Easter 2013

Oh how I love these special children!!

 

 

 

 

 

(Even that crazy one on the left!!)

 

HAPPY EASTER!!!

Easter Week -- Day 8

The long-awaited day of resurrection and hope arrived on Sunday!! (Along with our Easter baskets full of goodies!)

 

For our lunch before church, we participated in an "Easter Seder" as explained here: http://powerofmoms.com/2013/03/easter-seder-a-new-spin-on-an-old-tradition/

 

Basically we talked about the entire last week of Christ's life, reading scriptures and reviewing all the things we had talked about during the week. This was all done in conjunction with different foods and drinks that we partook of during each part of the Seder. (This was brand-new to us this year and I LOVED it. It was a great way to culminate our Christ-centered Easter week.)

 

 

I hope to make it part of our Easter traditions every year!

 

Doing these activities all week really gave me a greater love and appreciation for my Savior. Oh how I love Him and am grateful for every blessing and comfort that His atonement offers me. I feel like such an unprofitable servant at times, but I know that His love and mercy help make up for my many shortcomings. What hope and joy those words of "His is Risen" gives to us all!

Easter Week -- Day 7

Since Saturday was the day that Jesus rested after his death, we used the day to celebrate the "fun" part of Easter. After coming home from the baseball Easter egg hunt, we hid some candy-filled eggs inside our own home. Here the kids are anxious to get started...

 

 

(With Landon doing his usual "this is boring-I'm mad-Life is rotten" expression...)

 

The eggs were hidden high and low...

 

 

 

And all three ended up with quite the loot!!

 

Then we headed outside to hide the Easter eggs that we had decorated the night before.

We never did find one of these eggs. Either the dog ate it, or we'll be smelling something pretty stinky here soon!!

Eggs on the Baseball Field

We took serious advantage of all the free Easter egg hunts around town this year. Our last community egg hunt was on the Saturday morning before Easter. This one was at the local minor league baseball team field and was sponsored by a local church.

 

Landon decided this Easter Bunny wasn't so scary (at least enough to give him a high-five!)

 

The field was literally covered with plastic Easter eggs filled with candy...

 

 

Nolan got started first in the 0-2 field hunt.

 

 

After participating in so many egg hunts this year, he knew exactly what to do...

 

 

Landon went with Jason in the 3-4 year old field slot and then we had to clear the field while they prepared for the next two events.

 

Here is Abby waiting her turn for the Kindergarten-2nd Grade field event...

 

I loved this picture of all these little girls racing to get some eggs. We thought we had the best strategy (run out about 10-15 feet and start collecting since we thought everyone else would start picking them up right at the start line.) I guess everyone else gave their child the same strategy!!

 

With all of these Easter egg hunts, our candy supply should be set for a while!!

Easter Hunt

Here a few pictures of Abby and Landon conquering the Easter egg hunt at the Creamery the week before Easter. I had posted some pictures of Nolan since he was with me in the under 2 field while Jason took these pictures of the older two kids on the other field. We were really hoping they would find some eggs with "free ice cream" coupons in them, but alas all they got was candy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oh, and a hug from the Easter Bunny too!!

Easter Week -- Day 6

On Friday night we watched the most difficult scenes of "The Lamb of God." Watching the portrayal of Christ's crucifixion is so hard to watch and Abby had to close her eyes several times while watching it. We are so grateful that he was willing to endure such agony for the benefit of us all. Our activity that evening was to dye our Easter eggs, being sure to dye the very first one a deep red color in order to remember and honor the blood of Christ that was shed for us on Good Friday.

 

 

Nolan did not want to let go of the one egg we gave him...

 

 

But Abby and Landon thoroughly enjoyed dying their Easter eggs a myriad of colors...

 

 

 

 

I didn't quite trust this little booger with the dye so he had to just watch all of the festivities from a safe distance!

 

 

Our finished product!

 

 

(I LOVE Nolan's face in this one!! Don't you just want to squeeze him?)

Spring Project

Jason took last Friday off from work and finally put some of his power tools to good use. The house next door to us is being built so there has been a lot of leftover wood that the builders just throw in their trash bin. Jason has gone dumpster diving several times in order to stockpile some of this wood and we decided to build some permanent food storage shelves in the crawl space of our basement.

 

 

I think they turned out great and now we are anxious to fill them all up. Jason enoyed doing this project so much and can't wait to get started on his next one...whatever that may be!!

Easter Week -- Day 5

On Thursday we watched the movie "The Prince of Egypt" in order to help the kids better understand what the Passover is all about (it was the start of Spring Break so we had a perfect opportunity to do this during Nolan's naptime, saving us from some of his distractions!) Then that evening we ate some Matzo crackers (unleavened bread) to help remember the miracle of the passover for our Easter week activity.

 

We also watched a short segment from "The Lamb of God" movie that depicted the last supper, the suffering of Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane, and Christ being betrayed by Judas and arrested by the high priests in Jerusalem.

 

I hope the kids are learning a lot about Christ and the whole reason behind why we celebrate Easter through these activities. I know that my own testimony of the Savior has been greatly strengthened as I have prepared for each one of these teaching moments and I have thoroughly enjoyed this Easter season because of it.