Easter 2012

My all-time-favorite kind of gift - anything homemade!

Steve's parents with the grandkids

Mackenzie, 12, and Abby, 9

Mackenzie being a good sport

My nephew, Riley

Abby on the hunt

Abby and her stash

My niece, Emily

How much candy can we eat until we get a tummy ache?

The girls and Grand MaMa (& Bailey Jon)

Spring/Easter 2011

Getting some country culture at our friend Melanie's house...

School and "recess" at Woodward Park...

The girls made our mail carrier cookies and a card for Easter. She was so excited to receive them and told the girls, "Oh my goodness! You made my day!" The next day the girls received a thank you card from her and she told them that the day they gave her the goodies was actually her birthday. What a nice surprise - for her and my girls ;-)

I made the girls African-themed Easter "baskets" this year. Just seemed appropriate ;-)

Easter morning...

The girls woke up at 5 in the morning to
decorate our house with balloons and streamers ;-)

Mackenzie sang in the Choir at our church Easter morning. Of course, it was much better in person than on my video recording ;-/

Easter at Steve's parent's house...

Lots of crazy hail storms and rain this Spring. We are so ready for some sunshine!

It's been a fun spring but we are definitely counting down the days to summer! Won't be long! :-D

Your Great Name - by Natalie Grant

Happy Easter, friends...

Everything Easter

Decorating for Easter:

Decorating for an Easter Party

Decoupage Easter Eggs

Easter Decor (Martha Stewart)

Easter Decorating (HGTV)

Easter Paper Crafts (Good Housekeeping)

Frugal Egg Decorating

Easter Crafts & Activities:

Easter and Spring Crafts (Enchanted Learning)

Easter Crafts (Kaboose)

Easter Crafts (the Homeschool Mom)

Easter Printables, Etc. (Tip Junkie)

Easter Story Hunt (iMOM)

Everything Easter (Martha Stewart)

Jelly Bean Prayer Box

Jelly Bean Prayer Coloring Sheet

Kids Easter Crafts (Family Fun)

Paint and Make an Easter Egg Hunt On-Line (Sheppard Software)

Paint and Make Easter Eggs On-Line (Sheppard Software)

Videos of Easter & Spring Crafts

Easter Lapbooks:

An Easter Adventure

Easter File Folder Games

Easter Lapbook Links

Easter Lapbook with Study Guide

Jesus Is Alive Lapbook

Legend of the Easter Egg Unit & Lapbook

Resurrection Eggs and Easter Lapbooks

Resurrection Lapbook

Easter Lesson Plans:

April Lesson Plans (ProTeacher)

Complete Guide to Easter Traditions (iMOM)

Easter Lesson Plans (by Hotchalk)

Easter Lesson Plans and Ideas for Teachers

Easter Lesson Plans (Teacher's Guide)

Easter Printables

Easter Resources for Children's Minsistry (Ministry to Children)

The Bunny Who Found Easter

The Easter Story (DLTK Kids)

Jelly Bean Factory Virtual Tour

The Parable of the Lily

Virtual Tour of a Chocolate Factory

Virtual Tour of the Peeps Factory

Easter Recipes:

Easter Recipes (DLTK Kids)

Easter Recipes (Kaboose)

Resurrection Cookies

Easter - Audio/Visual:

The Easter Story (Audio Version)

Easter Dramatization (Audio Version)

 The Jesus Movie (for children)

I just had to re-post a video of my daughter, Abby, that I posted Easter two years ago. It's a video of her praying through her Quiet Time Journal. Sweet memories - how time flies!

Easter 2010

Easter With Family

After a great Easter service at church, we went to Steve's aunt and uncle's house for lunch. They had a houseful - probably at least 30 were there. We had a great time eating, talking with family and of course, MORE egg hunting! It was a fun day. Now if I can just figure out a way to make all of the Easter candy disappear magically from our house ;-)

My OOPS Cake ;-)

This morning started off with "M" making us all a yummy breakfast of waffles and M & M's. She even decorated placemats for the four of us. It was a very nice surprise ;-)

We always go to Steve's aunt's house for Easter and this year I was asked to bring a dessert. After days of thinking about what to bring, I finally decided to make a banana cake off of a suggestion a friend gave to me. It sounded really good and I just happened to have all the ingredients for it. So, after breakfast this morning, I made the cake mix and poured it into a bundt pan so it would look "pretty". Let's just say it turned into a big OOPS cake! It was a great recipe & it did taste very yummy; however, I don't believe a bundt pan is the most desirable pan to bake it in. (And yes, I followed the directions AND I greased and floured my pan - I know you were wondering about that!) Here's how it turned out...

Needless to say, we had to stop by Reasor's after church and pick up a cake from their bakery so I could take something to the Easter lunch. I can laugh about it now ;-)

And here are the girls in their Easter dresses - flip flops and all!

Egg Drop at Centennial Park

The girls participated in another Egg Hunt this weekend which was actually an Egg Drop from a helicopter at Centennial Park. It was put on by Lifepoint Baptist Church and was a great outreach ministry for our community. I knew there would be a lot of people there, I just didn't know the entire town of Owasso would be there! It was amazing - people came from everywhere!

"A's" Egg Drop...

After "A's" Egg Drop, she looked up and noticed a little crippled boy in a walker. He was sitting there with an empty Easter basket because he wasn't able to bend down and pick up the eggs. Even though "A" only had about 10 eggs, she reached in her basket and gave him about 6. I thought that was so sweet. Then other kids started giving him eggs and pretty soon he had a full basket. His mother looked at me and said, "Oh! That's going to make me cry!" Here's a picture of "A" with the little boy in the background...

"M's" Egg Drop...

These are some cute little ducks we saw in a pond after the Egg Hunt was over...

Easter Egg Hunt at the Baptist Village

The girls participated in an Easter Egg Hunt at the Baptist Village Nursing Home one day last week. It was really sweet - the residents were all lined up and sitting in their wheel chairs ready to watch the Hunt. But first, the children walked through a line and met each resident, shook their hands and wished them a Happy Easter. Then off the kids went to gather eggs! We had to hurry quickly because a big rain storm was about to hit!

I have to say this seems to be the first year "M" seems to have outgrown the egg hunts. I'm probably trying to keep her "little" by encouraging her to participate but you can tell by the group pics that she's not having that great of a time. I tried to get her to take a picture with the Easter Bunny but I was turned down immediately. I can't imagine why ;-)

Easter Links

Last year, I did several postings on Easter including Easter links and pictures from our Easter celebrations. I can't believe how much the girls have changed in just one year - amazing!

Anyway, here are a few more Easter links that I recently found and will be doing some of these activities with the girls this week during school...

Easter lapbook

Easter Activities at Squidoo

Easter Lesson Plans

Easter at TOS Magazine

Make Your Own Resurrection Eggs

Resurrection Eggs On-Line Game

Easter 2008

This Easter, the week before Easter day, we spent a little time each night reading the Easter story. The night before Easter, we made Resurrection Cookies & checked them the next morning. The "Easter Bunny" brought gifts and then we went to a great church service. After that, we went to Steve's parent's for Easter lunch & to hunt eggs. It was a fun day ;-)

HAPPY EASTER!!!

Easter Lesson Plans...

http://www.dltk-bible.com/guides/easter-index.htm

http://www.sermons4kids.com/colorpg.htm

http://schoolathome.blogspot.com/2005/03/easter-lesson-plan.html

http://www.squidoo.com/EasterBonnet

http://www.funlessonplans.com/holidays/easter.htm

http://budgethomeschool.com/favorites.asp?f=/Holidays/Easter&o=t