! :-)

After church, was dinner and a candy hunt at my parents' house....can you see the excitement!?

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In the time leading up to Easter, I tried to do several activities that I found in Focus on the Family's 'Thriving Family' magazine to teach the kids about Jesus. Here is what we did:

The kids made palm branches for Palm Sunday and learned about how people waved the branches and shouted 'Hosanna' to Jesus at he entered Jerusalem and discussed what 'Hosanna' meant.

We baked bread another day and discussed how Jesus is "The Bread of Life". 'Just as bread gives us nutrition and sustains us physically, Jesus offers us eternal life and sustains us spiritually.' (Quote taken from the magazine.)

During the week we also did our Resurrection Eggs and read our books about Jesus and Easter. Thursday, we took a higher value of money and asked if the kids would trade it for a few pennies, which they wouldn't. We talked about how Judas traded Jesus for 30 silver coins and how he made a bad choice and how that must have made Jesus feel.

Then, Good Friday, we put a carnation in water with red food coloring and watched what happened. We read 1 Peter 1:18-19. We talked about how Jesus was a "lamb without blemish or defect" (the white carnation). And when he died, he took our sins upon himself (the red petals.)

Easter morning we made Resurrection Rolls. Unfortunately, Jesus was still in the tomb when the rolls were done and Morgan made sure to point it out!! LOL! OOPS! It was worth a try and they were DELICIOUS!

At my parents, we went over the Resurrection Eggs again with my nieces, so they could hear the Easter story in a fun way.

And we read Matthew 27:62-66; 28:1-4. I had the kids try to push a large stone and talk about how one even larger couldn't keep Jesus in the tomb.

And finally, the cupcakes!!! I made cupcakes and my sister picked up trick candles. They each got one trick candle on a cupcake and blew it out. Of course the flame came back, to their surprise, so they tried again (and again and again...). We discussed how Jesus is "The Light of the World" and that even though everyone thought Jesus's light went out when he died...it hadn't...he was still alive! :-)