Easter 2011

A rare picture ofthe whole family.

Spencer's 1st Easter

Caleb was being super careful while doing it all by himself.

My sweet little Abby.

Lauren and me.

The kids made these pics for the Easter bunny and placed them ever so neatly by the door while I was upstairs with Spencer.

Reading the Resurrection Eggs.

My beautiful girls.

A picture with our friends Kayla and Bethany.

Making Empty Tomb Rolls.

After much reservation, I went ahead and made Paula Deen's Almost Fat-Free Lemon Cheesecake. It was a little more work than the usual cheesecake, but it turned out to be a fabulous dessert.

More Great Easter Ideas

If you are looking for a simple story to explain Holy Week to your kids, go to this site. There is a 12 page printable.

Holy Week coloring sheets here. This is Catholic Icing's blog which has quickly become one of my favorites.

Catholic Icing has many wonderful activities you can do with your kids. There are too many to list, but she has a countdown to Easter as well as the Resurrection Story napkin rings pictured above.

For more craft ideas, visit Oriental Trading.

Print Easter Egg compliment slips here. You write a compliment on them and place them inside the eggs that your kids are going to hunt.

Easter Game/Lesson

I receive a quick email from iMOM every day. Today I received a cute Easter game that I can't wait to try. Check it out here.

Bouncing off my idea from St. Patrick's Day, I might even hide the eggs in the midst of my kids' mess in the playroom and tell them they have to put away their toys to find the eggs. I always try to make clean-up fun, otherwise, I lose it and start raising my voice and it just doesn't make for a fun bedtime at all.

Visit my other Easter posts here.

Be sure to check out my Easter "fun for kids" recipes on my cooking blog. There are about 5 I am going to do with my kids between now and Easter, such as lamb cupcakes, chick cupcakes, basket cupcakes, and cheesy Easter shaped bread (all found on Betty Crocker's website). I'll post those recipes in a few weeks. You can find meatless recipes as well.

Easter Activities For Your Family

The Jelly Bean Prayer
Red is for the blood He gave
Green is for the grass He made
Yellow is for the sun so bright
Orange is for the edge of night
Black is for the sins we made
White is for the grace He gave
Purple is for His hour of sorrow
Pink is for our new tomorrow
A bag full of jelly beans colorful and sweet,
Is a prayer, is a promise, is a special treat
May the joy of Christ's resurrection
Fill your heart and bless your life


More Easter ideas I posted last year.

Resurrection Eggs idea here.

Easter Story Cookies
To be made the evening before Easter (with older children). You can do this with younger children and leave out some of the information that they are not ready for.

1 c whole pecans
3 egg whites
1 c sugar
wooden spoon
Bible
1 t vinegar
pinch salt
zipper baggie
tape

1. Preheat oven to 300 (This is important, don't wait until you are half done with the recipe). Place pecans in zipper baggieand let children beat them with wooden spoon to break into small pieces. Explain that after Jesus was arrested, He was beaten by the Roman soldiers. Read John 19:1-3.
2. Let each child smell the vinegar. Put 1 t into mixing bowl. Explain that when Jesus was thirsty on the cross, He was given vinegar to drink. Read John 19:28-30.
3. Add egg whites to vinegar. Eggs represent life. Explain that Jesus gave His life to give us life. Read John 10:10-11.
4. Sprinkle a little salt into each child's hand. Let them taste it and brush the rest into the bowl. Explain that represents the salty tears shed by Jesus' followers, and the bitterness of our own sin. Read Luke 23:27
5. So far, the ingredients are not very appetizing. Add 1 c sugar. Explain that the sweetest part of the story is that Jesus died because He loves us. He wants us to know and belong to Him. Read Psalm 34:8 and John 3:16.
6. Beat with a mixer on high speed for 12-15 minutes until stiff peaks are formed. Explain that the color white represents the purity of God's eyes of those whose sins have been cleansed by Jesus Read Isaiah 1:18 and John 3:13.
7. Fold in broken nuts. Drop by teaspoonful on wax paper covered cookie sheet. Explain that each mound represents the rocky tomb where Jesus' body was laid. Read Matthew 27:57-60.
8. Put the cookie sheet in the oven. Close the oven door and turn the oven OFF. Give each child a piece of tape and seal the oven door. Explain that Jesus' tomb was sealed. Read Matthew 27:65-66.
9. Go to bed. Explain that they may feel sad to leave the cookies in the oven overnight. Jesus' followers were in despair when the tomb was sealed. Read John 16:20 and 22.
10. On Easter morning, open the oven and give everyone a cookie. Notice the cracked surface and take a bite. The cookies are hollow! On the first Easter, Jesus' followers were amazed to find the tomb open and empty. Read Matthew 28:1-9.

The First Day of Lent

While I had this great idea of posting my thoughts and the church's thoughts on Ash Wednesday, Lent, and The Passion of Christ, I just don't have the time today that I'd like to have to get it all down here. As most of you know I am an admitted OCD list maker so this is gonna take some time. I want to research things to do with my kids and get those things organized as well. So I'll work on that and hopefully get it posted by Friday.

I thought that instead, I'd remind you Catholic readers to check out my 'meatless' recipes on my cooking blog. To my surprise, nothing showed up in my 'labels.' That's because last year I had my recipes on this blog and recently I had the GREAT idea of making a separate blog for my recipes. And rather than just post all the recipes on the same day, I set them up to post daily through June! So, there are a few meatless recipes on Aggieland Mommy Cooks and I promise that there are more that will post in a few weeks.

