A Materialistic Easter

For the record, we tried to teach the kids about Jesus, the Atonement, and the Resurrection.  Here's how last weeks' family home evening lesson went.  

The kids screamed for most of Monday evening so we just skipped to the making cookies part.  The kids were all calm while the cookies baked in the oven so I figured it was a good time to try to teach them about Easter.  Here's basically how the lesson went.  Remember this is with absolutely no preparation.

Me (laying on the floor): You girls remember Jesus, right?

Char and Lyds: Baby Jesus

Me: Yeah and he grew up.

Char and Lyds: (Blank stares)

Me:  We'll he grew up and then he did something called the Atonement.  He paid for our sins.

Char and Lyds: (More blank stares, start wandering off)

Me: I wish I had a picture of the atonement. 

(Brandon jumps on his computer and tries to search for one.  He ends up with a pretty creepy looking picture.)

Me: This is Jesus taking our sins on him.  A sin is when you do something wrong.  And Jesus made it so we can be forgiven.  It's like when we say I'm sorry and then it's okay. 

Char and Lyds: Shrek, smash cake, say sorry, it's okay.  Mommy, fire, sorry too.  (This is a conversation we have EVERY day.  Months ago I let the kids watch the 4th Shrek and they were terrified of the scene where he smashes his kids birthday cake. We had to stop the movie and fast forward to the end where everything is okay again.  I told them that Sherk said "sorry" and then everyone said "it's okay."  That reminded the girls of something that happened a month before.  I'd accidentally left the fire burning on the stove for hours.  When I discovered it, I'd said sorry for putting the girls in danger.)

Me: Good Job!  After Jesus atoned for our sins he died for us.  (Brandon finds an even creepier picture of Jesus on the cross.)

Char and Lyds: (More blank stares - their only concept of death is the dead millipedes we sometimes find on the porch.)    

Me: And then he came back to life, that's called the resurrection.  So when we die we can be resurrected someday.  

Char and Lyds: (Wander off)

Me: And that's why we celebrate Easter - and why we do Family Home Evening when the kids are so little.  So that next year we'll know to have pictures to go with the lesson.

After that attempt at spirituality we felt just fine doing the whole Easter Bunny thing. 

We started out by dyeing hard boiled eggs on Saturday.  The girls had so much fun with the eggs.  Lydia learned to gently place them in the dye.  Charlotte never caught on and splashed her's in ever time.  When it was time to pull the eggs out the girls would shout out the color and clap.  Lydia added a "YAY" every time too.  

Saturday night the girls helped Brandon put grass in the bottom of each basket.  We bought the baskets at the dollar store.  Charlotte was supposed to have the pink one and Lydia have the yellow one, but they wanted it the other way around.  

Then we had the girls set the baskets on the piano bench and go to bed.  This led to A LOT of tears because the girls wanted to take the baskets to bed with them. Eventually we convinced them that the Easter Bunny couldn't come until they were asleep.

Once they were in bed we busted out all the candy and other things we've been stockpiling. I've been buying a bag of candy every time I go grocery shopping for about a month.  

In addition to candy we put notebooks, sidewalk chalk, and toothbrushes into the baskets.

Brandon spent a lot of time making a treasure hunt with picture clues for the girls to follow around.  He even put a secret message on the back of the clues.  He missed a lot of major holidays last year so he was happy to be able to do a lot for this one.  

We have church at 8:30 on Sunday and it's always a rush to get ready and out the door in time.  So we knew we'd have to wait until after church to celebrate.  The girls were very upset that they couldn't go look for their baskets right away.  We promised they could look as soon as we got home.

They ended up going on a little egg hunt as part of nursery.  The whole way home from church they sat in their car seats and happily opened their eggs and ate their candy.

Then we got home and they wanted to find their baskets.  Brandon gave them the first clue.  It was a picture of somewhere in the house.  We had to help them at first, but by the 9th clue they knew what to do.

The clues led them to the office. We hid the baskets in the office because we knew the girls wouldn't accidentally go in there before church.  Several months ago our friend Laurie gave each of the kids a rabbit.  I snuck them out of the kids bed's while they were sleeping and put them next to the baskets.  Charlotte was so happy to see her "bun-nee."

Then the kids all had fun eating their candy and looking at their presents.

I made sure I sat by Derrick so I could steal his candy.

Everyone enjoyed the "Eassser basss-kets."

Here is the message that the Easter Bunny left on the back of the clues.  The girls had fun finding the clue and reading the letters.

Lydia doing her chipmunk impression.

After a few minutes of eating candy we took the girls outside to look for the eggs that we'd dyed.  (Brandon had hid them during a conveniently timed diaper change break.)

The girls had so much fun running around and putting things in their baskets.

This was such a change from last year when they hardly paid attention to the eggs.

This was the best picture I could get of both girls in their Easter dresses.  These are both hand-me-down dresses.  I have some very fashionable cousins that are only a few years older than the girls.  I love getting their hand me downs because I don't have to worry about picking out cute clothes.  Charlotte and Lydia were so excited when I showed them the 3 or 4 "new" dresses and told them to pick out what they wanted to wear on Easter.  They picked out their dresses that then insisted on wearing them the rest of Saturday night.  Lydia even wore her's all Monday too.  

Once all the eggs were found we went inside for "lunch." Which consisted of candy and eggs.

We went back outside so the girls could play with their new sidewalk chalk.

Derrick crawled into the garden (I've decided I can't grow children and plants at the same time so we have another bare garden this year)  He had fun playing in the dirt. Later he got his first fire ant bites - I'm surprised he's lasted this long.  

I went inside and took a nap while Brandon was in charge of the kids.  The kids all sat in the living room and played with their baskets and candy.

Brandon and I both expected major sugar induced fighting, but it never happened.

They all played really well together for over an hour.

I got up from my nap, and Brandon started working on dinner.  The kids were kind of in his way so I distracted them with Skype.  We talked to my Mom and Dad for a long time.  

Charlotte and Lydia were hopped up on sugar and so were very entertaining for my parents.  My dad later told me that if we could harness their energy all the worlds energy problems would be solved.  After a while the girls wandered off and started playing under the piano.  Charlotte fed her bunny breakfast.  If you look closely you can see that it is candy.

Then it was time for dinner.  Derrick had melted down while Skyping so he was already asleep.  Charlotte cried and asked for a nap as soon as I put her in her chair.  She cried all during the prayer so I put her to bed.  Lydia lasted long enough to eat some jello and then she was gone too.  So Brandon and I enjoyed a romantic Easter Dinner together.  

Then we were left with a major dilemma.  Do we let the kids sleep after 5:00 and risk having them stay up until 11:00 pm? Or do we get them up and endure major crying?  We decided to let them sleep until 5:45 and then take them on a drive.  That way if they cried we at least weren't stuck at home with them.  So that is what we did.

We drove East and then North towards Waco.  Then we turned around and drove on some really pretty country roads.  The girls actually fell asleep for most of the drive.

When we got home we had the girls open their Easter cards from Bestemor (Brandon's Mom).  She always sends confetti in her cards and so the girls love opening them.

Lydia immediately started collecting all the rabbit shaped ones.  And putting them into an egg.

Then it was time for bed.  Despite the ride they did stay up until 11:00.  But at least they played quietly in their room most of the time.  (And then slept in until 8:00 the next morning)  Brandon and I kept saying, "this has been such a good day!"