Easter Week

The week leading up to Easter continued to be filled with lots of fun activities!

A stop to see the Easter bunny -- K loves her a costumed friend!

Jay does not...

Many an egg hunt and party...

Jay's egg strategy: find one, stop and eat, find one, stop and eat....

And you better hide your snacks...

Easter morning was full of fun...K reminded the Easter bunny he leaves a trail to follow to their baskets...note our rockin pajama fashion...

And this year he also left breakfast items in eggs to go with our buns!

I was totally impatient with an Easter Sunday pic trying to get to the 8:30 service.  This makes me laugh.

Then it was off to Easter lunch for the college students with more egg hunting!

Grammy even stopped to help!

A great Easter weekend filled with lots of sweet childhood joy!

"God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles 

the glorious riches of this mystery, which is 

Christ in you, the hope of glory."

Colossians 1:27

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, 

he is a new creation;

the old has gone, the new has come!"

2 Corinthians 5:17

Holy Week

Kicking off Holy Week with some palm branches made of handprints.

K will sit and watercolor coffee filters forever.  We've cut out soooo many shapes!

Love the ideas here too for preschool Easter activities -- easy ones!!

Again, K painted eggs for us.

Then the kids got to do their first egg hunt complete with cookie decorating too!

Then it was off to hunt!

"What!? Jay found the special silver egg!?  I didn't?  Here's how I feel about that!"

 The drama continued well into the evening forcing me to refer back to Ann Voskamp's post on raising grateful children.  We are now decorating our kitchen windows with the zillions of watercolored shapes she's painted as she tells us each evening five things she's grateful for!

This is sure to be a special week full of fun!

The disciples went and did as Jesus had instructed them. 

They brought the donkey and the colt, placed their cloaks on them, and Jesus sat on them.

A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road.  The crowds that went ahead of him and those that followed shouted,

“Hosanna to the Son of David!”

“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”

“Hosanna in the highest!” 

Matthew 21:6-9

"From the lips of children and infants
You have ordained praise."

Psalm 8:2

Resurrection Bun Kit

I posted our Easter traditions last year.  They are still pretty much the same along with a few others added.  Last year, we made resurrection bun kits to take to neighbors with children so that they could do this activity with a family as well.  This was super easy to put together since I just had to multiply our supplies.  This would also be great to take to a mom with a new baby for her older kids to do, a working mama, etc.  

Just get together your ingredients -- Grands biscuits, 8 marshmallows (one for each biscuit), a stick of butter, and the cinnamon sugar.  Our recipe is here, but I've also seen these made with crescent rolls as well.  

 I also include a copy of the story of the first Easter along with the baking directions.  

You should be able to print these -- I hope!

One thing we've started this year and are liking so far is the jelly bean reward system...

Pink - each new tomorrow ( forgiving others)

Red - the blood Christ gave (sacrifice something) 

Orange - prayers at twilight (attentive behavior at prayer time or Bible story) 

Yellow - God's light (shown through kindness/love/witness) 

Green - the palm's cool shade (good deeds) 

Blue - table manners

Purple - His days of sorrow (repenting)

Black - night rest (go to bed well/good sleep) 

  

 White - Christ's Grace (cannot be earned like the others). Fill jar to top on Easter morning with white jelly beans, covering all of their attempts to "do good."  Great way to visualize an abstract concept for little ones!

Coffee filter eggs and crosses have been the only craft we've pulled off so far -- easy to quickly trace cookie cutters and let the watercoloring begin! We have good intentions to make handprint lilies, this cross (using contact paper), handprint palm branches, and maybe the famous grassy eggs (wait we may have missed the window on this).

And did you know you could bake your eggs!?  Trying this one soon!

And definitely painting our eggs again -- dye stresses me out! :)

I really want to do a glow in the dark egg hunt -- probably need to wait a few years!

And a few sites with great ideas of Easter traditions here, here, here, and here.

Peter said, “Brothers, I can tell you confidently that the patriarch David died and was buried, and his tomb is here to this day. But he was a prophet and knew that God had promised him on oath that he would place one of his descendants on his throne. Seeing what was ahead, he spoke of the resurrection of the Christ, that He was not abandoned to the grave, nor did His body see decay. God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of the fact. Exalted to the right hand of God, He has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear. 

Acts 2:29-33

Jesus is Alive!

^{Easter weekend was filled with lots of fun and festivities.
We kicked off Good Friday with a trip to see the Easter Bunny.
Absolutely no significance in this other than Kirkley loves a costumed animal,
and we stumbled upon the Easter Bunny at the mall a few weeks ago.
She never forgot and asked for the next few weeks...}

<sup>Monday, after discussing Easter weekend had come to a close,
she asked what holiday was next.  I said Mother's Day and she said,
"Will there be a mother at the mall for us to take our picture with?"

