The True Meaning of Easter - Day 1

One of my favorite Easter children's books is "What Is Easter" by Michelle Medlock Adams. In the book they talk about what most people think of with Easter (the Easter baskets, jellybeans, new dress, etc), but that Easter is really about Jesus dying on the cross for our sins and then rising again 3 days later. I love the simplicity of the message, written in a way that is easy for kids to understand, but I also like the last few pages of the book: "Okay, now I get it. The Easter Bunny is okay, and Easter eggs are fun. But Easter's not about that stuff...it's all about God's Son."

So we haven't talked to Jenna much about the true meaning of Easter because last year she was still a little young to really understand. We read the above book and tried to explain some of it, but you could tell it was still "over her head." I had been looking for ideas of things to do with her to help her understand the true meaning of Easter, when her Aunt Cathy told us she put together something for the kids. Each day (for 9 days) there's a note card that I read to the kids that discusses a part of the Easter story. She's done a phenomenal job writing it in a way that is easy for Jenna to understand and also includes questions for us to ask her. So it pulls her in, makes her think, and helps her process it as well. I love it! Then they get to open 2 eggs - 1 of the eggs has something in it that ties to the story for that day and the other egg is a "treat" - either candy or a toy.

We got the box of goodies a few weeks before we were to start and Jenna has been anxiously waiting, asking if she could open the eggs from "Aunt Cassy". :) So I thought I would chronicle each day and the lessons from it.


Day 1: Stinky Sins

Lesson Egg: Fish sauce
Treat Egg: Jr. Mints

We talked about how our sins are stinky to God and how He can't be around them. We smelled the fish sauce, which was VERY, VERY stinky!!! Such a good example of something smelling terrible and how we don't want to be around that and have to smell it all the time. We asked Jenna what some things are that she does wrong and she said, "hitting Grant." Then Cathy went on to say that that's why God sent Jesus to die for our sins. :)

(I remembered to take this picture after we had already thrown out the stinky fish sauce!)

Jenna smelling the fish sauce...

STINKY!!!

But the Jr. Mints make it all better! ;)

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Poor Drew...the teacher in me comes out around any holiday and I love planning fun things to do (or eat) as a family. So St. Patrick's Day was no different.

I never realized how a green pepper, when cut in half, looks like a shamrock. So we did some shamrock stamping. Jenna also liked using the pepper to smear the paint around. :)

Although this isn't exactly St. Patty's Day related, I had to include it. Grant's had lots of congestion in his chest, so the doctor prescribed that he do the breathing treatments for a week. Grant had to do them last year around this time as well. This time around though he's handling it much better and it's not as difficult. We've found he enjoys watching a few silly music videos, so I'll play those during his treatments. Usually he's sitting on my lap, but a few times Jenna has asked to hold him, which is so sweet.

St. Patrick's Day morning - making our rainbow pancakes (notice the bowls of pancake batter that I'm working on tinting). I'm not sure what the kids were doing, but I'm guessing they were "helping" me.

The first trial run rainbow pancake...not too bad.

Ready to eat our rainbow pancakes - Jenna snuck in a silly face. :)

The rainbow pancake complete with whipped cream clouds.

After making 6 or so rainbow pancakes, I just used up the rest of the colored batter making regular shaped ones. So Drew got a rainbow pile of pancakes.

We also made mint chocolate chip cookies and tinted the batter green. Jenna was very helpful in licking up the extra better on the whisk.

Our lunch - shamrock shaped sandwiches, shamrock shaped green jello, rainbow fruit kabobs, and a shamrock green pepper slice (which neither of the kids had had before...and neither of them liked it. It was worth a shot.)

Grant enjoying his green cookie

Shoveling it in!

Jenna liked them as well

Of course we had to get some pictures taken with our green shirts on. I didn't have a green shirt for Grant, so the green stripes in his will just have to do.

I love how they're "snuggling" in this picture!

Sitting so well and even both looking at the camera

Now the family shot

Jenna also made a craft. She's really into using scissors and is getting better at it. So I let her cut 3 of the colors, while I cut the rest. (I would have let her cut them all, but we might still be cutting if that was the case.) Then she glued cotton balls on a semi-circle paper plate for the cloud. It didn't turn out exactly how I had pictured it, but she enjoyed it.

I just took down the St. Patrick's Day decorations tonight and will be replacing them with Easter! I can't believe that's only a few weeks away! Time to start planning now!

January

I thought I'd add some more random January pictures...

Grant LOVES helping me with the laundry. He'll hear me start the water and coming running, screaming at the top of his lungs. It's hilarious!

We enjoyed some time outdoors. It was actually chilly, unlike most of our winter (not complaining!) - notice her rosy cheeks.

More rosy cheeks...

Jenna dressed herself to go outside - Daddy's gloves, Grant's boots, and no pants. Hmmm.....

Grant loves climbing in the cabinet under the sink.

We took Jenna to see Beauty and the Beast at the movie theater. She wore her Belle dress for the occasion. This is our pre-movie shot.

She was in heaven - a huge movie screen, popcorn, AND "lenomade" (pop). Can it get any better than that?!

Random picture of Bailey celebrating Jenna's birthday. Note his excitement.

Serving Daddy breakfast in bed on his birthday. Drew and I worked out the details the night before so that he'd purposefully stay in bed while we made his breakfast. Jenna loved the idea of surprising Daddy with breakfast in bed.

They love playing in the kitchen sink and it keeps them busy while Mommy's trying to cook dinner. :)

One day Grant was having a rough morning, so I put him in "time-out" in his room. He cried for about 5 seconds before it became silent. When I went in a few minutes later, this is how I found him...curled up between the changing table and wall, snuggling his teddy, fast asleep.

Precious!

Jenna doing some ballerina moves for us.

This was precious. After baths one night, the kids went into Grant's room and Jenna read him some books. It was sweet to watch her read to him and for both of them to sit there together. We quickly grabbed the camera to capture a video of it. Melted our hearts!

They bring such JOY!