Easter

Our Easter plans were derailed by two cases of illness: Lydia got a virus and ran a fever all weekend, and Jeremy came back from two business trips in a row with violent food poisoning.

Chocolate babka

My mom, who was visiting us for about a week and a half and helping out while Jer was away, took Josiah to our church's Good Friday service on Friday evening. I stayed home with the sickies and let the girls watch Shaun the Sheep while I cleaned up and helped my puking husband.

On Saturday we kept things pretty low-key. Lydia was perky in the morning, but her temperature went up in the afternoon til it hit a high of 103.5-104 around bedtime. Jeremy did a little work around the yard as he felt able, but he mostly rested, too. I baked (hot cross buns and babka--both for the first time) and boiled eggs and had good intentions of dyeing them that day, but it just didn't happen.

Sunday dawned with Lydia still running a fever. Jer felt well enough to go to church, so my mom graciously stayed with Lydia while Jeremy and I took the other three to church and the church brunch afterwards (where Josiah and Abby were thrilled to get a bagel and a donut!).

On Sunday afternoon we finally dyed eggs while Clara napped. The big kids enjoyed it and did a good job, other than dropping a few and cracking the shells.

 

 

While we colored eggs, we listened to a dramatic reading of John's account of Jesus' death and resurrection. I also read aloud the last two readings in Why Easter? During Lent the kids and I worked on memorizing all of "Man of Sorrows," and they do a pretty good job singing all the verses now!

After a short bike ride (Lydia riding in a trailer), we had a little egg hunt. Josiah reminded me a couple weeks ago that they found plastic eggs with jellybeans in them last year. But surprisingly enough, no one recalled that during this year's hunt. A neighbor gave us a dozen confetti eggs, so Jeremy hid those and the kids had a blast finding and bursting them. Clara got in on the fun, too!

Tiptoe muddy girl

 

Abby

Josiah, who wanted to claim all the eggs as his own

Lydia

Confetti Clara

My mom gave us a packaged of Resurrection Eggs that Josiah was dying to open. We waited till Monday to go through those in order, just because I wasn't on the ball earlier and then we had sickness all weekend. I think they helped reinforce the story and timeline of Jesus' death and resurrection, and I'd do them again, perhaps one a day leading up to Easter--or during Holy Week. We'll see. I hope to finish my felt Lent calendar before next year rolls around, too!