  Alex and got to spend Good Friday evening at Secret Church.
Once it's posted to listen and print, we highly recommend. 
I didn't make it all 6+ hours so I need to catch up too!</sup>


  Saturday morning, Kirkley was thrilled to see the trail of eggs outside her door!

 Jay was more interested in Kirkley's Easter basket than his!

Then we were off to our Sunday school egg hunt. 

Jay took us by surprise and was ready to hunt!

Thanks to Lisa for organizing!  The kids had a blast!

Kirkley had asked to make an "Easterbread house," 

and had to settle for bunny cookies when I told her that didn't exist.

 

She also painted her eggs this year instead of dying which was 100% less stressful.

Kirkley and I got to take a special trip Saturday afternoon to take Easter treats 

to children in the peds unit.

This was the first time we'd seen her soooo excited to do for someone else.

She helped purchase, pack, and deliver all of the bags.

The kids were noncontagious so it was extra special to get to meet them and deliver personally!

She was so touched that the children were so excited to get their bags.

Reminded us of our Easter weekend there two years ago

and the sweet friends and family that came to help out!

This was a great new tradition!

We woke up Sunday to resurrection buns...

 

As we made them Saturday night, Kirkley got to the last biscuit and said,
"One more Jesus to go!"

Hoping the theology of Jesus as a marshmallow translates one day! :)

We did took supplies/recipes to neighbors who gave us interesting looks.  

We love these...maybe they did too!  

We spent Easter Sunday at church then at 

the Hamiters for Easter lunch for 50+ college students that didn't get to go home.  

This was one of our favorite Easter Sundays.  

So fun to make trays and trays of things -- they were hilarious to overhear,

"Broccoli casserole!"  "Pretzel salad!"  Made it so fun to do this for them.

Made us feel like we had a big ole family!

The students hid eggs for the kids, we had a yummy lunch, and enjoyed the afternoon!
Mallory, one of our favorites from the beach mission trip, was there.
Kirkley loves these girls we've gotten to know!




Easter Sunday concluded with a Passover style meal at our church
similar to the one offered at the LaGrange Explorations in Antiquity Center.  
Kirkley attended with us and loved the charoset (especially compared to the bitter herbs!).
If you're near LaGrange, Georgia, I so recommend making a trip to the center.  
Book a reservation to do the meal, check on the children's programs (there are summer day camps), and go see awesome replications that bring so many Biblical stories/scenes to life!
When reading these stories, I forget they don't know what a cave, tent, etc. look like.
We plan to take K soon!


We hope everyone had a blessed Easter weekend!


⁵When Christ came into the world, He said,
    "Sacrifices and offerings You have not desired, but a body have You prepared for Me; 
⁶in burnt offerings and sin offerings You have taken no pleasure.
⁷Then I said, 'Behold, I have come to do Your will, O God, as it is written of Me in the scroll of the book.'"

  

⁸When He said above, "You have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings" (these are offered according to the law),  

⁹then He added, "Behold, I have come to do your will." 

He does away with the first in order to establish the second.  

¹⁰And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

 ¹¹And every priest stands daily at His service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, 

which can never take away sins.

¹²But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, 

He sat down at the right hand of God,

¹³waiting from that time until His enemies should be made a footstool for His feet.  

¹⁴For by a single offering He has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.

¹⁵And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us; for after saying,
¹⁶ "This is the covenant that I will make with them
after those days, declares the Lord: 
I will put My laws on their hearts, 
and write them on their minds," 

¹⁷then He adds,
    "I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more."

 ¹⁸Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin.

 ¹⁹ Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, ²⁰by the new and living way that He opened for us through the curtain, that is, through His flesh, ²¹and since we have a Great Priest over the house of God, ²²let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. ²³ Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. ²⁴And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, ²⁵ not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.  

Hebrews 10:5-25 ESV 

Eggs, Nests, & School Easter Party

Starting to get on the ball around here.  We have our eggs boiled and ready for decorating and deviled eggs.  Emily, can this count as my cookbook recipe for this month!?  I have to look up how to boil eggs every time!  Yall thought I could cook -- really I can just read directions.  This recipe is courtesy of Joy of Cooking which is really encyclopedic and tells you how to do pretty much anything with any food.

I signed up for sweets at Kirkley's school party, so I attempted a cute cupcake I finally found online that didn't use coconut for the nest.  For 30 cupcakes, I used 1 tub of white frosting (thin layer on top), 4 cups chow mein noodles (in bag in Asian section), and 1 cup white chocolate chips.  Melt white chocolate chips in large bowl in microwave, stir in chow mein noodles, and arrange on cupcakes.  Zap noodles/chocolate if mixture gets too stiff for 10 seconds.  Put candy eggs on immediately (had to attach some with frosting underneath).  Took literally 20 minutes -- neither the frosting nor the nest has to be perfect. 

