Of Easter Eggs and Easter Grass

Ah, Easter! Coloring eggs, filling baskets, surviving Mass with four small children, picking up miles and miles of Easter grass (seriously, that stuff should be outlawed)...it was all good.

We did our own Easter egg hunt on Saturday, since Sam can't eat lots of the typical chocolate goodies and even some jelly beans that often wind up inside those eggs. The kids had a lot of fun finding their eggs in the trees, hiding by the garden, at the top of the slides, and even on top of the swing set.

We skipped all the little Easter trinkets in favor of a new scooter for everyone. They will last a lot longer, and it saves me from throwing out a bunch of little broken plastic doodads in a couple weeks. Now as long as we can keep those helmets on and learn to brake so we can stay out of the emergency room, we'll be in business! 

We took everyone to Mass at 8 a.m., and they did pretty well. Thankfully the family behind us had six mostly-grown kids, so they were very, very tolerant. The mother was a twin herself and she had a set of twins, so she couldn't have been more empathetic or more amused by the boys' antics.

Isaac, Alex, Amelia and Sam in (most of ) their Easter clothes. Check out the miracle of four kids all looking at the camera!

 
The Easter Bunny brought coloring books and bubbles and a minimum of sugar, so that probably helped the behavior at church, too. It was a smart idea to get all the sugar out of the way on Saturday!

It was not a smart idea to put Easter grass in their baskets.

I told Jeff to use it because the baskets looked better. I won't make that mistake again. It was dragged through the house to screams of delight and I'll be picking it up until the Fourth of July, I'm sure.

© Trippin' Mama 2012

The Joy of Easter

This Easter was full of joy. Christ is risen, and we celebrated!

Enjoy the photos from our weekend, and listen to the lyrics to the song. They tell the story of our true joy, a gift that could only come from heaven.

The song is "Little Things" by Go Global Entertainment.
Hope your Easter was full of the joy!

© Trippin' Mama 2011

Some Truths About Easter

Last Easter was pretty low key around here. That was NOT the case this year. Here are a few things we learned.

1. There's nothing like a little sugar to really get the morning started.

Next year the Easter bunny will bring less chocolate and more coins or toys or something. Anything. The kids were completely wired by 8:30 a.m., and the boys got up from their naps saying, "Now we can have more candy?"

Isaac kept saying the Easter bunny brought him "green beans" (jelly beans). Sam and Alex kept calling them "jumping beans." That was probably a little more on target!

Isaac and Amelia check out what the Easter bunny brought.

Tonight when the boys were in bed they were talking about how the candy was all gone. Glad they think so, because they aren't getting any tomorrow. I wonder how on earth my mother ever survived eight sugared up kids at Easter?

2. Easter grass is spring's answer to Christmas tree needles.

Next year, no Easter grass. That stuff is scattered from one end of my house to the other, and I tried to confiscate it all as soon as they pulled everything out of their Easter baskets.

And even though every child got an identical pair of these silly foam glasses, all day we heard, "Those are my glasses!"

 Sam and Isaac show off their specs.

3. Church with three 2 1/2 year-olds is an aerobic activity.

The nursery was closed for Easter Sunday, so we had to take all of the kids to church with us. I wished all day that the Easter bunny had brought me a body double to go to Easter mass. We went at 5:30 p.m. when it wasn't crowded.

It was raining when we got to church, so Jeff dropped us off at the door and I took the kids in by myself. First they used the handicapped button to open the door of the Perpetual Adoration Chapel. I had all I could do to keep them from storming the chapel and interrupting the peace and quiet.

Then when we went into the church, without Jeff, Sam freaked out and started hollering to leave. Amelia was holding his hand and tried valiantly to keep him from taking off while I rushed Isaac and Alex into a pew and went back to grab Sam. Alex came running out of the pew crying as well, so I ended up carrying two crying boys into the pew. Talk about an entrance!

