Easter Fun!

Happy Easter!! Again, we filled our Easter week with all kinds of fun Easter, spring, and spiritual activities to spice up our holiday!  The start of it all of course were the Easter packages Grandma Hutchinson sent!  Kaylee had her very own package to open, which she loved!!  And the easter grass, though messy, was a hit for the kids!  I guess they got practice cleaning it up afterwards....!  Thanks Grandma for all the fun!

 Grandma sent egg decorating supplies in the package, so the next day, we decided to dye eggs.  Kaylee didn't actually get to participate in this one...but she had more fun than anyone opening up all the eggs Grandma sent and finding goodies inside to munch on!  It kept her very busy (and quiet) and entertained while I helped the boys out with dying eggs! 

 I found this awesome idea on pinterest to use a wire whisk to hold the egg in, so that it is easy to dip into the dye and easy to pull out (rather than those cheap wire holders or even spoons when the eggs just fall right off).  The whisks worked wonders!!  We also put hole punch stickers on the hard boiled eggs before we dyed them, so when the eggs were dry, we peeled off the stickers and there were little white circle designs left on the egg!  Fun!  After each dying about 6 eggs, Cooper was determined right then and there to eat 2 of his favorite ones!  And he did!  I never knew he liked hard boiled eggs so much!

 Every evening of the week of Easter we spent talking about something that actually happened to Jesus on the last week of his life.  Each night we talked about one event from the scriptures and had some kind of activity related to that event.  On Palm Sunday we talked a lot about Jesus' Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem and how the people waved palm branches towards him and laid flowers and garments on his pathway.  The next day at the kids preschool during their "chapel hour," the preschool had an awesome display of this very story.  They had a backdrop of the city of Jerusalem, a donkey set up, and palm leaves, flowers, and clothing on the ground.  It was an AHA moment for my boys, who knew the story really well by now!  I think they surprised the teachers at their knowledge of the story of Christ's Triumphal Entry!  Another night at our family time, we washed each others' feet, just as Jesus washed his disciples feet.  One evening we spoke of His death and used the glove activity to teach how the body will separate from the spirit, and then be reunited with the spirit when we are resurrected.  Another night we talked about the last supper, and Passover, and how it was a special holiday for the people in Bible times.  So we imitated a Passover meal with foods that may have been eaten on that holiday.  A plus was that we ate on the floor!!  We made "unleavened bread" or flatbread, had white rice, lamb on skewers, berries, olives, spinach leaves, raisins, and hard boiled eggs.  It definitely was a unique meal, but it was a lot of fun to learn about the Passover and what it may have been like!

 One evening we put together some goodies and went "Egging!"  We got white donut holes and pretended they were bunny tails.  Then we made colorful cupcakes with easter sprinkles (from Grandma's package) and filled some plastic eggs up with candy.  We took the goodies to a couple different families homes.  Nate took 1 boy with him to each house up to the porch where they left the goodies, hid some plastic filled eggs around their front lawn, and left a sign out front that said "You've Been Egged!"  I taught the boys what egging really was, and how we would "trick" our friends by telling them they got egged.  But then they would find our goodies and see that we were playing a fun trick, not throwing raw eggs! They thought this was super fun!  

 We had an Easter egg hunt picnic.  Cooper was in charge.  He helped me fill up plastic eggs each with different picnic lunch items: tiny BP&J sandwiches, grapes, cheese, apples, and crackers.  Then he was in charge of hiding all the eggs (6 eggs for each of the 4 kids).  He loved it!!  It was fun watching his little strategies to decide where would be the best place to hide them!! When he found a good hiding place, he would put 3 or 4 eggs in that same place, since it was such a good place to hide them!!  Cute boy!

 The boys then got to go find their eggs.  They each had to have 1 of every color in order to complete their picnic lunch.  Once they found them all, they settled on the grass (THATS RIGHT, WE HAVE AMAZING GRASS, FINALLY), to eat their picnic.  It was a ton of fun!