Make little nests on wax paper with your extras....

We had fun at her class egg hunt and party!

She's had a great time with her class this year -- lots of sweet friends!

And some FYI on the whys of the Easter egg.  Found lots of different things when googling.

We're going with the egg is the symbol of new life and resurrection! :)

"We were buried therefore with Him by baptism into death, in order that, 

just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, 

we too might walk in newness of life."

Romans 6:4

Easter Traditions

Someone asked me last week about any Easter traditions we do. I'd love to open this up and hear from others -- I got so many great ideas from Christmas seeing things posted (we're totally adding smores, a Christmas movie, and a slumber party by the tree to the night of the 23rd next year!).

I'm sort of a tradition junkie -- I love thinking our kids will look back and think, "My parents always...." for whatever occasion it is. I also like starting them early -- it lets us work the kinks out in our plans before they're really ingrained in their memories! :) The Let's Make a Memory series has been cute to have and I just got Treasuring God in Our Traditions as well but haven't started it.

Here are a few Easter resources/ideas we like. I'm absolutely no child expert, but I added when they were "age appropriate" for our family. If your child is younger, some of these would be sweet to put in their Easter basket for future use!

• The Jesus Storybook Bible does an awesome job of tying each Bible story into Christ's coming. If you read a story a day starting on March 16, story #40 should be the resurrection to be read on Easter Sunday. If you're behind, double up in the morning and evening to catch up! :) We often forget days and have to double up -- Kirkley is getting to be old enough to be an accountability for this each morning at the breakfast table! (I still have to paraphrase these stories for 4 yr old.)
  
• Resurrection Eggs -- I got these last year at Hobby Lobby. Check here to see if Easter stuff is 1/2 off or if a coupon is available. (Kirkley started practicing telling the Easter story with these at 3.)
  
• Miss PattyCake Eggstravaganza is 100% cheesey but has great songs kids love, and she goes through each resurrection egg on their level. (Perfect for 1 and up!)
  
• We thought about having Kirkley memorize an OT prophecy verse like Genesis 22:8 "God himself will provide the lamb." There are many to choose from -- we're sitting on this idea as of now. (3 and up)
  
• Since Kirkley was hospitalized during Easter of 2009, I've always had good intentions of going back and doing something at Easter for the peds patients -- maybe this year with Kirkley old enough to help/shop/deliver, that idea will come to fruition.
• I've never made Easter story cookies, but I think they're on our list this year.
  
• We always make resurrection buns -- Kirkley still makes a reference to Jesus as a marshmallow. These would be an easy thing to deliver to neighbors with children -- take directions and supplies for their family! (We've done these since K was one, but last year at 3, she really "got it" the most.)
  
• This site has awesome ideas -- look at the links below this post too. More activities and printables here too.
• Also fun Easter basket ideas: Band Angels, Seeds CDs, creation puzzle, ABC Bible Verses, and preschool devotions 1 or 2.
  

Also, we spread Easter out over the weekend -- a great tip I got from a mom of older children. All baskets/eggs are done on Saturday morning. We have time to enjoy this and not be rushed. Saturday evening, we do the resurrection buns and stick them in the fridge. Then Sunday morning we'll bake them and go to Easter Sunday services. I'm not really in love with this layout -- the buns may be better/more accurate for Good Friday morning?? It's always a work in progress...

Can't wait to hear some favorite family activities!
Tell us now so we can plan! :)

"Love the Lord your God with all your heart and
with all your soul and with all your strength.
These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts.
Impress them on your children.
Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road,
when you lie down and when you get up.
Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.
Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates."
Deuteronomy 6:5-9

"We will not hide them from their children;
we will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord,
His power, and the wonders He has done."
Psalm 78:4

"All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
Therefore go and make disciples of all nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.
And surely I am with you always,
to the very end of the age."
Matthew 28:18-20

Easter

Easter began at about 12:30am early Sunday morning with a poor little sick girl. She was running a fever so we had a pretty calm Easter at our house -- aside from an eventful trip to the pediatric clinic. We apparently love seeing doctors on Easter! We had a laid back Easter weekend with the fam! Just got her an antibiotic so she's hopefully on the mend....
This one was less than impressed with his Easter loot, but the Easter Bunny didn't forget about him! :)

Happy Easter!

We have already enjoyed lots of sweet Easter events! It feels super special after spending the later half of Holy Week in the hospital last year. We've done a few egg hunts, made bunny cookies, and visited the Easter Bunny! Now we need to boil some eggs for dying and make these -- grab some canned biscuits and large marshmallows and make them too! Super easy and a precious way to explain He is risen!