Easter Baskets

Palm Sunday

On Palm Sunday, we had a small impromptu play at Sunday Night Life. Becky Harvey read the story from the Bible while the kids acted it out. Joe Harvey was in the play as the donkey. The kids really enjoyed themselves!

Easter Egg Hunt

We had an Easter Egg Hunt on Saturday. Fortunately, we had nice weather in the afternoon. I didn't hide the eggs well enough and the kids found them in 2-3 minutes. I will have to do better next year.

Dyeing Easter Eggs

Our upstairs neighbors had an egg dyeing party on Saturday. Quite a few people from their church were there. They invited our kids up to help.

Happy Easter

This morning we woke up to cold weather and snow flurries, so we did our pictures inside. Isabelle still wore her sleeveless dress. We took her sandals to church so she could wear them inside. (It's usually about 80 inside church.)
We had lunch here after church, and the kids decided it was too cold to play outside. We are going to our neighbor's Korean church this afternoon. They have a church that meets in their apartment. Today they are using one of the bigger classrooms in the school and having a Korean/French service. They invited all of the neighbors.
I hope everyone is having a nice relaxing Easter Sunday.

Hot Cross Buns and other Easter traditions

As a child, I looked forward Easter each year. When we were young, my two sisters and I would have matching dresses, hats, and white gloves. As we got older, we didn't want to match anymore, but we had a new dress each Easter.
Another highlight of Easter was always our Easter basket, with dyed eggs and of course, lots of candy.
I want to make some special memories for our kids with Easter, too. Here are some of the things we have done.
1. We always have Easter baskets, but I gave them away before we moved. I didn't want to buy anymore, because I know we will just get rid of them when we move again this summer. I'm not sure if I will maybe do a temporary type of basket. I haven't really had time to think about it yet.
2. We like to have an Easter Egg hunt. Last year we did ours indoors. I'm hoping the weather will cooperate for an outdoor hunt this year.
3. We always read the Easter Story from a children's bible or book. We want to make sure the kids know the true meaning of Easter. This year we have been reading the events leading up to Easter at family devotions.
4. Last year I made Hot Cross Buns for the first time. I like the symbolism of the cross for Good FridayThere are pictures of kids enjoying their Hot Cross Buns here. This year I think I am going to make some to share with neighbors. We are out of class tomorrow, the kids are out of school and I think they will enjoy doing this as a project.

Check here for more ideas for Easter Dessert ideas. There are some yummy looking recipes, but I don't know that I will have time for much cooking this year.

Happy Easter

Isabelle and Kathleen were very excited to dress up in their fancy dresses for today. They both wanted their hair curled. But Kathleen decided she didn't like it, so she went to church with only one side curled. Ian woke up sick this morning, so he and I stayed home from church. Stephen took the other three kids with him.

Easter Egg Hunt

We had an indoor Easter Egg hunt for the kids yesterday. They had fun looking around for the eggs. After they were finished they took turns hiding toys and other things for each other to find. It was very cute!

Hot Cross Buns

Another tradition that some people observe at Easter is serving Hot Cross Buns on Good Friday. I wasn't planning to do it, but Caleb got up at 6:30 this morning. Everyone else slept in for 1 1/2 - 2 more hours. Instead of catching up on some of the things that are constantly piling up, I decided to try the Hot Cross Buns. I didn't have any raisins, so I used dried cranberries. The kids picked the cranberries out of theirs, but otherwise they were a big hit. I'm not sure if it will become a tradition for us, but it was fun for this year.
Ian is looking sad in the picture, because he can't have any. I made him other rolls, but they weren't done yet.
I was wondering why Easter is so early this year, and I found this information online.

^{Easter is early this year. Easter is always the 1st Sunday after the 1st full moon after the Spring Equinox (which is Mar. 20). This dating of Easter is based on the lunar Calendar that Hebrew people used to identify Passover, which is why it moves around on the chuch Calendar. Based on the above information, Easter can actually be one day earlier (Mar. 22) that is rare.}

Here is Interesting Information:

This year is the earliest Easter any of us will ever see the rest of our lives! Only the most elderly of our population have ever seen it this early (95 years old or above.) None of us have ever, or will ever see it a day earlier!

Here Are The Facts:

The next time Easter will be this early, (Mar. 23) will be the year 2228 (220 years from now.) The last time it was this early was 1913. If you are 95 or older, you are the only people that were around for that! The next time it will be a day earlier, Mar. 22, will be in the year 2285 (277 years from now.) the last time it was on Mar. 22 was 1818.

So…… no one alive today has or will ever see it earlier than this year! Interesting!!

Preschool Easter Party

Yesterday was the Preschool Easter Party for Isabelle and Kathleen. They were very proud of their "bunny bags." They had snacks and then Mrs. Olsen passed out various treats for them to take home. Kathleen was convinced that it was Easter, and she wanted to know why I didn't have anything for her. I took more pictures of the rest of the day, and I will try to get them posted today or tomorrow.
I made the pictures small, because there are so many. If you wish to see them larger, you can click on each one.

Easter Plans

I was trying to decide what to do for the kids for Easter this year. This will be our first year since we have moved to MT that we will be home for Easter. The last three years we were in KY, Kalispell (about to go to Las Vegas), and Florida. I don't have Easter baskets for the kids.
I have great memories of Easter baskets from when I was a kid, and I wanted to do something for our kids. Knowing we are going to move this summer, I didn't really want to go out and buy baskets that I would have to get rid of or pack when we move. I also didn't want to give them very much candy. We are pretty strict about sweets.
I found an idea online for a "Reverse Easter Basket." (I included the instructions below.) We started that last night.
Mary Jo also gave me an idea to have one Easter basket for all of them. I have a big basket that I can use, and some green metallic grass (thanks to Lowell and Bonnie), so I don't have to buy anything for that. I did buy some plastic eggs, one bag of jelly beans and one package of peeps. I plan to hide the eggs for an Easter egg hunt (maybe on Saturday) and have a few in the basket. In addition to the candy, I'm going to put coins, stickers, and other small toys in the eggs. I have some bubbles and pencils that I bought last Monday that can go in their Easter basket.

Reverse Easter Basket

Palm Sunday: Start with a large empty basket, add palm leaves (made out of paper, crayon drawings, whatever) and talk about how Jesus rode into Jerusalem.

Monday: add a towel - Jesus served others and even washed the disciples’ feet.

Tuesday: add a small bottle of Perfume or Cologne - Mary, Lazarus' sister anointed His feet with oil.

Wednesday: add Silver coins - Judas' price to betray Him.

Thursday would have been Jesus' last supper, Passover: add Unleavened bread and wine

Friday, the crucifixion: add a crown of thorns or a lamb - Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. John 1:29

Saturday: Cover the basket with a linen cloth.

SUNDAY! Take off the grave clothes and add a king's crown!

Animal Kingdom- Part Two

The highlight of Monday afternoon was a safari ride. The idea of the ride was that we were trying to rescue a baby elephant from poachers. We saw lots of African animals along the way. They were very close to where we were driving, so we could see them very well. The last picture is of Stephen and Ian on the train ride. They were so bored they fell asleep. (for pretend.)
It was raining lightly at the time, so the rest of us were in a shop trying to wait out the weather. Unfortunately, it stayed rainy, so the kids were done with the animal kingdom. We headed back to the hotel. We were hoping that we would be able to go back for the evening, but it kept raining. We settled for popsicles in our room instead.