Easter 2013

Our Easter started in Utah. Teresa made eggs benedict for our breakfast, kids searched for hidden baskets (amidst getting ready) and then we headed to church for sacrament meeting. After sacrament meeting our family went back to Jared/Teresa's to pack up and get on the road.

Thank you Jared and Teresa for being such wonderful hosts. We were well taken care of and had lots of fun with you. So glad we're not only family... but friends. :)

When we were home and settled, we did our traditional Jerusalem dinner. This year we ate our "fish" on folded flatbread. It was softer and tastier than other things we have tried in the past.

Instead of doing our "Easter in an Egg" we tried something new. We started before leaving on our trip (I had originally wanted to do it for the whole week leading up to Easter) continued on our car ride home and finished after our Jerusalem dinner. 

We studied the "Betrayal, Trial and Crucifixion of Christ", that I got from here. It was awesome! It gave so many details and I learned so much. My kids did some eye-rolling about the time it took, but also had their moments of complete engagement too. 

I would like to study this again next year, but would do it slightly different. I would be more prepared to talk about the resurrection. This study guide lead us up to that, but didn't address the resurrection. In the moment,   when I realized we were leaving off at the the crucifixion, we quickly found some scriptures to read about the resurrection.

We had a different, but lovely, Easter. 

Hope you did too.

Happy Easter!

Along with our normal Easter tradition of a Jerusalem dinner, I like to try something new. In the past its been a lentil soup or fruit/nut salad that's traditional of passover.

This year I decided to make "flatbread".

I don't know if you're familiar with flatbread, but it's not "unleavened" because it does contain yeast. I didn't really know what I was doing, but the family seemed to appreciate and enjoy it.

Our Jerusalem dinner, minus the variety of figs, because no one really likes/eats them. Also minus the grapes and olives, because I forgot to buy them. Oops.

The beloved goat cheese WAS there, so hopefully the forgotten food was forgiven.

Another new idea this year was to talk about Christ's week, leading up to Easter (Palm Sunday, cleansing of the temple, etc.). My idea was to show a picture and read scriptures each night. With a busy week and too much going on, we got through the first 3 days, but fizzled out. So on Sunday we made up for lost time and talked about the additional days. This was an especially good discussion.

Next, we watched a two part movie called, "The Last Days in the Life of Jesus". It was done by "Living Scriptures" and was narrated by Dr. W. Cleon Skousen. As he walked through the modern day Jerusalem, he talked about Christ's week leading up to the crucifixion/burial/resurrection. It was VERY interesting and really helped, even Jason and I, put together days and events in a chronological way. There were many details that I had never imagined quite the way he told it. I guess I only had artist pictures to illustrate the story in my head.... and it was different than that.

The movie could have been considered boring by the kids, but even they settled down and found some interest in it... maybe the popcorn helped too. :)

When you get passed the cheesy beginning, poor film quality and 1985 styles... it's GREAT! I would highly recommend it. We may make it a part of our Easter tradition every year.

Anyone want to borrow it? I'll just need it back by next Easter, thanks.

SPRING!

My Easter grass project, as promised.....
Originally, I was going to make a SPRING banner for my mantle, but then I came up with this great idea.

I LOVE it!!!!!

Conference Weekend & Easter Sunday

"We thank thee O God for a Prophet to guide us in these latter-days....."

Early Saturday morning, Treyson came into my room and asked, "Is it time for General Conference to start?"

"Not yet, go back to bed or go read a book or something. Let me sleep."

Minutes later, "Now is it time?!"

"No, I'll let you know. You won't miss it... I promise."

Then it was Abree's turn. :)

Since our FHE lesson on Monday, Treyson and Abree had been tag-teaming me with the same question over and over. I was pleased that they were excited about General Conference, but wasn't showing it that early in the morning.

In the last few years, my kids have shown more interest and have started looking forward to General Conference. It could be combination of many things, maybe one of these; getting older, conference activity booklets/BINGO, quiet play items and SNACKS.

Whatever the motivation, I am proud of them. They were the ones to call to me when it FINALLY started that morning.

Saturday, we stayed in our jammies all day.

Except for Treyson who couldn't stand it any longer and had to get dressed, about 2 hours before it would be time to get them back on.

We brought our blankies, pillows and note taking items into the family room and got settled in for a quiet day of instruction.

After both sessions, we briefly discussed what we had learned. It was interesting to see what the kids had listened to. Each of them could come up with at least one talk, story or point that was their favorite.

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Easter Sunday

Our wheat grass was this tall Easter Sunday!

I was relieved that it actually grew...and in just under 1 week.

You should see it now. It's a lot taller. I'll be posting what I did with mine.

Between conference sessions on Sunday, we ate our traditional "Jerusalem Dinner". This year we had tuna fish pitas, hard-boiled eggs, sunflower seeds, almonds, dried apricots, figs, olives, carrots, juice AND the highly anticipated GOAT CHEESE. Seriously, my kids look forward to the goat cheese all year. The olives and hard-boiled eggs are also another favorite.

