HAPPY EASTER!

As you can see from my last post, we spent the week leading up to Easter with our good friends The Libby's. That means they got dragged into all our pre-Easter traditions dying eggs and making peep dioramas.

Dying Eggs

Explaining the peep dioramas takes lot of pictures so please stay with me! A shout out to Grandma Leslie Thorson who started this tradition for us 4 years ago! Since we had 8 children, we divided them into teams so we wouldn't be eating cake for the rest of the month. Each set of 2 got their own cake to decorate with a scene of the Easter story of their choosing. It was great fun watching the creativity and trying to figure out what each one was planning. As the older 2 boys started attaching Oreos to pretzels and marshmallows we were all a bit confused but then we were blown away with their presentation.

 Asher and Caleb's cake: Palm Sunday - Jesus riding the donkey over the palm branches (the fruit roll up and jelly beans) with all the people shouting praises. 

 Jesse and Josiah did Jesus dying on the cross, complete with the thief's crosses on either side, a crown of thorns on His head, and soldiers with spears. (Oh and I can not forget the torches...jelly beans on top of pretzels)

Hannah and Anna did Jesus rising out of the tomb (made of a circle of Oreos). The green jellybeans on top of pretzels are trees! HHmmm, I think Hannah has some candy in those cheeks of hers!

And I can not leave out Josie who got to do here own cake (since her and Jonas were not always friends). Not sure what her story was but she did keep saying "Jesus"!

 Easter morning our church had an Easter egg hunt for the kids. Do you see all those eggs?! All our kids buckets were overflowing!

 At one point Josie said "I don't want anymore eggs!"

 The egg hunt at Aunt Priscilla and Uncle Pat's house was a bit more challenging.

The Easter bunny is quite sneaky there!

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter celebrating that Jesus is alive! What an amazing sacrifice for each one of us and because He lives, we can live this life filled with peace, hope, and joy. We pray our kids get that understanding with each passing day and in despite of some of our sillier traditions. As we were heading to church Easter morning, Anna said "Now what holiday is it that we plant magic jelly beans?" WHOOPS! Oh well, Jesus still LIVES!