Easter Fun

My husband and I want to be very careful about making sure our family focuses on the real meaning of Easter and the significance of what Jesus Christ accomplished on the cross.  But, as I'm sure you are all aware, Easter in our culture has become focused around many other things including candy, the Easter Bunny, egg hunts, baby animals, and anything and everything pastel.  We want to guard closely the hearts and minds of our children, but we also want to make sure that we don't remove them from the world that we desperately hope they will be laboring for Christ in. 

Ten days before Easter we read the entire story of Easter (from the time of Jesus's entrance into Jersulem on Palm Sunday until his assention to Heaven).  Each day we read from either a different children's bible or from a different translation of the Bible.  We read from the Beginner's Bible (New Testament) - by Zonderkids, The Beginner's Bible - by Karyn Henley, The Jesus Story Book Bible-  by Sally Lloyd-Jones, and the ESV, NIV, and NASB translations.

By the time Easter Sunday came around Addilyn was so excited she was shouting at her brother, "Josiah! Jesus is ALIVE!  Jesus is ALIVE!"  Oh, the joy that overwhelmed my heart in that moment was beyond description.  However, by the time we got to church her phrase had changed and now she was telling everyone, "Jesus is higher."  I'm not sure if this was because we sang Hosanna in the Highest or spoke about how Jesus had risen, but either way she just had to tell everyone "Jesus is higher!"  What a funny two year old.  All this to say, despite my lack of motivation, God used His word to penetrate my kids heart and I loved it!!!  Other activities for we did this week just for fun were:

Resurrection Rolls

Resurrection Rolls are the perfect treat to make with your little ones to share the meaning of Easter.  One of my sweet neighbors knew I was feeling a little burnt out from preparing  lessons but knew I really wanted to celebrate the true meaning of Easter.  She not only brought me all the supplies for this activity, but also supplies to make a crown of thorns with crackers, peanut butter, and pretzels (but I don't have any pictures from that activity). Anyway, here are the ingredients and directions.

• One can of crescent roll dough
• 8 large marshmallows (or one for each roll you’ll be making)
• Melted butter
• Cinnamon sugar

Read John 19 while the oven is preheating to 350.

Unroll the crescent rolls and place on a rimmed baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Explain that this is like the cloth they wrapped Jesus in.

Give your child a marshmallow and explain that it represents Jesus,

all white and pure because He was without sin.

Roll the marshmallows in the melted butter.

This symbolizes the embalming oils.

Roll the marshmallows in the cinnamon sugar.

This is like the spices used to prepare his body for burial.

Wrap the marshmallow in the crescent roll cloth, pinching the dough together securely. This represents how they wrapped Jesus’ body.

Put the rolls in the oven (symbolizing the tomb) and bake for 12 minutes.

 While the rolls are baking, read John 20:1-18.

Open the tomb and remove the rolls. When they’re cool enough to handle, break one open and discover what happened to the marshmallow.

JESUS IS RISEN!

Happy Easter!

City Easter Egg Hunt

Egg hunt and other plastic egg games at our house!

YMCA Easter craft party!

YMCA Easter egg hunt.

Neighborhood Egg Hunt

We hid eggs all over our yard and invited all the neighborhood kids to come hunt.  Josiah was a GREAT egg-hider.

And, just for fun, I thought I would share some pictures from last year.  Here is a picture of my sweet Addi-girl using the holes in a plastic egg to add glitter to her paint sample egg garland we had made.

And here she is making her tissue and contact paper cross (that hung in her bedroom window until October).  Ha ha!

Posted in: Easter, Holidays