I am grateful that I can add the word WEEK into this
posts name!
For years I have watched my sister in awe do a fabulous job of teaching her
children all of the events that led up to Christ's resurrection.
I asked my kids why we celebrate Easter.
All they could think of was that we get candy.
Epic parent fail moment.
I knew it was time to jump on board.
I was lucky to have Stephanie as a resource. Along with another
blog with
lots of ideas on how to go over day by day what exactly happened.
Not going to lie, I learned a ton myself!
Lets start with Palm Sunday.
This was the day for us to dress in our Easter best since we wouldn't be
having church the following week due to General Conference.
I can't really say "best".
The poor boys need new pants so badly!
High water pants are in, right?
I didn't get the girls matching dresses like I wanted to.
I scrambled through their drawers to find something soft and pastel-y.
Non the less, I think they looked adorable.
Even sister Lindi, the missionary:)
The seasonal buffet table in the kitchen.
The wall to the side of it was our Easter week poster!
Its a time line of pictures of the all the events.
I loved having this up in the kitchen, where we spend the most time in our house.
The kids could look at the pictures and remember what we discussed each night.
Palm Sunday:
Jesus' triumphal entry into the city of Jerusalem.
They colored and cut out palm leaves.
They each took turns acting out Jesus riding in on a donkey while
the rest waved our palms while shouting Hosanna!
Monday:
Jesus cleansed the temple and healed the blind and lame.
After our lesson the kids built their own temples out of sugar cubes.
Tuesday:
Jesus taught by parables.
We discussed the parable of the 10 Virgins.
We made our own oils lamps out of clay.
I under estimated how long it would take for us to make these.
Rusty had a baseball game that night. After dinner and the lesson it was
9pm when we started our lamps!
Lucky kids got a late night on a school night!
Definitely a learning curve to these as well.
They turned out way bigger than anticipated, lol!
Wednesday:
We talked about Judas' betrayal along with healings and miracles
performed by Jesus. Instead of an activity, we watched different bible videos about Christ
calming the tempest, and Jesus raising the Daughter of Jairus. We discussed why we must have faith in the Savior and why each of these miracles happened because of faith.
We did switch a few things around to accommodate schedules.
Thursday:
We talked about the Crucifixion and Burial.
Again no activity, just video clips.
My sister makes rolls that are hallow in the middle, to represent the tomb.
Next year I will make those!
We also dipped into the Atonement in Gethsemane since we would
be having a more fun night the following day and I wanted to keep that more reverent.
Friday:
Last Supper.
I was anticipating this the most!
Stephanie invited us over, along with my cousin Leah and her family for Passover dinner!
She goes all out, of course.
Here she is explaining the different types of food.
We had hard boiled eggs, nan bread, goat cheese, hard boiled eggs, dates, lamb,
super yummy lentil soup and grape juice!
We brought our lamps over to light.
Can you tell which ones are ours?
Haha, I couldn't stop laughing.
I remembered her saying that her pack of clay lasts them many years.
I bought the same package and I was confused because we used all of ours up and could have used more clay!
Now I know.
I guess our lamps wont run out of oil as fast:)
The kids enjoyed eating on the floor
A look at our meal
The grownups enjoyed eating outside and catching up!
Leah is the cousin we were closest to growing up.
We gathered inside for the lesson.
Stephanie had an awesome book called Let My People Go that she read.
She had Lane dress up like Moses and Amelia like Pharaoh.
The others got to hold things that represented the different plagues.
Perfect way to go over why they had Passovers
and why we don't have them anymore.
She also touched on that was why Jesus came to Jerusalem on a donkey,
to attend the Passover...Last Supper!
Saturday:
Most leave this up to Easter parties or the day they get their Easter baskets instead of on Sunday.
We briefly talked about how Jesus laid in his tomb while his spirit visited the spirits in prison to preach to them while the earth was dark for 3 days. We talked about how Christ is the light of the world and brings us out of darkness.
Sunday:
I did let them get their baskets on Sunday.
For some reason I think this is totally fine, some may think otherwise.
It was kind of nice for them to have candy to occupy them during conference!
Playing with their hang gliders that were in their baskets.
Our living room tv has been broken.
So we all got to cuddle on our bed and watch our Prophet and leaders!
This was a monumental conference as we received a new prophet, and 2 new apostles.
It was April Fools and I needed to capitalize on it.
I borrowed a neighbors Easter basket and had the kids line up for a picture.
Some of them weren't happy they had to pose... AGAIN!
Can you tell which one?
I sent it to both families in a text feed.
I am happy to say I fooled a few into thinking we were adding another chickadee to our family:)
This year we didn't have anywhere to be for Easter Sunday!
My family did theirs the Sunday before and Casey's family did theirs early as well.
It was kind of weird not having anywhere not having any obligations.
But it ended up turning out nice!
We went to the cemetery to talk about the last and most important day.
Christ's resurrection.
The whole reason why we celebrate Easter!
We have quite a few family members and friends buried in the Mesa Cemetery.
We made our rounds finding our loved ones that we will get to see again because of HIM!
On the way home we passed by the temple.
It is closing in May for 2 years to be completely remodeled.
The visitor center will be flattened to the ground and moved across the street.
I wanted to visit it one more time so I had Casey make a U turn and in we went!
Pretty girl by the pretty flowers
After the temple the whole neighborhood seemed to have gathered out front.
The weather was amazing and the kids played while the grownups talked for hours.
I love my neighborhood family just as much as my real family.
We truly are blessed beyond measure!
Our Easter Poster is full as well as our hearts!
That week was a special one.
It has taken on a whole new meaning for us.
It was worth all the effort and we now have a new tradition to look forward to.
