My sister asked that I record here all the ways that our family celebrates Easter each year. We have a few things that are the same each year, and of course some things change year to year. Here’s a run down of some of the highlights of our Holy Week this year: Wednesday night we attended a musical production of The Tale of Three Trees put on by children from our parish school. Our children all enjoyed this, and it was short enough that even Beatrix was entertained well enough to be able to sit in one of the front rows and not cause too much trouble. On Good Friday we went to church for Stations of the Cross. I have a color 5 x 7 inch set of the fourteen stations laminated and carried those with us. During each station, my children took turns studying the picture while listening to the readers.
On Saturday we ate homemade hot cross buns (gluten free recipe from this super awesome cookbook) and drank tea, followed by coloring about five dozen blown out or boiled eggs. Inspired by Rechenka’s Eggs, My kids have used this kit the past few years to make Ukranian Easter eggs. To be honest, I don’t really get involved to see that they create fantastic works of art, I just provide them with the materials they need, turn them loose, and tell them that whatever they create is marvelous and beautiful.
Finally, on Saturday evening we read the Easter story in the Bible and made resurrection/Easter story cookies.
(en route to Mass-Keats hates getting his picture taken so I was trying to be sneaky. He noticed-hence the dirty look.)
On Sunday morning we of course attended Easter Mass, and let me just say that we were so prepared and on time this year (Easter Mass is a bit different in that so many people attend that we can’t meet at our church, but rather Mass is offered at our local Expo center and it is a little bit crazy.)
None of their shirts were tucked in, but I did iron them the night before (rather than the morning of-this is why we were on time.) The girls wore matching dresses that were a gift from my mom. I was so on top of things which is so not typical.
After Mass and lunch we had our traditional Easter egg hunt. I hid all the eggs that the kids had dyed on Saturday, in the woods next to our house. The boys are given a limit on how many eggs they can find so that Larkspur gets a fair chance.
It’s funny how much kids love to search for eggs. Larkspur will continue to hide eggs (she has a set of wooden ones) in the weeks to come, I’m sure.
Beatrix was napping during the main hunt, so when she woke up, the other children hid their eggs around the backyard for her to find.
As she placed each egg in her little basket she said, “done.”
After the egg hunt, it was time for our annual Easter scavenger hunt. We do the scavenger hunt in lieu of Easter baskets because our kids love it.
Beginning with an oral clue, our kids search for their gifts using written or picture clues that are located with each gift. The above clue was simply two signs indicating an American sycamore tree and an American holly tree. There is a certain area near our house that hosts both of those species of trees almost side by side and our kids figured out where to go quickly.
One of the rules of the scavenger hunt is that there is to be no running to each site in order to make sure that the slower kids don’t miss out on the clues and the fun. They have a hard time following that rule.
At the the last stop of the scavenger hunt, rather than a gift, there are homemade peanut butter cups and lemon cupcakes (cupcake recipe in the same cookbook as the hot cross buns). We don’t give any candy, so these are the big treat. This evening after all the “festivities” Jonny took all the kids to the river to play while I got caught up around the house.
We had a wonderful Holy Week, and a very blessed Easter. I hope you all did as well!
Peanut Butter Cups:
1/2 cup unsalted butter
3/4 cup peanut butter (we use natural)
3/4 cup cookie crumbs (we use crushed mi-del gluten free animal cookies, you could use graham crackers)
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 cup milk chocolate chips
1/4 cup milk
12 foil cupcake liners
Melt butter over low heat, add peanut butter, and sugar, stir until well combined. add cookie crumbs and stir.
Spoon about 2 Tbsp of p.b. mixture into each of the cupcake liners and place in freezer to harden.
Combine chocolate chips and milk in a saucepan and melt over low heat stirring frequently (or use your method of choice for melting chocolate here) until smooth.
Remove peanut butter cups from freezer (they should be firm by now) and spoon melted chocolate over each. Return to freezer to harden.
I keep these in the freezer until we are ready to eat them. They are great cold.
This recipe makes about a dozen cups, but I always double it because twelve isn’t enough!
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