Easter Day 2012

S in his Sunday best

Easter morning held extraordinary promise. The kids woke up to find their jelly bean jars sitting at their places at the breakfast table. We made it to the early service at church, and I even had started the roast in the crock pot early that morning. Our refrigerator held a tremendous number of dyed hard-boiled eggs, and our front yard beckoned me to utilize its hiding places for the egg-hunt.


 
After church, we drove home where I hurried to get the rest of dinner going in order to enjoy a mid-day meal. While the food was in the oven, I hid the eggs. Then, I rallied my troops and sent them out to hunt for the hidden eggs. They excitedly ran around the yard, filling their baskets with eggs. H needed a little help, so I eventually guided him to the proximity of the evasive eggs. Toward the end of the hunt, we experienced some unhappiness due to certain eggs not being found by the proper person, but that passed, and we enjoyed an Easter dinner as a family. The rest of the afternoon was spent on unplanned activities.

One of the marbled eggs waiting to be found

H reaching for an egg

H opening an egg. He spilled jelly beans all over the ground.

AJ looking across the yard

K finding an egg



More Easter Traditions

On Good Friday, the kids and I baked Resurrection Rolls. The simple ingredients provide a hands-on explanation to children about the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. A marshmallow represents His body, which is dipped in melted butter and cinnamon and sugar. These represent the oils and spices that were used on Jesus' body before burial. The crescent roll dough represents the tomb where he was buried. After baking, the marshmallow has melted, leaving an empty "tomb".

I had seen these made before, but this is the first year we used them as part of our Easter education. The children all enjoyed them, and I think I will keep them as a yearly tradition in our family.

We also boiled and dyed more eggs in preparation for the Easter egg hunt. I had seen instructions online detailing how to marbleize eggs, and I was "dyeing" to try it (excuse the pun). I didn't want to get too messy, so I only used three colors as the base and one to create the marbleized effect. I thought they turned out looking pretty cool, and I plan on doing this in future years.

Easter Eggs

We took yesterday off from school. I wanted to focus a little on Easter and share in some Easter-related activities with my kiddos. I boiled 31 eggs in the morning, and we dyed all but the four that cracked during the boiling process or due to mishandling by a certain two-year-old. This provided my kids with nine eggs each to dye.

K dissolved the tablets in vinegar, and we added water. Then the kids gathered around the table to add color to the egg-shell palates. They worked well together, and they seemed to really enjoy the process.

One of the best parts of the process was that they wanted to eat some of the eggs when they were done. This gives me hope that we won't have a fridge full of hard-boiled eggs that no one will eat. We are down to 19 eggs, and we haven't even held a hunt, yet.  

Jellybean Jars

I saw this link online about a Lent activity for kids using jelly beans and jars. Each color represents something different, and they have an opportunity to earn one of each color each day. White represents the grace of God, and it cannot be earned. On Easter they will find the remainder of their jars filled with white jelly beans.

I thought this would be a great activity to do with my kids over the next few weeks, so yesterday, I bought a couple of bags of jellybeans and some small canning jars. We sorted the jellybeans by color, and the kids were very curious as to how they could earn jellybeans for their own jars. Today, they went out of their way to model the appropriate behavior for each color, earning jellybeans for forgiveness, kindness, sacrifice, and more.

Although we started this craft a tad late in the season, I am looking forward to the discussions and behavior this activity will inspire.

An Early Easter

Due to traveling, we celebrated Easter a week early this year. The kids missed out on dying eggs and making Easter cookies, but they did get a Easter Egg hunt and plenty of treats.

My in-laws hosted the Easter dinner and egg-hunt, and the kids had a ball hunting for eggs in their back yard.



H putting an egg in his basket




AJ finding an egg that was wedged between two rocks.




K finding and egg for H.




My beautiful girl with her basket and little bro.




On the hunt




Examining his eggs




AJ with his basket of eggs




H with Daddy




Daddy helping H pick his eggs back up after dumping them out.

 After the egg hunt, the cousins dressed up and acted accordingly. We had our pirates and our princesses.  The pirates fought each other, and chased the princesses.



AJ the pirate



Two princesses



My little chick

 Although everyone had fun, I realized that I enjoy spending Easter at home. I like cooking an Easter meal, attending the Easter services, and participating in all the Easter activities with my kids. Unfortunately, we arrived home on Easter day, and the meaning of the day was lost on our jet-lagged crew.