Easter Fun

Well tonight we officially started our first Easter activity.  The kids have Easter parties on Monday and Thursday at "school" and need to bring pre-filled plastic eggs.  I went to Wal-Mart and bought some stampers and tonight I filled the eggs and the kids put stickers on them.  Since our Sundays are always busy we got ours ready tonight! 

 Reid picked a lot of Benny the Bull (a character from Dora) and Lightning McQueen stickers for his eggs.

 He had fun for about 10 eggs and then he decided to hang out on the couch. 

 Lilly probably would have put stickers on thousands of eggs!  She was a sticker-sticking machine!  ( ;

 She did some princesses, some sports, some Dora, and some cross stickers. 

 These are the stampers.  I am kicking myself because Oriental Trading Co had free shipping one day this week and I meant to order their "He is Risen!" stamps for a lot cheaper than these but I forgot.  Oh well these are cute too! 

 Our finished eggs ready to be hidden! I would love to tell you that I talked about Jesus at all while we did this but that would just be a lie.  Don't worry, though, because we have some activities this week that focus on the real meaning of Easter this week!  I am hoping to do an activity each night (like I did with the advent calendar before Christmas). 

 Reid's awesome teachers sent this basket home with him for us to do the Easter story this week.  I am so thankful that he has such great teachers to love on him!

This is what was in the basket along with instructions and a verse for each day. 
Sunday--palm branch--John 12:12-14
Monday--little lamb--John 1:29
Tuesday--butterfly--Ephesians 2:5
Wednesday--towel--John 13:1-5
Thursday--cup and crackers--Matthew 26:26-28
Friday--cross and nails--Matthew 27:32, 35, 50
Saturday--stone--Matthew--27:59-60
Sunday--empty Easter egg--Matthew 28:1-2, 5-6

I love this idea.  I am looking forward to doing it each night with the kids.

I found these awesome toddler/preschooler resurrection eggs off of Pinterest (also all of the following ideas came from there as well).  There are six eggs that we will make as we tell the Easter story.  There is a little poem that goes with them, too.  I LOVE these and I feel like they are much more on Lilly's level than the traditional resurrection eggs.  We are doing these in my KDO class, too. 

I love this stained-glass cross.  Last year my only Easter goal was for Lilly and Reid to know that every time they see a cross it should remind them that Jesus loves them.  So I am excited to make these with the kids and have them hanging on the window.  That is still my main goal for this year, too. 

We are going to make this little Resurrection Garden too.  I know they probably won't get the real meaning behind this yet but I know Reid will love playing in the dirt and with rocks. 

We will be making yummy resurrection rolls.  I am so excited because these sound so cool and so yummy!!

The rest of the activities are ones that I am hoping to get to as well!  I like this Empty Tomb Craft.

I also love this Caterpillar to Butterfly activity too.  I didn't know until this year that the butterfly is an Easter symbol.  The first stage is the caterpillar which stands for His life on Earth.  The second phase begins from the cocoon stage portraying the crucifixion and burial of Jesus.  And the third stage is the butterfly representing His resurrection and beautiful new life. 

This is a fun homemade soap activity that goes along with Jesus washing the feet of the disciples. 

I may let Lilly practice her cutting skills with this palm leaf activity. 

I am excited about all of these Easter activities.  I know we probably won't have time to get to them all but we will have fun trying! 

Well we spent the day working in the yard and now my allergies have gone crazy.  I am sooo thankful for the discovery of Cepacol!