Our Easter Weekend

As my kids grow, I want our home to be a home of celebration and tradition. We want our children to see Christ in our day to day lives and in these traditions that we set. We don't want Easter and Christmas to be about candy and presents, but to focus on Jesus. There are many ways to do this. I am not particularily creative, but to quote a friend I am "resourceful". That is just a nice way of saying I take other peoples ideas and tweak them to fit our family.

To set the tone, the kids awoke to a cross draped in black. The tablecloth was also black.

After breakfast, they each painted a cross. They were to paint it any way the wanted but it was supposed to show how thankful they were to Jesus.

Ava definitely understood this year and took great care in making her cross.

Then they wrote on their crosses. (I wrote on Phin's obviously. Ava wrote "Thank you, Jesus (complete with backwards J;) I love you, Ava." (melted my heart!)

After dinner and Grammy and Babb's arrival, we did the "Easter mountain" from Noel Piper's book on Christian Traditions. Marc told the story of Jesus crucifixion.

Then Ava placed Jesus in the tomb.

...and Phin placed the stone.

Jesus stayed in the tomb all weekend.

Then, I passed out large index cards. Each card has the persons photo on one side and a verse about Christ's sacrifice on the other. We read the verses aloud.

Finally, we placed our pictures at the foot of the cross to remind us that Jesus died for OUR sins, each one of us.

We went to bed with thankful hearts, but also contemplative hearts. Our Lord suffered on our behalf. It's so much to comprehend! The black remained on Saturday, as the Light of the World was 'out'. The kids watched a claymation movie on the life of Christ on Saturday evening. The crucifixion had great impact this year on Ava.

BUT THEN CAME SUNDAY....GLORIOUS SUNDAY!!!!!!

I wanted my kids to feel the celebration as soon as the entered the kitchen. The black cloth on the table was changed to white; there were flowers and balloons. Jesus was no longer in the grave. Music was playing in celebration.

The empty tomb...what cause for celebration. Our Lord has conquered the grave and LIVES.

Easter Morning the Cross was draped in white and surround by blooming flowers. It's a celebration! HE HAS RISEN!

Chloe's first Easter Basket...she LOVED her soft brown bunny.

My three monkeys with their Easter baskets, waiting to be filled.

Easter Egg Hunting

We had twenty two "Resurrection Eggs." I had made with my mom's group a couple of weeks ago. Each egg contains a prop to be opened in order as the Easter Story is read. (My favorite is the egg that contains a small section of a branch with thorns to be opened when talking about the crown of thorns. It had great impact when my children could actually touch the thorn with their fingers and therefore better imagine how painful it would be to have a crown of them jammed on their head!) The final egg was EMPTY because the TOMB WAS EMPTY on Easter morning. Jesus is ALIVE!

Happy Easter!