We also did our traditional "Easter in an Egg".
This example isn't exactly the same one that we do, but very similar.

I'm so glad that we have established these Easter traditions. I feel good about focusing on Christ AND have fun together.

No more goat cheese...... until next year! :)

Easter Treats

Coconut nest

Very sweet, but I liked the slivered almonds and coconut in these.

Chowmein noodle nest
This one has crunchy chowmein noodles, peanutbutter and butterscotch chips. Chowmein noodles and butterscotch chips aren't my favorite, but this seemed to be the "crowd's favorite".

Which one sounds good to you?

Happy Easter!

Growing up, the Easter Bunny never came to our house. My Mom always said it was because she didn't believe in him. We were taught that we should think about Christ's Atonement and celebrate His resurrection, on Easter Sunday. As a kid, I didn't see the value in it...of course. What kid would want to pass up candy and presents to think about "church stuff"?

Jason grew up with the Easter Bunny. So when we were married and started having kids, the Easter Bunny finally found me and visited our family.

Each year, at Easter, I felt conflicted. I felt wrong. I felt that I was going against something deep inside me. Finally, I spoke to Jason about how I was feeling. He wasn't "on board" at first. He liked the Easter Bunny visiting. He liked the candy, egg hunts and fun around Eater time. I assured him I wasn't against candy, egg hunts and fun... just the Easter Bunny. As we talked and I continued to reassure him that I would still buy candy, take the kids to the egg hunts and still have FUN, he finally agreed to no Easter Bunny.

So how do you explain to your kids that the Easter Bunny isn't coming around any more??? (We had 3 kids by this time. Although Treyson was still very young.)

Answer: We made it THEIR idea...sort of. We gathered the kids for FHE. We talked about what Easter was REALLY about. We asked if Easter was about a bunny. No! Then should we tell the Easter Bunny to "hop on by"? Yes! Ok. (Some may call this "brain washing". I call it a good idea.)

Then we made a sign. It said, "Dear Easter Bunny, We choose to celebrate Christ on Easter. Please hop on by. Love, The Smullins" Then we taped it to our front door. --I guess it worked, because he hasn't been back since.

I've heard some verbal regret, in the past few years. "Why did we put that sign on the door? Now he'll NEVER come see us!"

Soon after the bunny tradition went away, I was referred a book, "A Christ-Centered Easter" by Janet and Joe Hales. This had some really cool ideas in it. We soon created a new Easter tradition... the passover dinner. We explained what the passover was and we ate a meal like Christ would have eaten in his day. This included sitting on the floor with blankets and pillows... an ancient picnic.

My kids LOVED the new tradition! They now look forward to it all year. One of the most favorite things they look forward to is the goat cheese. Who knew??????????

Olives, goat cheese, dried apricots, dates, figs, sunflower seeds, almonds, hard boiled eggs.
Pita bread (our version of unleavened bread), carrots, "bitter herbs", grapes, grape juice and tuna fish.
This year I also tried a new recipe, from the book, Lentil Soup. It had spices in it I had never used; marjoram and thyme.
Next, we did another of our Easter traditions... "Easter in an Egg". I'm sure you've seen or done this before. There are 11 eggs. In each one of them there is an object that represents a piece of the first Easter story. Example: sacrament cup (last supper), rope (Jesus was bound), 3 dimes (30 pieces of silver), a rock, etc. Of course the last egg is empty...because Jesus was risen. We read each scripture that goes with the object and discuss the story.
It's amazing. Each time we do this, I learn something new...or something I had forgotten.

I feel better about our most recent Easters. I feel we DO try to center our celebration more on Christ. Sorry Easter Bunny. Your out of a job (at our house) forever.

HAPPY EASTER!!!

Do-overs

Egg Hunt revisited...

Jason and Grandpa Waite hid the eggs in the back yard.

The kids hunted for them.

All, but one, was found.

We're STILL looking for that last elusive egg!

Where could it be???

Egg Hunt???

Although you can't tell from these pictures, today we went to our neighborhood's annual Easter Egg Hunt. (My camera was acting funny and didn't save the pictures of the actual hunt. Dang-it!)

There were a lot of kids there. I heard someone say that kids started lining up about 20 til. We got there about 1 1/2 minutes before they said Go! The event planner said that each child could get 7 eggs. Turns out none of my kids filled their quota, but hopefully they still had fun.

After the quick dash...I mean hunt, they provided Capri Sun juice and sugar cookies to frost.

After everyone had slurped down their juice and frosted their faces...I mean cookies, we headed home to check out what was in the eggs. Abree was delighted to find "Laffy Taffy". Taylee coveted Kyrick's chocolate. Treyson inhaled his before I could see what he got. Rylee traded her dinosaur tatoos (what we call "skin stickers") with Kyrick.