Easter is upon us

For some reason with each holiday, I think long and hard about traditions I want to start for our family. Now that we have Kirkley, it's even more extreme. I spent some time today researching Easter traditions other than the usual egg hunting and dyeing, bunnies and chicks, etc. Not that I don't love all of those things (we have had lots of egg/bunny/chick fun already as you'll see below), but I want to add more traditions that emphasize what Easter is really all about. I've found some really neat things on my search: traditions, a few age-appropriate ideas from Focus on the Family, Resurrection Eggs, and this is probably my favorite new idea I found, Easter Story Cookies. I love the Easter Story Cookies. I can just imagine the day that we make these as a family, talking through the scripture with each step. I thought the visuals in that activity were great.

I also have a book I love, Creating Family Traditions by Gloria Gaither and Shirley Dobson. It had several neat ideas that I think will be age appropriate for this Easter. One was doing your own Sunrise Service. Grab a quilt, breakfast, your Bible, etc. and head out somewhere pretty as a family. What a great idea as Kirkley is not quite ready to attend a sunrise service. It also has an idea for resurrection buns -- you make these with refrigerated biscut dough, put a marshmallow in the center, roll in butter and cinnamon sugar, and they come out hollow.

It's been so interesting looking through all of this. We're excited to add some of these to our usual traditions of Easter dinner, bocce tournaments, and dyeing eggs. Please share any sweet family traditions that you have -- we may steal yours!

So sweet to endure a photo shoot sitting in your own Easter basket!

Checking out the Easter chicks

Liking the grass more than the Cheerios in the egg