Or you might check out what I posted last year about Easter. I have some cool activities you can do with your kids like the Jelly Bean Prayer, Easter Story Cookies, or Resurection Eggs. And one last thing, last year I found a cool 'scene' of Jesus at the Tomb at Hobby Lobby. I know they had some more in a few weeks ago but they weren't with the Easter stuff at the time. They were with the garden stones. This scene is an awesome visual for the kids. You might want to go check them out.

Now I really must get back to work. I have a humongo list of things I am supposed to be doing!

Easter Bunny 2007

Easter Bunny Picture 2008

Last year I started making some "year-by-year" scrapbooks for the kids. I have one Easter book for each child and I want to put their Easter bunny picture in each year until they stop going to see him. When they are older, I think it will be neat to go back and look at how they changed.

I have also made a birthday book for each child where I will put pictures of them with their cake. I have a Halloween book too where I'll put pics of them in their costumes and don't forget Christmas books for their pics with Santa Claus.

I know I took pictures of these books but I have no idea where my husband stored the pics on the computer and the actual books are in storage since we are trying to sell our house.

The Jelly Bean Prayer

The Jelly Bean Prayer
Red is for the blood He gave
Green is for the grass He made
Yellow is for the sun so bright
Orange is for the edge of night
Black is for the sins we made
White is for the grace He gave
Purple is for His hour of sorrow
Pink is for our new tomorrow
A bag full of jelly beans colorful and sweet, Is a prayer, is a promise, is a special treat
May the joy of Christ's resurrection
Fill your heart and bless your life

Found here

RESURRECTION EGGS

Have you seen these? Another version.

Easter Fun

Easter is always the first Sunday after the first full moon after the Spring Equinox (which is March 20). This dating of Easter is based on the lunar calendar that Hebrew people used to identify Passover, which is why it moves around on our Roman calendar. This year, Easter will fall on March 23. Based on the above, Easter can actually be one> day earlier (March 22) but> that is pretty rare. This year is the earliest> Easter any of us will ever> see the rest of our lives...and only the most> elderly of our population> (95 years old or above) have ever seen it this> early before. None of us> have ever, or will ever, see it a day earlier.> > The next time Easter will be this early (March> 23) will be the year 2228> (220 years from now). The last time it was> this early was 1913 (so if> you're 95 or older, you are the only ones that> were around for that).> > The next time it will be a day earlier, March> 22, will be in the year 2285> (277 years from now). The last time it was on> March 22 was 1818.> > So, no one alive today has or will ever see it> any earlier than this year.

Some Easter Fun activities I am gathering:
40 day Lenten chain
Fisher-Price Easy Egg Mosaic
Jelly Bean Picture
Cards
McCormick make your own egg dye & recipes for leftover eggs
Various activities
Kaboose
Kids' Soup
Jesus' Ministry Online Coloring Book
He Is Risen coloring sheet
Bible Coloring Pages Alphabet Theme
Family Fun
Child Fun
Printable Stations of the Cross coloring book

Easter Story Cookies

Easter Story Cookies
To be made the evening before Easter (with older children). You can do this with younger children and leave out some of the information that they are not ready for.

1 c whole pecans
3 egg whites
1 c sugar
wooden spoon
Bible
1 t vinegar
pinch salt
zipper baggie
tape

1. Preheat oven to 300 (This is important, don't wait until you are half done with the recipe). Place pecans in zipper baggieand let children beat them with wooden spoon to break into small pieces. Explain that after Jesus was arrested, He was beaten by the Roman soldiers. Read John 19:1-3.
2. Let each child smell the vinegar. Put 1 t into mixing bowl. Explain that when Jesus was thirsty on the cross, He was given vinegar to drink. Read John 19:28-30.
3. Add egg whites to vinegar. Eggs represent life. Explain that Jesus gave His life to give us life. Read John 10:10-11.
4. Sprinkle a little salt into each child's hand. Let them taste it and brush the rest into the bowl. Explain that represents the salty tears shed by Jesus' followers, and the bitterness of our own sin. Read Luke 23:27
5. So far, the ingredients are not very appetizing. Add 1 c sugar. Explain that the sweetest part of the story is that Jesus died because He loves us. He wants us to know and belong to Him. Read Psalm 34:8 and John 3:16.
6. Beat with a mixer on high speed for 12-15 minutes until stiff peaks are formed. Explain that the color white represents the purity of God's eyes of those whose sins have been cleansed by Jesus Read Isaiah 1:18 and John 3:13.
7. Fold in broken nuts. Drop by teaspoonful on wax paper covered cookie sheet. Explain that each mound represents the rocky tomb where Jesus' body was laid. Read Matthew 27:57-60.
8. Put the cookie sheet in the oven. Close the oven door and turn the oven OFF. Give each child a piece of tape and seal the oven door. Explain that Jesus' tomb was sealed. Read Matthew 27:65-66.
9. Go to bed. Explain that they may feel sad to leave the cookies in the oven overnight. Jesus' followers were in despair when the tomb was sealed. Read John 16:20 and 22.
10. On Easter morning, open the oven and give everyone a cookie. Notice the cracked surface and take a bite. The cookies are hollow! On the first Easter, Jesus' followers were amazed to find the tomb open and empty. Read Matthew 28:1-9.