Good Friday- "He is Risen" primary activity

We did a primary/ward activity last night that was really neat. We called it He is Risen. If you've ever done the "Resurrection Eggs" with your family on Easter, this is what we did for the ward only on a larger scale.

We had each family in the ward dress in Biblical costumes, and bring a blanket to sit on the floor. We divided the ward up into families, and told the children that at other activities they can be with their friends, but for this activity, we'd like them to stay with just their family, as this would be a special activity to share with them. Each family went together around the church to find the "resurrection eggs". Each of the eggs were in front of a door. The family would open the egg and find something that would represent the easter story. Then knock on the door to go into the room and learn about the token in the egg. The presenters in the room read a Bible scripture that went with the item in the egg and then each family would recieve a small version of the item for each room.

After the 12th egg, the families would go back into the cultural hall for a snack and to view the life size resurrection scene that we set up.

Everyone enjoyed it, and we all would like to make this a ward tradition.

We took video of some of the presenters in the rooms, although the rooms were dark, I thought you'd like to see or at least hear some of the presenters.

Easter Week Day 5-The Last Supper

Tonight we ate foods that might have been eaten during Jesus's time. We had fish, olives, cheese, grapes, nuts, and flat bread. The kids enjoyed it. At the end of the meal, we read how Jesus washed his apostles' feet and how he told us we should wash each other's feet. We explained that Jesus meant we should serve each other. So after dinner, we cleaned up, lit some candles because that's what they would've had during Jesus' time, and washed each other's feet. It was a really neat experience.

Easter week days 3-4 Light of the world

On Tuesday I was not feeling well with a terrible headache-the kind that hurts when you move your head, so we didn't do anything on Tuesday night-except read some scriptures in the New Testament about what Jesus did.

Last night, we talked again about what Jesus did in Jerusalem during his last week of life. We read in John 12: 34-36 how the people were asking him who is the Son of man, and who is the Messiah who abideth forever. Apparently, they thought there was a distinction between the two.

He answered them,

"Yet a little while is the light with you. Walk while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you: for he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth.

While ye have light, believe in the light, that ye may be the children of light."

So, we made candles.

I have some candle making supplies from back when I made them for the teachers in primary, they came in handy this night.

Each of the kids wanted to make a different color, so we poured wax into little jars for each of them and let them stir in whatever color they wanted. They also stirred in a little vanilla fragrance because Jesus taught at the temple the last week of his life, and they used to burn incense in temples those days, and the fragrance was to symbolize the incense.

After the wax was thoroughly colored and "fragranced", we poured them into the jello egg molds we have. William really liked this part-especially using the funnel.

Then we put them into the freezer for a few minutes.

And here are our finished egg candles!

Kaitlyn's Preschool Party

Today at Kaitlyn's preschool they had a spring "dance". William and I went to go be a part of it. The kid's danced and sang to their favorite preschool songs, and then later ate cookies and fruit for refreshments. Kaitlyn was really happy to have us there. William was a little shy, but he enjoyed the cookies.

Easter week -Day 2-House of Prayer.

Like last year, Tom and I wanted to do an activity each day of the week leading up to Easter to help us think of the Savior. Yesterday we read how Jesus cleansed the temple right after he came into Jerusalem. He tells us that the Temple is a "house of prayer". So, we made big soft pretzels to represent arms folded in prayer.

Spring Party

Tom's Unit hosted a family day yesterday. It was the first one we've ever had in the 12 + years we've been here. It was alot of fun. There was a giant slide and a bounce house.Alan enjoyed going down the slide with his little brother. Sarah enjoyed jumping in the air at the top of the slide.

Sarah had her face painted.

There were crafts to make....And eggs to find...

They also had lunch for us with cake as the desert.

William gave up on using his fork for the cake. Lot's of fun, but a little too cold and windy for a spring day.

But it was better than being hot! :p