Easter 2012

This year we celebrated Easter a week early so we could celebrate with family on Easter.


We started 12 days before our celebration with Resurrection eggs. Each day you read a part of the Easter story in the Bible and then open the corresponding egg with the story. Avery and Alia loved guessing what was in the eggs before we opened them. The eggs were a great way to lead up to Easter and talk about why we celebrate Easter.


On Saturday morning we made Resurrection rolls for breakfast. This is a neat way to talk about Jesus and his Resurrection 3 days later. We made sweet bread the night before but you can use crescent rolls too. Take a marshmallow (it represents Jesus) roll it in cinnamon and sugar (they represent the spices used to prepare his body) and then roll the marshmallow in the dough which represents the tomb. We asked the kids what would happen to Jesus after 3 days. Avery said he would disappear or melt.


The tomb is empty! These make a really tasty breakfast too : )


We also did another experiment this year with vinegar and an egg. The egg Avery has in his left hand sat in vinegar for a week. It was a great discussion about osmosis. The egg really grew in size and the vinegar dissolved the shell. We shined a light on it to watch the yoke move around. Scott had the great idea to break the egg in baking soda to see what happened. When he cut the egg the yoke shot out at him from all of the pressure and then it made a big fizzy mess. The kids loved that he was covered in yoke.


This year we dyed our eggs with kool-aid. It was fun picking the colors out at the store and it was a simple mixture of 2/3 cup water to one packet of kool-aid. The house smelled amazing and the dyes were more vibrant than the Easter egg dyes.


Time to find the hidden eggs! Avery found a treasure map to help him find his eggs. Scott drew a map and placed x's where the eggs were.


We did picture clues with Alia. It took 3 eggs before she caught on to what she was supposed to do. She is holding the picture of the wagon to show how she knew where the egg was.


Baskets!


She immediately stuffed her mouth with a gumball.


Our annual Easter picture outside.


This year was memorable because in this picture we were tipping backwards. When Scott sat down the whole back side sunk into the ground.


Silly string fight! This has become a favorite tradition during Easter. Avery was very excited when he saw the string in his basket. It was nice to see Alia enjoy the game this year since she cried last year.




On Saturday we went to Rock Ranch for an Easter egg hunt. It is a 1,250 acre cattle farm owned by Chick-fil-A founder S. Truett Cathy. They hid 26,000 eggs for the kids to find. We came home with at least 50 eggs. The farm had many other things to do as well. The kids loved the animals and the tube slides.


I found this idea on Pinterest and brought them to Avery's school for his Easter party. It is a frosting bag filled with Annie's crackers and tied with a green ribbon.