Preparing for Easter

This is the first year that Daniel will be really able to "get into" and enjoy Easter so we have been thinking more about what traditions we want to start as we celebrate Easter! I am so thankful for the many ideas out there in blog land! Here are some that I think we are going to try this year!

1. We did these Resurrection Eggs last year and Daniel had a great time with it. We will do these again this year. You start 12 days before Easter and read a short portion of scripture and open up an egg each day...the eggs have little "toys" in them that relate to that days aspect of the Easter story. Daniel really enjoyed our advent calendar this past year and I'm sure he will love this again this year!

2. I have always heard about Hot Cross Buns and even remember the little jingle, "Hot cross buns, hot cross buns, one a penny, two a penny, hot cross buns"! But I don't remember ever having one. So I think as a fun baking project I'll make these with Daniel. He loves to help me in the kitchen so this will be a great way to involve him in helping me and a great teaching time about the cross. I found this recipe that look good.

3. I remember reading in Noel Piper's book and in it one of the things she did was make a tomb and use pipe cleaners to make "people" and use it all to act out the events of the Easter story. I think Daniel will really love this one...he has such a great imagination and he knows how to play really well! I like this idea because it's simple and doesn't cost a lot of money!

4. I have gotten most of my ideas from this blog and one of the things that this family does is have lamb for the Easter meal instead of ham....I haven't ever thought of this but I really like this idea. I really like lamb and we rarely have it since it is quite expensive, so this would be a treat and another way of giving us a tangible reminder about Christ being the Lamb of God.

5. I really also like her idea for the egg hunt. I'll just copy what she said cause it's really good!

"Easter egg hunts need not be about a bunny! They can also be a symbol of our relationship to our Savior. God tells us to seek him, just as those little children will be ernestly seeking those eggs: ”You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.” (Jeremiah 29:13) I have also thought it would be so nice to add little messages inside the children’s eggs with messages about God’s sweetness: “How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!” (Psalm 119:103 ESV); the rules of the LORD are true, and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb. Moreover, by them is your servant warned; in keeping them there is great reward. (Psalm 19:9; Psalm 19:10-11 ESV); etc… The candy is an excellent picture to your child of how wonderful a relationship with Jesus is… it is even better than candy!"

6. Making Resurrection Rolls will also be a tradition we start! Daniel will have such a fun time making these....and eating them will be great too. I can just imagine how he will have a blast putting the marshmallows in the rolls, covering the roll all up and then discovering the marshmallow is gone and it's left an empty space.....we'll get to talk lots about the empty tomb with this one!

7. I found this printable and I think I'll make a memory match game with it. Daniel has started to learn how to play the memory match game so this works for us at this stage.

8. Although Daniel is not into coloring all that much, he will do it some. So I will probably print off some coloring pages from here and http://ministry-to-children.com/easter-coloring-pages/ for him to do this year...I don't know that we will make this a tradition, probably just something for the kids when they are young.

9. Here is a printable that I'll probably put up in the dining room.

10. And last but not least at all is that we will be reading the Easter story from the scriptures. I think this will be the most important tradition that we start. It is tempting to read just from a children's Bible because it's easy to think that children will understand it better from that...but what a disservice to our kids to only read from a children's storybook Bible.

This site also has some great ideas...I don't think we will be trying anymore than what is listed above but maybe in years to come we'll try some of these.