The Road to Easter 2018

I was impressed with this Easter bunny -
the least creepiest one I've ever found!
Also - don't mind both kids' weird shoe choices!

 Lent and Easter are always filled with wonderful learning opportunities to pass on the gifts of faith and tradition.  As always, we did our Lenten countdown to Easter.  We placed beans in our Sacrifice/Good Deed jar.  We went to the Stations of the Cross every Friday we were able.  We made a conscious effort to pray more, and we buried the Alleluia. 

Holy Week, in particular, holds many lessons for children.  Beginning with Palm Sunday, we imagined we were following on the journey of Jesus to the cross.  Now that the kids are little readers, they enjoyed following along with the (always lengthy) interactive Passion story in the Gospel (which was great seeing as they were left alone in the pew while I read the Narration and Justin was up in the choir loft)!

On Holy Week Wednesday we enjoyed watching the Shadow Stations put on by the 7th graders at our school.  On Holy Thursday, we had our own "Last Lunch" where we read the story of Jesus' last supper, ate matzo and matzo ball soup with grape juice, and understood that Jesus wanted to leave us a way to keep him every present in our hearts, even after he leaves to return to the Father.  We also managed to squeeze in an Easter Egg Dive!

Only this kid would go to an Easter Egg Dive wearing cowboy boots!

That face!  Justin was not thrilled when I told him to jump into the pool
when Xavier freaked out when he couldn't figure out how to catch eggs with his net!

Lissie scored big -
one of her eggs had a coin in it
that earned her one of the bigger prizes: a kite!  

Xavier also had a coin that scored him a bubble wand!

Good Friday was spent having our annual Good Friday Passion Luncheon to further reiterate the passion story through my kids' favorite pastime  - food.

We also dyed eggs and went to church for Adoration and Veneration of the Cross.

They opted for "volcano" eggs this year!




We turned the leftover dye into beautiful Easter crosses
to decorate our windows!

Holy Saturday was spent hiking and Easter egg hunting at a local park.

It was a bit of a madhouse, but lots of candy was found!

And, on Easter Sunday, we rejoiced in the Risen Christ!  The Easter bunny came with swim gear and flip-flops, just in time for another round of swim lessons!

The Easter bunny also turned our sacrifice beans into jelly beans
and left an Easter calendar countdown to Pentecost!

We also paraded around the house singing Alleluia and donned our Sunday best to go to Easter Mass.

The best part of Mass was Xavier's off-key singing:
Alleluia, Alleluia!  Rejoice in the Risen Lord!
Alleluia, Alleluia! Sing praise to His name!

Afterwards, we met up with my parents for pictures, brunch, and another egg hunt!

Let us all rejoice in the Risen Christ!  Alleluia!  Happy Easter!