Secular Saturday
I recently read on a mother's blog that her family has declared the Saturday before Easter, Secular Saturday. They egg hunt, color eggs, and she has even asked the Easter Bunny to deliver their Easter baskets on Saturday so their family can keep Easter Sunday focused on the Resurrection. I loved this idea so we tried to implement it as much as we could this year. We still plan on having the Easter Bunny visit Sunday mornings, but our hope is to squeeze in egg hunting, coloring eggs, etc on Saturday and focus on the Resurrection Sunday. This year we were assigned to clean our church Easter week so with Justin working nights...that means cleaning the church Saturday morning. With my broken foot and our 2 rambunctious children, I tried to be as much help as I could, but we spent all of Saturday morning cleaning. We then tried to squeeze in what we could after lunch and naps. We started with our own backyard Easter Egg Hunt, then we came inside to open our eggs and Easter baskets from their Mimi. We then held a fierce game of duck duck goose...not sure why, it just happened, and it was hilarious!
Easter Sunday
Because there just wasn't enough time Saturday to fit everything in, we still had to color eggs on Sunday. Ah well, maybe next year we'll get it all in and have our Secular Saturday. Sunday, we opened our Easter baskets and headed to church. We then, after lunch and nap, colored eggs. We even managed to squeeze in time to Skype some family and have our traditional Easter Sunday Ice Cream Sundaes. :) Happy Easter Everyone!
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| Secular Saturday- why do i think i can get them to both sit still and look at the camera for a picture :) |
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| not bad :) Off to clean the church |
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| Getting ready to go clean. He's just so stinking cute , I had to sneak this pic in. |
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| Looking for eggs in the backyard waiting on Mom and Dad to open the door for the egg hunt |
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| showing off his eggs |
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| egg hunting |
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| there's one on top of the fence |
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| filling up his basket |
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| opening our eggs inside. |
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| eating her bunny sucker ring from mimi |
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| opening her Easter basket from Mimi |
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| The Easter Bunny Came |
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| Claire's Easter Bunny Clip |
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| Ready for church |
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| Almost ready...one last playtime before we walk out the door |
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| After church, Claire discovering the Easter grass...my poor carpet :) ah well, she had a blast. |
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| After church, sporting the 80's Olive Oil sweatsuit that was mine when I was a baby...man baby clothes have come a long way. |
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| Coloring Eggs |
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| Easter Sunday Ice Cream Sundaes! |
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Ethan putting together his US puzzle. Boy does the Easter bunny know him :) We had to do it 3 times in a row, then we made him start getting ready for bed :)
Resurrection Help for kids
Ethan is 3...how do explain the resurrection to a 3 year old? This is what sparked our creative juices this Easter. Throughout the week leading up to Easter we held Resurrection themed FHE's and crafts to help plant the seeds. He may not be able to understand the real significance of the Resurrection but at least we can plant the seeds and help them grow each year. Here are a few resources we used.
-30 Christ-centered Easter Crafts and Activities:
-The New Testament Stories- short kid-friendly videos (we used Chapter 54: Jesus is Risen)
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-Library books: we headed to our local library and checked out a few kid-friendly Resurrection books to read with the kids
-Explaining the Resurrection: With our dwindling Primary, we have actually combined our Jr and Sr Primaries leaving 3rd hour open for the Primary Presidency to go to RS or go where needed. This Easter Sunday I filled in for one of our Primary Teachers and loved how the manual suggested teaching the kids about the resurrection. Here is what the Primary 3 Manual suggests. You will need a winter glove for this demonstration.
Show your ungloved hand to the children and tell them that when we lived with Heavenly Father before we were born we were called spirits. We could move (move the fingers on your ungloved hand) and think and learn.
When our spirits came to live on earth, we were given earthly bodies. (Put on the glove.) We could still move (move your fingers in the glove) and think and learn, but Heavenly Father gave us wonderful bodies to have and take care of.
When we die, the body must separate from the spirit (take off glove). The body cannot move by itself (indicate glove) but the spirit is still alive.
When we are resurrected, the body becomes perfect and is once again united with the spirit (put glove back on hand). After we are resurrected, we can never die again. That means that the spirit and the body can never be separated.
Emphasize that because Jesus Christ loves each of us very much, he died for us. Jesus was the first person to be resurrected. Because of what he did for us, we will be resurrected and may live again with Heavenly Father. When we think of Easter, we should think about the first Easter and remember the love that Jesus Christ has for us. He gave his life for us. He was resurrected. Now he lives in heaven with his Heavenly Father.
Point out that Jesus Christ’s resurrection is so wonderful that each year we celebrate Easter to show him how grateful we are for what he did for us.
