By preparing in advance, I am able to plan things for our family that will make the holidays last a little bit longer rather than limiting all of the fun stuff to one weekend. I try to extend things out over the course of a few weeks so our kids can enjoy all there is to offer. They’re only little once.

When I worked full time it wasn’t as easy. We would have a movie night, bake cookies and dye eggs on Saturday night and have Easter baskets, church, Easter lunch and hide eggs on Easter Sunday. So overwhelming.

In my planner I have jotted down ideas for every holiday for the entire year. For instance, at the beginning of March I had wrote down start planning for Easter baskets and listed activities and crafts to start as well as a mailing list to send out Easter cards. I was prepared. Easter didn’t sneak up on me like it has in the past. We have already hid eggs all over our yard a dozen times, made Easter crafts, mailed out Easter cards, and had our church Easter program. Not to mention all of our shopping was finished for the kids baskets two weeks ago. Because I had a list of what I wanted to purchase and enough time to buy a few things each week rather than all at once, we saved a ton of money.

Traditions

• One of my favorite Easter traditions is our Easter program at church. This year the kids wore costumes and sang in the choir, Jordan was a soldier, and I was in charge of telling the cast when and where to enter the scenes. To take part in our church activities fills my heart to the tip top. After the program we celebrated with food, fellowship, and an Easter egg hunt. The kids had a blast!

• Every year we watch Hop and bake bunny cookies. It is one of my favorite family traditions

• Easter baskets, of course! I love putting together baskets for the kids. It’s one of my most favorite things in the whole world. In the past I have made Jordan Easter baskets as well, but we have decided that our gift to each other will be a chocolate bunny and a card each year. Cheap and simple. I am so excited about this new tradition. Each year I want to take a picture of the bunnies we exchange for our scrapbook and look back on all of them one day when we’re older. Aren’t traditions the best?

• Jordan’s family has an Easter lunch/dinner every year and it’s always a great time. Not only because of aunt Renee’s deviled eggs, but because it’s a time we gather together to celebrate our Savior.

• We love to dye Easter eggs!

• Another new tradition I would like to start is our own family sunrise service on Easter morning. Our church has a sunrise service, but we live 25 minutes away now so we would have a few hours between that and our 11 o’clock service. Wake up the kids, everyone gather together on the patio, watch the sunrise and spend time in prayer. It’s a great reminder that even though the sun sets at night, the sun rises again each morning. Just like Christ rose again from the tomb.

• New outfits. Each year the boys get a new shirt and tie in their baskets and Klara gets a new dress and shoes. They love wearing their new outfits to church!

Craft Ideas

The preschool teacher and Sunday school teacher in me goes nuts over holiday themed crafts that I find on Pinterest. I wish I had photos of all of the holiday crafts I have done in the classroom! Here are a few of my favorite craft ideas for this Easter.

Those of you who have read some of my previous posts may remember me praising our son Koby’s teacher, Ms. Cordle. Not only is her heart as big as the moon, but her teaching is out of this world. Each week when she teaches a different theme, she always has a snack craft that goes hand in hand with her lessons. Koby absolutely loves it. We have heard about everything from Cat in the Hat snacks to cactus crafts. Her creativity is endless! Her brilliant ideas have even gotten Koby to try new foods which is a huge success. For instance, one craft involved kiwi and when she told us Koby tried it, we were blown away. I love these ideas for an Easter breakfast!

For those of you who love to craft like me, here are some of my favorite ideas for Easter decorating.

What are some of your favorite Easter traditions?