Easter

We had a wonderful Easter weekend.  We headed to my brother's house on Saturday.  The kids played their hearts out Saturday afternoon with cousins and then we hired sitters and all the adults in my family and baby Bailey went out for dinner.  It was nice to enjoy the evening together.  The kids thought it was fun to have a slumber party with cousins on Saturday night.

We went to church with my parents on Sunday morning.  Shane wasn't one bit shy during the Children's Sermon and decided to start dancing on stage.  He definitely caught every one's attention and made his mark at my parent's church!

Our 3 Little Blessings on Easter morning! 

It gets harder and harder to get a good picture of all the kids together.  They have so much fun together.  Poor Shane the only boy with 6 girls.    

I loved this picture of Tyra kissing Emma.  They are always hugging each other. The love to play dress up and babies together.

Sweet Baby Bailey's first Easter!

Grammy's always seems to get such fun things for the kids Easter baskets.  Alexa's highlights were her Amelia Bedelia Reading Books and her Webkin deer. 

Emma thought her new polka-dot pajamas were beautiful and she loved her new markers. 

Shane was all about his new play dough and shark pajamas.  

Easter Egg Hunt

Every Easter we do an Easter Egg hunt with the kids at my parents house.  We always love it when it can actually take place outside.  The kids are ready for the big hunt! 

The Easter Pig showed up at Papa and Grammy's on the 4 wheeler to hide Easter eggs! 

Shane was all excited to find the eggs.

Alexa skipping through the yard! 

"Found One"

Daddy and Shane on the 4 wheeler trying to find some Easter Eggs.

"Yummy!"

Emma seeing what sweets are inside her eggs.

The Easter Story

I never get tired of hearing the kids talk about Jesus.  Shane was talking about Jesus' death and resurrection at Cubbies at Wednesday night club.  He was so excited on the way home telling us "Jesus died on the cwoss." We asked him what happened next and he said, "they bwoke his wegs!"  We said then what happened and he informed us that Jesus went to the doctor. We decided we needed to work on the end of the story.  Alexa, his big sister, took it on herself to teach Shane the Resurrection Story using the Resurrection Eggs she made at school.

Alexa would have her brother and sister sit down numerous times a day and go through the Resurrection Eggs with them.  It is such a great visual way to teach kids the story of Jesus' death and resurrection. 

Alexa showing Emma how the sword pierced Jesus' side. 

Alexa quizzing Emma!

Easter Fun

The kids never get sick of baking especially baking Cut-Out Cookies.  Last year grammy gave us some fun Easter cutters and my blogging friend Kathy gave me a yummy Cut-Out Cookie recipe.  Thanks to both of these ladies we had some fun, yummy Easter cookies! 

My two little Easter Bakers! We baked them and then took the to Papa and Grammy's house to decorate them with cousins on Easter! 

Alexa's Easter Party

One of the many things I love about Alexa's Christian School is that we are able to celebrate the real meaning of the Holidays and not the secular version.  I love Easter and there are so many great ways to teach children about Jesus' death and resurrection and what that means for them.  I had the privilege of being the room parent this year for Alexa's class which meant I got to plan the parties.  I am a teacher by trade so it was fun to get back in the classroom a little bit without the commitment of a teacher contract.  

We had four centers for the morning.  One of the centers was frosting cross sugar cookies and decorating them.  This was also their morning snack.  

The second center was the Jelly Bean Poem.  The kids decorated a cross with the Jelly Bean Poem on it and then tied it to a bag of Jelly Beans.  I don't think too many bags made it out the door full of Jelly Beans.

Jelly Bean Poem

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.

It’s a prayer, a promise,

and a child’s treat.

One of Alexa's favorites was the Resurrection Eggs.  Her class had read Benjamin's Box and had gone through the Resurrection Eggs that week in school so it was fun for each of them to make their own set to take home and share the story with their family.  If you don't have these they are a great hands on way to tell kids the Easter story and for them to tell it back to you. Alexa gets her eggs out a couple times a day and shares the story with Emma or Shane.

The final center was a Salvation Key Chain for the backpack.  This is also a great hands on way to teach kids about Salvation.  We made the Salvation Key Chain out of leather tied onto a clip with colored beads and then knotted at the end.  

Salvation Key Chain

Black - Sin separated us from God. (Romans 3:23)
Red - Christ's blood was shed for us. (Romans 5:8-9)
White - We are now pure in Christ. (1 John 1:7)
Green - We "grow" in our faith everyday. (2 Peter 3:18)
Blue - Water symbolizes Baptism; Baptism symbolizes salvation. (1 Peter 3:21)
Gold - The streets of Heaven are paved with gold. (Revelation 21:21)

Back from Mexico .... Feeling Lost

We are back from our trip and also back to the routine and schedule of the real world.  We had a wonderful 8 days in paradise.  The weather was wonderful, the resort was amazing, the ocean was breathtaking and the time away with my husband was so refreshing.  The only glitch in the trip was my camera was broke when we got there ... ugggg!!! We have a nice Canon Rebel and so I'm used to getting a lot of nice pics.  I was really bummed at first but quickly got over it and realized it was kind of nice not to have to haul the camera everywhere and try to get pictures of everything but instead just enjoyed God's creation and soaked it all in.  The last day I did say I wanted a couple pictures so we ended up buying a $10 film camera from Wal-Mart and took a few shots.  This camera and these pictures don't do our trip justice but at least we came home with a couple pictures.  I also forgot how crazy it is to actually bring a film in and wait for pictures instead of seeing them instantly on my computer.  We are spoiled.  My camera is going to cost a lot to fix so I am researching new cameras that will go with my lenses I have.  In the meantime I am feeling very lost without my camera!! I am borrowing a friends to at least get a couple Easter shots this weekend! 

This was the view of our resort from our window.  It has been open less than a year so everything was still nice and new.  A couple of my favorite things in the room were the jacuzzi tub and the Westin Heavenly Bed.   There is nothing like a nice relaxing bath with out kids interrupting you and a wonderful night sleep in a comfy bed after a tough day at the beach. 

 

It is amazing that a person can jump right out of bed at 6 or 6:30 when the ocean, beach and a little Starbucks is waiting for you.  The mornings were beautiful as the sun was rising.  We of course went down to get the prime lawn chairs to spend our days in but also did usually take a long morning or afternoon walk on the beach. 

The weather was beautiful except for being a little windy.  If it wouldn't have been windy it would have been crazy hot though and we would have lived in this pool! 

This was our daily view of the pool and the ocean from our chairs.  I know, it was a tough 8 days but someone had to do it.  I got a lot of reading in which I will have to do a post on some of the books I devoured in the sun! 

This was our last evening in Mexico.  We had fun trying to figure out what restaurant to spend our evenings at.  A number of evenings we took the local bus into town and ate at some of the local places.  These were probably our favorite meals, real authentic Mexican food!   Oh I miss chips and yummy guacamole pool side!