We have had fun doing little Easter activities leading up to Easter. We had an FHE activity where we learned the meaning of the Egg in a spiritual light (representing life) and then made some craft eggs.
Saturday we dyed eggs with the Bells and then that night we put them all in a big basket for the Easter Bunny to find. We explained to the boys how they would find an empty basket in the morning just like the tomb that held Jesus' body was empty on Easter morning. But, just because the eggs aren't in the basket doesn't mean they aren't around. Jesus wasn't in the tomb but we can still find him when we look. So, we told the boys how they'd have to look for their eggs to find them and that when they did find them, they would be even better (at least the plastic ones) because they'd have prizes in them. They were pretty excited.
I had a great Easter Sunday and I hope you did too! The Easter bunny outdid himself this year and left a picture scavenger hunt leading to an easter basket for each boy in addition to his traditional egg hunt. The Easter Bunnny was a success this year, but we could have used an extra hour before church because our boys slept in until 8:30 or 9. Church is at 11 this year :) But, choir practice was at 10:15. Anyway, we didn't do the scavenger hunt until right before bed, but it kept the whole day exciting. At church I got to lead the primary in a combination song of "He Died that We Might Live Again" and "Easter Hosanna." They were all singing and seemed to remember the words to my pleasant surprise! First Easter plus. Then we sang "That Easter Morn" with our ward choir, which was about a normal ward choir performance, but still fun. During primary at church I introduced the March song (which we hadn't gotten to because the Easter song took a lot longer to teach than I anticipated). The song for the month is "If the Savior Stood Beside Me." I have been feeling awful that I am so behind in music and not wanting to leave someone with an unlearned song, I prayed hard that I could find a way to teach the song effectively on Easter. That was my second Easter plus at church. I felt true inspiration last week as to how to put my ideas together for music time in a spiritual yet fun way that brought more meaning to song. It was incredible! The kids were all pretty crazy and antsy being Easter and all, but I was still able to feel the spirit as the teacher, so hopefully some of them did too. Either way, I felt blessed by the Savior. The third Easter plus was finding out that Senior primary already knows the song from 2 years ago.
After church, we had lunch/naptime and did a few little things like dishes, practicing harp, etc. Zander slept until it was time to leave for a little Easter dinner and egg hunt with the Gray family (one of their daughters is in our ward and invited us). They are so nice and have best biggest yard for a great hunt. They have TONS of eggs and just have you give them back at the end so they can reuse them. Anyway, that was a lot of fun and it was perfect because they invited the Bells who are the main family that we plan things with. Or don't plan. Haha. We're usually last minute, but we always have fun. Anyway, it was great. Here's our pictures.
PS- After realizing that Brayden's hair is too long and looks totally crazy in all his Easter pictures, I finally cut it today. He's even more handsome now! :)
