More Easter Day

Let the egg wars begin.


This is something Joe and his siblings did with their Easter eggs when they were growing up.


Smash one end of your egg against the end of someone else's. Only one egg will crack.


Checking whose was cracked.


Grand Prize:
The winner smiles with satisfaction before everyone finishes peeling and eating their eggs.

After a hard-boiled egg breakfast and getting ready for the day, we were off (like a herd of turtles) for a nice ride through the countryside...

...where we spotted some actual turtles going for a little dip.


Shortly after we stopped to watch all of the turtles, Kathleen announced that she didn't feel very good.

Diagnosis: candy overconsumption

I'm thinking it didn't help her stomach much to be looking at the turtles crawling around in this gross sludge.


See how pale she was? Mary Kate wasn't looking much better!

(Okay, so unfair. I had my flash on, and MK was also victimized in this one.)

This one is a little better!


Jimmer was so kind to organize the candy from Joe's basket.

He sorted each type of candy and put them into individual eggs.
Then he put tape labels on each egg holding Joe's goodies.

B.J. = black jelly beans
J.B. = jelly beans
M.P. = marshmallow Peeps
M.B. = (malted) milk balls
C.E. = chocolate eggs

Then put them in a couple of zip-lock bags. All to make it "easier" for Dad.


So much for a leisurely ride through the countryside grazing on candy for Joe. He had to fumble around the baggies and work at finding his candy of choice all the while thanking Jimmer for helping him make it easier!

Easter :: Egg Hunt

Alleluia!


Late night last night.
A 3+ hour Easter Vigil Mass followed by a reception with cake and goodies.
(It was the first time we went to the vigil with kids. A beautiful Mass!)

Got home at 12:30 AM.
Kids got to bed around 1:00 AM!.
They woke up rarin' to go this morning at 6:30 AM.


First scene of the day.


Kids waiting to start the egg hunt--indoors this year since it's rainy out today!

It was all a blur for about 5 minutes...





...until all the eggs were found.

Then it began.




The sugar ingestion.

Easter Story Craft

As I'm trying to make sure all of our holidays (holy-days) are learned and remembered by our kids as holy, I've done some fun activities with them to help them remember the "reason for the season". Here's one Easter activity we've done. I did this with our kids when our oldest ones were 7 years old and our youngest child was 3. Since it focuses on Jesus passion and death, it seemed too brutal to have the kids concentrate on this when they were younger.

Fill an egg carton with plastic, colored eggs. Number the eggs 1-12 and fill the eggs accordingly:

Egg #1: 3 dimes – Judas was paid 30 coins for betraying Jesus.
Egg #2: a piece of bread – This represents the Last Supper.
Egg #3: a piece of red cloth – Jesus was dressed in scarlet robes and mocked.
Egg #4: a piece of stick – They placed a crown of thorns of Jesus’ head.
Egg #5: a piece of string – This represents the whip used to scourge Jesus.
Egg #6: pieces of toothpick glued into the shape of a cross – Jesus carried the cross.
Egg #7: 3 small nails – Jesus was nailed to the cross.
Egg #8: a strip of paper reading “INRI Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews” – They nailed this inscription to the top of the cross.
Egg #9: a piece of sponge – They soaked a sponge in wine and tried to give it to Jesus while He was on the cross.
Egg #10: a toothpick with a red tip – They stuck a spear in Jesus’ side.
Egg # 11: a small rock or pebble – They rolled a rock in front of His Tomb.
Egg #12: empty – Jesus rose from the dead.

Resurrection Rolls & Cookies

Every Easter morning our kids look forward to making these really yummy rolls. The rolls ends up being empty tombs! How could it get any better--a meaningful AND yummy recipe! See the recipe here.

Another meaningful recipe to represent Easter is this one for Resurrection Cookies.