Jeff showed up just in time to save me. He kept stepping out with Sam who wailed on and off, saying "Can we get out of here now!" for the first third of the service. We think it was the noise that bothered him. Alex and Isaac liked the guitar ("bit-tar") music, so that helped keep them busy.

Every time the music stopped or there was a pause in the service, Alex would say loudly, "It's ober." By the end, the people around us were laughing every time he said it.

We did a lot of shushing and telling the boys to whisper. They would say back, not in a whisper, "We whisker."

Sam, Isaac, Alex and Amelia in their Easter finery.

The only other incident was when Sam and Amelia found a piece of dried up chewing gum stuck under the pew. Amelia was trying to pull it off with her fingers, but Sam put his mouth on it. Ewww!

At the end of the service, the lady next to me told me we did a bang-up job of getting the kids through Mass. I appreciated that, because by the end Jeff and I were both sweating. I'm sure I burned off all the Easter candy AND the homemade carmel roll I ate.

4. Bedtime can't come soon enough on a sugar-filled holiday.

By the time we got home from church it was time for pajamas and bedtime was in sight. If only it were that easy. I think the last child finally gave up at 10 p.m. 

I repeat, there will be no sugar tomorrow.

But tonight there will be wine. Mom and Dad have earned it! 

© Trippin' Mama 2011

Happy Easter!

Yesterday we dyed Easter eggs, and I was ready to tell you all about how we survived it (more or less), but Blogger was apparently taking a little holiday, so I couldn't write up the post. And tonight the Easter bunny had some work to do, so now it's late and I must hop off to bed. Easter egg dyeing and today's Easter egg hunt will have to wait.

Just in case I must nap instead of blog after dealing with my over-sugared children tomorrow, happy Easter from all of us.

Sam, Alex, Amelia and Isaac ~ Easter 2011

Christ is risen, alleluia!

© Trippin' Mama 2011

From My Kitchen: Resurrection Rolls

Since I wasn't able to get this posted last Friday and this is a recipe you should make before Easter, I'm sharing today.

I'm sure many of you have heard of resurrection rolls or empty tomb rolls. I knew these as marshmallow puffs before I learned about using them to teach the lesson of the resurrection. If you haven't ever made them, try them out. Not only are they a great way to share the story of Jesus' death and resurrection with the little people in your life, they are delicious.

Amelia and I made a batch of resurrection rolls last week. The recipe is simple, and so is the lesson. (Well, at least it's simple until your four-year-old starts asking a million tough questions!) Here they are:

Resurrection Rolls (and lesson)

1/4 C. sugar

2 Tbsp. flour

1 tsp. cinnamon
2 (8-oz.) cans refrigerated crescent rolls

16 large marshmallows

1/4 C. butter, melted

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a small bowl, combine sugar, flour and cinnamon.

Separate dough into 16 triangles. 

The dough represents the cloth Jesus was wrapped in when He was laid in the tomb.

Take a marshmallow.

This represents Jesus and His purity.

Dip the marshmallow in butter.

This represents the oils of embalming.

Dip the buttered marshmallow in the cinnamon sugar.

This represents the spices used to annoint the body of Jesus.

Wrap the coated marshmallow in the crescent roll dough, sealing all seams tightly.

This represents the wrapping of Jesus' body after death.

Dip bottoms of rolls in butter and place butter side down in ungreased muffin cups. Place in 375 degree oven for 10-12 minutes.
The oven represents the tomb.

During baking the cresent roll will puff up and the marshmallow will melt, so like the tomb, it is EMPTY.

When the rolls have cooled slightly, break the rolls (cloths) open to discover that Jesus is no longer there. 
HE IS RISEN!

Note: Make sure your marshmallows are fresh, so they melt completely. And, be sure to seal the dough very tightly around the marshmallows so they don't leak out as they melt.

Amelia understood the lesson very well. So well, in fact, that she renamed the recipe. Check out her take on it along with her capable demonstration of how to make these delicious rolls.

