Happy Easter!

Happy Easter everyone!! I hope you and your family had a wonderful Easter. I love Easter. As a child, we didn't put any extra emphasis on Easter and the Passover since we celebrate Christ every day and take the Lord's Supper every Sunday. But as an adult, I'm enjoying adding a little extra fun during Easter and adding some special things that remind of us Jesus' resurrection, so it's more than a fun bunny holiday.

This was Blue Knight's first Easter. He was so cute and is such an awesome baby! Truly a happy and laid back baby. We hosted lunch for my family at my house. Our kids got an Easter basket on Easter morning. The baby was the first up and crawled right to his basket. I was amazed he knew which one was his. Princess was up next. She had two baskets, she really wanted a bunny basket so she got that one too and it had a pink bunny in it. When she saw it, she ask, "is this mine?" I said yes and she said, "Oh thank you!" What a sweet and cute girl I have! Blue Knight was up last, and he liked his basket too.

We did a neighborhood Easter egg hunt that I started a few years ago. I also got smaller plastic baskets for my niece and cousin's daughter who came over for our lunch as well as my kids. So the kids got to go on another Easter egg hunt. Sadly, we didn't make it to the Easter egg hunt at church. We were all worn out. Blue Rock was disappointed but I think he was understanding as well.

I didn't do everything I wanted to do with the kids this year but we did dye eggs, went through the dozen resurrection eggs, I made toddler resurrection eggs, and we read lots of Easter stories, about Christ, the Easter bunny, and spring. I also made an egg sensory bin and Princess did great identifying colors and sorting the eggs. I hope you all had a great Easter!

How to Make Resurrection Eggs for Young Children

As part of our Easter traditions, we go through the resurrection eggs each year. I have a set I bought a few years ago and we're going through that with the kids, but I was wanting something more bite sized for my toddler and something we could use for Blue Knight, next year. Blue Rock also made some resurrection eggs at school yesterday, which are awesome! He and Princess enjoyed going through those last night. However, I still wanted something that was a little shorter and bite sized for the younger kids. These Resurrection Eggs for Toddlers and younger kids are perfect!

This set took me 5 minutes, at the most to make. It uses six eggs, instead of twelve. Blue Rock and Princess were both able to tell me about each egg after going through it one time. It's a great way to really bring home the story of Jesus and tie it in with Easter.  

Start with six different colored plastic eggs. I found these faith-themed eggs at Walmart. Aren't my kids the cutest? 

Egg 1: "Jesus ate dinner with his friends." Luke 22:14-15. Put bread crumbs or a bread shape in this egg. I cut out a bread shape from felt.

Egg 2: "The next day, Jesus died on the cross." John 19:17-18. Put a cross in this egg. I cut out a cross from some felt. 

Egg 3: "He was wrapped in cloth and placed in a tomb." John 19:40. Put a piece of cloth in this egg. I used a piece of white felt. 

Egg 4: "A stone was placed in front of the tomb." Matthew 27:59-60. Find a nice rock and place in the egg.

Egg 5: "Jesus' friends came to teh tomb. The tomb was empty." Luke 24:1-3. Leave this egg empty. 

Egg 6: "Jesus is alive! That's the sweet surprise of Easter." Matthew 28:5-6.

Easter!

I love Easter and I love celebrating our risen Savior. We had a lovely Easter this year. Sadly, I had a lot of fun activities planned but we didn't get to all of them. Some of my husband's cousins came in town and we spent a lot of the weekend with them including eating dinner with them Friday and Saturday night and having them over on Saturday for lunch. Which we are so glad we got to see them and spent time with them! We love our family and anytime someone is in town we love getting together. Easter Sunday, after church, we hosted my family at our house for an Easter meal. My niece who was born 16 weeks early got to come over to our house for the first time. I'm so glad she's able to get out some.

I was hoping to make Hot Cross Buns like last year, make Resurrection Cookies, and read more Easter stories leading up to Easter like we do at Christmas, but being pregnant and having a busy toddler and homeschooling a kindergartener keeps me busier than I could have imagined as well as really tired. Maybe next year we'll continue some of our family traditions. 

We did dye eggs with Blue Rock and Princess helped some. I coordinated a neighborhood Easter egg hunt again and they enjoyed hunting for eggs with our neighbors. They also got baskets full of goodies Easter morning and had a fun Easter egg hunt in our living room. Overall I think we had a great day!

Kids in their Easter clothes

Hubby's cousins

Kids with their cousin from Boston

More cousins

Kids Easter baskets

Easter morning

Princess loved her new bunny and book

Sweet cousins

More sweet cousins

My grandmother with all of her great grandkids and grandkids except my sister.

My grandmother and her great-grandkids

We celebrated my sister's birthday as well