Easter Week Festivities 2012

It is a goal of mine to make Easter a memorable and spiritual experience for my children.  I often feel frustrated by the way that elaborate Christmas celebrations can dwarf this Holy time. I had a huge list of fun activities I wanted to do with them this week, but Easter is in April.  This poses a huge dilemma for me because in my job, April is one of those months where I have literally no extra time.  Like I often don't cook or clean for 2 or 3 weeks because I can't do it all.  So, although we weren't able to do a week long countdown like I wanted, we definitely had some great activities to help us focus on Christ.  

As with last year, we started the week off by making our own Palm Branches and acting out the Triumphal Entry.  They loved it!

Most of the time.

Once we got all our Palm Branches made, we read the story aloud while the kids acted it out.  (We were pretty gender neutral because we have 2 girls and one boy.- Ha!)

Can I tell you how cute my daughter is?  I get to teach her Primary (Sunday School) class this year, and when I told this story to the other 3 year olds (about 2 weeks before we had this activity at home), I said, "And while Jesus rode in on the colt, the people waved their palm branches and do you know what they said?"  And Tori promptly replied, "Hosanna, Hosanna, Hosanna to the King!"  She LOVES this story.  And she often reminisces about when we had the same activity last year.

We also watched The Living Scriptures dvd, He Is Risen, but I didn't take any pictures of that because that would be a little weird.
Toward the end of the week, when things calmed down a bit, we made Resurrection Rolls!

This was super fun!  You take a marshmallow to represent Christ's body, and dip it in butter and cinnamon to represent the spices used on the body of Jesus.  Then you place the marshmallow in the tomb, or crescent roll and bake.  When you take them out, the body has disappeared!  Note:  I messed up and wrapped them incorrectly, so the marshmallow melted out onto the pan instead of inside the roll.  They were still Super Delicious!

 We even had our own Christian Passover Meal!

 Complete with Bitter Herbs...  None of the children were big fans of the bitter herbs, and maybe next year I'll be more ambitious and make my own (not if Easter is in April again!). But all in all, it was a wonderful experience.  I kind of combined some of the things we have done for this in years past with some ideas put forth on this blog, that my friend Carole shared with me.  I LOVE having each child read one of the 4 questions: " Why are we eating Matza tonight?"

"Why are we eating bitter herbs?"

"Why do we dip our herbs twice?"

"Why are we eating this meal reclining?"

I have to say that the answer to number four was the most moving to me.  I explained to the children that in the time of Christ, Free Men and Royalty, all those who were free recline ed while they ate.  And then said, "We eat this meal reclining, relaxed, safe and free because our Passover Lamb, Jesus, has bought our freedom"  And in that moment, I felt it.  I looked in their eyes and they felt it:  The Holy Spirit whispering to their hearts that Jesus has made them free.

And then,  all the exhaustion of the week, the stress of trying to make this meal happen that day, of putting it all together while children fussed and cried... it was all worth it.  The Holy Ghost will testify of truth and I know He spoke to them that day.

 The next day, we Colored Easter Eggs!

This is one experience that gets more fun the older they get.  They are getting more independent so there is less spilling and more fun!!

Even though we didn't get to do lots of the fun things I wanted, we read God's Word each day.  We came together as a family to remember Christ's sacrifice and victory. I do not share this with you to pat our family on the back, but as a record for my children.  I want my children to have our memories documented.  I want them to have images and words to put with the truth that God is teaching them.  Hopefully, they will look back and remember.

I am so sorry you are seeing this so late.  But I hope you had a blessed Easter, rejoicing in the truth that because He Lives, we can face tomorrow.