Easter Party

I love the ideas I can glean from others...and then work them to fit the kids and I. We did an Easter Party on Good Friday...and boy, did we have fun! The kids and I spent some time "planning" what we were going to do on the party day. Everything kinda evolved in my brain w/ the kids' input too. I love that our decor and food was colorful, creative, fun, and meaning-ful. I thought we'd make a garland to hang on the chandelier above the dining room table...I got out the glitter paints, puffy stickers and markers and cut out Easter eggs from construction paper. I started to show the kids how to make them...and then I started writing down some descriptive words about Easter...the true meaning of Easter. It was such and encouragement to me as I worked on that little project.
Our Easter party was a mixture of "fun" Eastery activities + the true meaning of Easter (Jesus's death, burial, and resurrection) We started the decorations a few days before and then did arts, crafts, and baking for "school" on Good Friday. We ended up having our party w/ Justin...which worked out perfectly. We even "practiced" our resurrection play earlier that day...w/ a few props--using the text straight out of the KJV Bible. The kids LOVED it! William was especially serious...he loved the drama/acting-it-out...
Here's Samuel cracking the eggs for the cupcakes...Note to myself for next time: always use papers inside the muffin tins!! (burnt cupcakes were the result of not using them...but we ate them anyway)

Madeline's favorite activity was dying the eggs...next time I won't boil so many...we had to get creative to use them up. (creamed eggs on toast was a favorite...an oldie, but good!)

Benjamin's 1st peep...yes, he's the 4th child--never would I even had considered giving it to child #1 :) Ha, ha He enjoyed every bit of the sugar-fest. :)

Being the "fun-mom" for a morning makes a BIG mess. Hats off to my mom, who was the "fun-mom" all those years...I now know how much effort (and clean-up) goes into 2 hrs. of mess-making...I mean FUN. :)

Simple decor for the cupcakes...again, not originally my idea. But cute. William actually fit 3 peeps on his cake.

Kids love garish decor! :)

Party time w/ Daddy....so fun! I taught the kids a couple resurrection songs while we baked earlier that morning...it was fun to sing them for Daddy (and they new the 1st vs. for some of the church songs on Sunday--yay!)

After supper, the kids and I acted out the Easter story. We had to double up on parts...it was great! I think this will probably be our Good Friday tradition! It's fun that the kids are getting old enough to establish our own family traditions...where they participate and remember the memories we're making. :)