2016 March

In March we hit our 100th day of school.  It snowed/rained for a whole week and we hit a record for the most snow for our area.  The clothing store H&M opened.  Todd and I celebrated our 12th wedding anniversary. We celebrated Jesus' Resurrection the few weeks leading up to Easter.  We had friends come and visit us and Todd was able to get out of the city a few times and the art co op the kids participate in started up again.

He is Risen!

 Resurrection Rolls

 I didn't get a family picture but this one is the closest I got.  Ev's hair wasn't brushed or braided yet, oh well maybe next year! :)

After teaching the kids about Easter for the past 12 days I asked them to explain to me what they learned.  I got some great info out of them both deep, meaningful and funny.  Thanks for the laugh Ian.  Sorry, Jesus isn't a marshmallow now. 

The best was hearing Elijah say in his loud voice, "He is risen!"  "The tomb is empty."

Preparing for Resurrection Day

We have been leading up to Resurrection day by sharing in detail the story of Jesus' last days before he was crucified and the reason behind Him dying on the cross for us.  We are using our Resurrection eggs opening one every evening and going into detail about the meaning/story.  This year we are hanging the small symbols from the resurrection eggs on our tree made out of branches we collected outside.  This year we made an "mountain tomb" from Noel Piper's book, Treasuring God in our Traditions and we will make Resurrection Rolls on Sunday morning. 

Like Christmas we wanted to take out the "us" of Resurrection day and focus on Jesus and thankfully as we live in a country that doesn't commercialize American holidays so we can teach our kids the true meanings of holidays like Resurrection day.  No Easter bunny, plastic eggs, and fancy clothes here not that those are bad but we really want the kids to not be distracted by those things and think of candy and hiding eggs as the meaning behind Resurrection day. 

Having our "mountain tomb" out has lead to some great discussions with our babysitter/helper.  I have been able to share with her the real reason why Jesus died on the cross for us. 

 Jesus is still in the works, Ev made him out of clay and is planning on making a crown of thorns and some more things to add to him before we put him on the cross.

We add the symbols to the tree after the story is read. 

Resurrection Day

Easter Sunday Todd got up before 7:00am to turn on the NCAA final four games and I got up a little bit before to start making our Resurrection rolls. :) We hosted Easter brunch for the 3rd time in a row. I'm a little sad that next year our group will have to find another place to have brunch since we will be back in America.

At our play group on Friday the kids dyed eggs together. This was such a great idea. It was a lot more fun with a full table of little ones rather than just Ev and Elijah. Since I was carefully watching Elijah Ev was at the opposite end of the table dying eggs like they were going out of style. She was the oldest at the table but my kid had to be the egg hog!

With the egg dying kit came stickers and it was so fun to hear Elijah yell out "baseball!". I had to smile, the kid is more than obsessed with baseball but it made him happy to find baseball stickers to put on his eggs.

We had a great time at our Resurrection day brunch. This year we used the Resurrection eggs with the kids leading up to Easter. They loved them and still want to do them during our evening Bible story time before bed.

Elijah ate 3 bowls (kid bowl size) of cereal BEFORE brunch and probably ate for 2 hours once everyone was at our house. I really should get video of how much he eats to give the Pediatrician who is worried about him being under weight. I think he is just like daddy, who at high altitude can't keep weight on.

Preparing for Resurrection Day

I have been wanting to make decorations for Easter. (But started a little late.) We don't have plastic eggs so I couldn't do anything with those. But then the more I thought the more I am not sure I want to decorate with eggs. Why do we decorate with eggs anyway, why do we do some of the things we do to celebrate this holiday? I did some research online and read about the pagan background, hum... I don't know what we want to teach our kids. We have tried to be very intentional with other holidays especially Christmas and wouldn't Easter be just as special of a holiday?

Actually the word Easter comes from Eastre a goddess of fertility. I never realized this and prefer using Resurrection day instead. I like how in the language I am studying the holiday is called "Fu huo jie" (Resurrection) day.

One thing I like are the Egg trees I've seen on websites. So I created my own. On my way home from class last week I walked by this row of bushes and looked both ways before I tore off a few branches to use as my Resurrection Tree. I noticed that where I tore the branch off there was bright green inside so with my husband and helper looking at me like I am crazy I placed the 2 branches in a vase and added water. A few days later the buds started opening up. This was even better than I had planned. What looked like 2 dead branches came to life.

I decided to cut out small pictures of various things relating to the last week of Jesus' life. I hung them on the branches with some ribbon and had Ev color them. Next year hopefully she will understand the meaning behind the more. This year when I told her the story she wasn't too interested.

I'm also planning on making "resurrection rolls" for Sunday morning. If all goes as planned there will be a hole in the middle of the rolls. As if it was the empty tomb. How are you celebrating the holiday?