Easter Week 2021

We had a fun week counting down to and celebrating Easter!

This year, we used these Resurrection Eggs from Family Life to countdown to Easter. Overall, it's a good resource, and the items themselves were good quality {enough to withstand our chaos}. I do feel like it left out several parts of the story, so I ended up having to supplement, which wasn't a big deal. 

We made a fun craft for Palm Sunday; Mrs. Debbie is always so sweet to think of us and send home crafts from church. And anything to do with scissors and glue is a big hit in our house haha.

We made an Easter Egg Fruit Pizza! The kids loved getting to put the fruit on the pizza, and of course, they loved eating it :)  Aiden was more interested in the fruit than the cookie and cream cheese frosting, but the twins loved the whole thing.

We had our own little Easter egg hunt inside on Saturday morning. It was pretty chilly outside, so we just kept it indoors, which the kids didn't mind at all. They were just excited to hunt for eggs and then open them up to find fun treasures!

This year, we also made Resurrection {or Empty Tomb} Rolls. We used this recipe, and they were so yummy! The kids love helping in the kitchen, and this is such a perfect visual for the empty tomb. Because we had been talking about the cross and the resurrection all week, they knew immediately what the empty roll represented. So many times I don't think they're listening or paying attention, but with repetition, it definitely sinks in. It might be much later, but I'm thankful to catch glimpses of how the Lord is connecting the dots for them...and it makes the hard parts of teaching little ones worth it.

Our church also surprised us with another Easter egg hunt! They "egged" members' houses by hiding eggs in their yards, filled with candy and a shorter version of the Resurrection Eggs. And thankfully the weather was nice enough that we were able to hunt for eggs outside this time.

Mike had a full morning at church, starting with a sunrise service, followed by 3 more Easter services. Since we can still only fit a certain amount of people in the sanctuary to abide by social distancing guidelines, they wanted to be sure there was enough room for everyone who wanted to be there in person. {And they require masks and registration at all of their services, and have throughout the whole pandemic}. I'm still not quite ready to have the kids in Sunday School, and it's pretty difficult to wrangle 3 kiddos solo. So we stayed home and joined in online. 

We gave the kids their Easter baskets later in the afternoon, as a fun final Easter activity. We fill their baskets with books and small toys, as a celebration of the resurrection. We give gifts to celebrate at Christmas, so we like to do something small at Easter too. 

It was a FULL, fun week of Easter activities. It was definitely more than I had originally planned, but I am glad that the week was full of fun memories that pointed us to Jesus. Happy Easter!

1000 Hours Outside :: March

There were many days in March that were still cold {and still more days Mommy wasn't feeling well}, but we caught a glimpse of spring, and we took advantage of the nicer weather whenever we could! 

The backyard has become our little oasis, and the kids are loving the opportunity to play in the dirt. They run and chase each other, pick flowers, try to climb the trees, and make weed/dirt pies. They started picking weeds, and I just didn't have the heart to stop them. Might as well get some yard work done, right? :)

Also, Eli and Maddie basically live inside this tree. They hide things inside, go searching for them, build houses/tents for their babies, and basically have a grand old time in that tree. If there is anything living in it, I'm sure it stays as high up and away as possible.

And of course, the sandbox is always a hit :)

We also got to explore some parks in our area. We took a walk in our neighborhood to check out Mink Meadows Park, which is basically a large pond with some disc golf stations and a few trails through the trees. It was small, but we were the only ones there at the time, so we were able to explore all we wanted.

Eli and Maddie played a little in the water...

...while Aiden stood back and watched haha

We planted flowers on National Plant a Flower Day! I had bought zinnias to plant, because they were cheap, pretty, and are supposed to be easy to grow. And then when we received our caterpillars in the mail, they came with a packet of wildflower seeds. There's a mix of cosmos, crimson clover, blue lupine, baby snapdragon, lemon mint, and purple coneflower. We will grow them inside in pots first, and then hopefully get to transfer them outside. So we'll see what we are able to grow!

Day 1 :)

Day 20- no flowers yet, but plenty of green :)

We also just enjoyed several walks around our neighborhood, which is always a crowd favorite. And if we can find sticks...we're golden :)

Apparently our walk was too long for Aiden. He just sat down in the middle of the trail. He was done haha.

Eli's antler

Maddie's antlers :)

This boy and his sticks

But our favorite outdoor activity in March? Bike riding! We had talked about getting the kids bikes for Christmas, but since we weren't in a permanent place, we decided to wait. We finally pulled the trigger and went the balance bike route. They mostly walk the bikes right now, but they absolutely LOVE them! We got to ride them in the church parking lot, and we also adventured out in our neighborhood.

And who doesn't love just running in an open field? Murrey Park

Here's to more fun adventures outside this spring!