A few years ago, I got really fed up with Easter bunnies and all that crap. We found a great book at Seagull Book called Celebrating a Christ Centered Easter, by Janet and Joe Hales. We enjoyed doing some of the activities in it a few years ago, but we were moving last year on Easter weekend, so we didn't do it (Wow, that means we've been here for a year now!). So this year I was determined that we would try to make Easter more the big celebration it should be. I had a crummy cold, so I didn't have the energy and patience to do as much as we liked, but we had a good time. Each day we learned about what Christ did on that day during the last week of his mortal ministry, and did activities along with it. Before I pat myself on the back too much, I have to admit that there were many times that I'm sure I was yelling, "now sit down, be quiet, and listen about Jesus." Sometimes we just talked about it in the car on the way home from somewhere... Maybe next year we'll do better.
On Thursday we learned about the Passover and Last Supper, so we had a little Passover/Jerusalem meal. On the wall is the start of our picture time-line.
So lamb was too expensive (the cheapest piece was $16, which is way too much for me to buy just for the kids to sample lamb!) but we did have unleaven bread, bitter herbs and grape juice. The other stuff- olives, cheese, nuts, dried fruit, cucumbers, and lentils were things they suggested might have been eaten in Jerusalem in Christ's time. It was so simple, but the kids loved it, and it led to some great questions and conversations. Rob even ate my lentil soup (drowning it with lots of cheese). I put a bunch in the freezer, hoping it will still be ok next Easter.
One of my favorite things we did was the Love One Another Wall. We wrote nice notes to each other on posterboard on the wall. I used candy as a bribe to get them to write. It's amazing what power candy wields. They filled up the board and another. I just made a few rules: 1. What they wrote had to be unique- not the same for each person. 2. They had to write a note to a different person in the family each time, until they got through the family and could cycle through everyone again. 3. They had to be nice. Nathan, who has always had a hard time expressing any kind of compliment to Sarah started out by writing to her, "I hope you like Kindergarten." I guess that from him, it's quite a compliment. He got so he was writing to her, "I love you." and "thanks for playing with me." So I guess we can count that as a success. I love what Sarah wrote, as she sounded out words herself, like... "Mom, you or the beest" and "Mom, I wot you too bee mi mom mi whole life," and "Abby, you mack me laff." I love it! Not bad for a preschooler.
We still colored Easter Eggs.
Matthew was the coloring king. He thought it was the coolest thing; he couldn't get enough of it.
We went to a local Easter Egg Hunt in windy 34 degree weather. The kids were kind of wishing they hadn't begged so hard to go.
On Easter morning, we had Ressurection rolls. I wrapped roll dough around a marshmellow, then rolled it in butter and and sugar and cinnamon. When they cook, the marshmellow melts out, leaving the roll empty inside (like the tomb- get it?!).
Since Easter was also General Conference, we also had our traditional Sunday-morning-conference roll-up pancake breakfast. Why are all the best traditions associated with food?!
We had my sister Terri and brother Dan come up for Easter. We love having them around! I'm sure my kids made sure they didn't hear more than half of Conference.
What can you say to that face?!
My kids treat poor Dan like he's a jungle-gymn.
3rd Annual Easter Egg Roll
A few days after Easter, we had our 3rd annual Easter Egg Roll with my friend Jeannie. We look forward to it all year. Every day that we drive past the place we roll eggs, Matthew yells and points. We played on the track while waiting for Jeannie. Doesn't Abby look like she was just born to be on the track?!
We roll or throw our colored hard-boiled eggs down the hill. They are supposed to race to see who can get the egg down fastest, but it ends up being a free-for-all. Matthew loved to chase the eggs down, and carry up big arm loads.
Ben, Jeannie (about ready to pop in a few weeks!!!), and Sam.
Sweet little Ben just wanted to protect his eggs so they didn't get smooshed.
The hard part is picking up all the egg pieces when the eggs explode. We need more great traditions like this!
Abby must take after her Grandpa Z., who can't stand to see eggs go to waste. Eeeewwww.
Hope you had a great Easter!
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