Enjoy!

© Trippin' Mama 2011

Lessons from Easter

The other day as we were coming home from preschool, Amelia and I had this conversation.

Amelia: "One of my little friends (that's code for her imaginary friends) gotted dead, Mom."

Me: "She died? What happened?"

Amelia: "I don't know. She just died-ed."

Long pause

Amelia: "But it's OK. She's going to come alive again on Easter Sunday just like Jesus."

Wow. I guess she was paying attention as we tried to teach her about the real meaning of Easter.

Yes, the Easter bunny visited our house and filled our Easter baskets with treats. We colored Easter eggs and ate too much chocolate. (Well, only the grownup and Amelia. Wait until we have to color eggs with four little helpers next year!)

But we also talked about how Jesus died for our sins and then came back to life.

These Resurrection Eggs from Family Life were a big help in teaching Amelia about Easter.

Each egg holds a symbol that tells part of the Easter story, from the cup Jesus shared with His disciples to the crown of thorns the soldiers placed on His head.

Each page of the book tells you which egg to open and then explains the item inside.

Amelia loved opening the eggs as we read the story. She asked lots of hard questions, and we sometimes we struggled to answer them. But she clearly understood a lot, too.

I bought my Resurrection Eggs after Easter last year. They were on clearance at a local superstore, so now is the time to look for them.

I know that next year Amelia will look forward to getting out the Resurrection Eggs almost as much as she looks forward to coloring Easter eggs and sharing her candy with her mama. Perhaps by then we will have found a way to explain that everyone who "dies-es" doesn't come back to life on Easter Sunday.

Note: I'm just a happy customer here. No one provided me with any incentives to write this post. 

© Trippin' Mama 2010

Nothing Says Happy Easter Like A Sick Kid

It was a true family holiday here. We had family in from out of town, so of course one of the kids got sick. Thankfully it was only one.

Sam threw up once on Saturday and once on Sunday. Saturday that seemed to really make him feel a whole lot better, and the rest of the day was pretty good until he started to run a fever at bedtime. He had a rough night. He finally managed to get a couple hours of sleep snuggled in our bed, but he clearly just didn't feel well.

Today Sam's fever spiked to 103.3, but I was able to bring it down with a bath and some Tylenol. His fever broke about bedtime, but then he wanted to eat and play, so bedtime was a lo-o-ong time in coming.

Add a boil (poor Amelia) to our disease and it was a regular party around here! Throw in a little pestilence and we would have been celebrating in Biblical style.

Actually, it was a pretty good day since Sam didn't care who held him, as long as someone held him. And we had plenty of arms available. Thanks to good planning we ate Easter dinner while the boys were down for a nap, so we were able to eat the food while it was hot and stay at the table until we were finished. That's a real luxury for us. 

I have pictures of our Easter to share, but right now I have to catch some shut eye to make up for last night. Hopefully Sam will sleep well now that the fever seems to have ended.

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter, too, sans the plagues.

© Trippin' Mama 2010

Happy Easter

Happy Easter! I hope everyone enjoyed the holiday as much as we did.

Amelia's Easter artwork. Too cute!

This was the first year Amelia understood and was excited about the Easter Bunny and her Easter basket. And, thanks to help from some neighbors, we all got to go to church as a family, which was a wonderful celebration in itself. The boys were very good, and so was Amelia, but then she usually is good in church. She tends to talk a lot, but she says "I talk quietly, Mama."

Amelia and I made cupcakes for Easter dinner dessert, and we even loaded everyone up a second time to go to the park for an hour after Amelia got up from her nap. All in all, it was a great day.

Here are some pics. I couldn't get Amelia and the boys together. No one had enough patience for that!

Amelia "paints" Easter eggs.

Look what the Easter Bunny brought!

Dad teaches Amelia how to peel an Easter egg.

She's got it all figured out!

Sam, Alex and Isaac in their Easter overalls.