Easter Week

It's been a good week around here, with so many opportunities to celebrate, anticipate, discuss, read about, and prepare for Easter.  The kids have been engaged and involved in Holy week all week long.  What an honor and a responsibility to teach these young souls about the One who died and resurrected for them.

I planned a lot of activities this week, and I couldn't have done it without those crafty, creative women out there who share their great ideas online. Thank you, ladies. 

Making rice krispie treat eggs - 

We got to share our eggs on 2 play dates this week.  The kids loved sharing a yummy treat they had prepared themselves.  

We made tissue paper stained glass crosses - 

 

We made clay and then created this resurrection garden - more to come on this.

I got this shot this week of Lucy's teeth.  That snaggle-tooth look is so funny.

We all worked together on this one.  We made these egg decorations w/ water balloons covered in string dipped in a glue/starch combo.  It was a little tricky for the kids to do, but Luke and I really enjoyed making them.  The kids had the most fun popping the balloons once the string dried.  

Noelle created a new style on egg-dyeing day.  We've been doing a lot of experimenting since we're contemplating growing out her bangs.  

Woohoo!

Isaiah really got the hang of the white crayon this time -  

Luke's best egg plus his ribbon-dyeing experiment - 

Lucy was cracking us up over dinner that night w/ her squinty-eyed smile - 

This was my favorite activity of the week.  On Good Friday, we made this clay and played w/ it for a while.  Then, the kids made Jesus, his tomb, and trees out of the clay.  They gathered leaves from the yard, put Jesus in the tomb, covered the opening, and decorated the scene w/ greenery.

By Saturday night, the leaves were pretty wilted and lifeless.  On Sunday morning, I removed Jesus and replaced the wilted leaves with flowers.  Noelle was especially delighted by the flowers, exclaiming, "It grew flowers!  Wow!" and "Where is Jesus?"  

The kids also woke up to their Easter baskets, packed w/ a few things from us as well as gifts from well prepared granparents that sent gifts weeks ago.  Isaiah was especially excited about his origami book and origami paper.  He's made about 50 different things so far.  Noelle was very proud of her little white purse, which she filled with new crayons to go to church.  

Easter morning adorableness - 

The kids at church have an Easter lesson while the youth group hides the eggs - 

The hunt!  Lucy spent most of the time in my arms while the kids gathered.  Noelle was on the preschool side and Isaiah graduated to the K-5th side.  It's definitely a little more cut-throat on the big kid side and the eggs are well hidden all over the base and way up into the tree by the Fieldhouse - 

Finally, after egg salad for lunch and naps, we had our home hunt in the back  yard.  Once Lucy found some fruity cheerios in one of them, she was happy to hang out in Daddy's arms and munch on them.  

We bought lamb to make for dinner, but by the time Sunday night came, we were too worn out to cook.  So, it was El Pollo Loco for Easter dinner, which satisfied us all.  

Happy Easter.