Easter activity

This year's Easter was probably a little more secular than it should be at our house.
After a long and cold winter it felt so nice to be outside in the warm sunshine. And the days went by.

I have really enjoyed following a great LDS blog this Easter and the way a mother has taught the Easter message in so many fun and inspiring ways to her children.
I like parables and object lessons A LOT! Am a huge fan. I love the way the Savior taught in parables. And whenever I find a lesson that will help teach a gospel principle, I am happy! Serving in the YW for thirteen years does that to you. Sometimes the object lessons are probably a little on the verge, if you know what I mean. And so when I read about the Resurrection rolls, I was not sure if I should use it to teach something very sacred and special to me like this. So I guess I toned it down ~ but invited the girls to bake with me on Easter Sunday.

Here are some pictures of us dipping and wrapping the marshmellows.








And let me tell you, the marshmellow really melted and left an empty roll after being cooked in the oven. And they tasted good, too.

We started watching the Truman G. Madsen dvd from The Holy Land together as a family this Easter. It is food for the soul to watch the beautiful film footage and learn more of the Savior's life and ministry.

The tomb is empty. He is risen.

Easter 2011 Book List

This Easter Natalie has read The little house on the Prairie. I think she read for two hours straight yesterday to finish the book. She has read the two first books in the series already, Little House in the Big Woods and Farmer Boy, and started On the Banks of Plum Creek today.


Michael finished Leven Thumps and the Ruins of Alder yesterday and was sad to have read the whole series now. He didn't tell me how the book ended as I am reading the series as well, but he really has a great fondness of the characters in the books. He is excited to see who will play in the movies and thinks he would make a great Leven himself. Hint, hint, Hollywood....
He is now reading Artemis Fowl: The arctic incident.

Glenn has read Accused and The Abduction by Mark Gimenez. He is happy to have found a "new John Grisham" and recommended that I would read his books.


And so I did. I have cruised through Colour of law by Mark Gimenez, Something borrowed and Something blue by Emily Giffin and Committed by Elizabeth Gilbert.

Melissa wanted her picture taken as well. Jeg og. Jeg og. Me too. Me too. It is probably not easy being the smallest in the family....

The Easter Egg Scavenger Hunt 2011

Ok. So we do have a thing for Crime Scene Investigation Easter. Let me reassure you that we do focus on the Easter message also ~ even though I can easily see that you might be worried from just reading my blog posts. This years egg hunt was based on scary movies and Michael and Natalie had to both act out scenes from the movies and answer a trivia question. If they answered correctly they would get a letter as a clue to where the eggs were hidden this year.

The mummy

First task: Dress one of you as a mummy using a roll of toilet paper.
Trivia: What's the name of the lead female actor?
Third letter in last name.

The Others

Second task: Pretend to be a ghost looking in a window to scare someone at night.
Trivia: Who plays the lead role in the movie?
Last letter in first name.

Matrix

Third task: Act out a shooting scene from The Matrix.
Trivia: What's the lead characters name in the movie?
First letter in first name.



Alien

Fourth task: Act out a scene from Alien.
Trivia: Who directed the movie?
Fourth letter in first name.

I am legend

Fifth task: Find a dog in the neighborhood and take a picture.
Trivia: Who is playing the lead actor in the movie I am legend?
Second letter in the first name.

The twilight saga

Sixth task: I want to drink your blood..... Act out a vampire scene.
Trivia: What is the name of the female lead character in the movie?
First letter in the first name.

And ta-da: If you put together the letters you will be able to spell out: I bilen (in the car)
That's where you'll find your eggs.

Always a thrill to find the Easter egg! :)


I think it was a little heavy this year....


Michael was happy about his World of warcraft t-shirt.


And Natalie's Easter gift was another season of The Simpsons.


The smallest kid is always easy to please. Candy and blowing bubbles!! :)


As always the egg contains a magazine. Hello Kitty for Natalie. Barbie for Melissa. And Calvin and Hobbes for Michael.


Melissa slept through most of the scary hunt. She went on an egg hunt of her own finding hidden eggs in the yard. Natalie helped me hide the eggs. She has been such a nice helper this Easter. Nataile even made a little egg hunt for me and I got a hand-knitted headband she had made for me. <3

I loved Michaels comment when he quoted from Cloudy with a chance of meatballs: How are you going to top this? With hot fudge! :)

We had fun, both the kids and mom.

Brainstorm

Easter time is board game time. And this year was no exception.
We got out a new game called Brainstorm tonight. We play in teams and one team chooses a controller who gets to wear the supercool and fancy looking glasses. That way the controller is able to read the secret writing on the clue cards. The other team chooses a category and in 60 seconds they shout out all the words they associate with the chosen category. If the word is on the controller's card, the team gets points. Fun!


My Bono look-alikes! :) Ooh! Handsome.

Trail hiking

On Friday we went for a little hike. Glenn has allergies real bad these days, but his sister was generous and nice and came over with some antihistamines. It felt nice to get up and move around a little bit after a few lazy days. Natalie was such a sweet sister and carried Melissa when she got tired.


Some trees had been knocked over by the powerful wind we had the other week.


Melissa and Natalie found blue anemones. Pretty girls. Pretty flowers.


We also saw a slow-worm and a dead mouse.
Quite a few adventures on the 3 mile walk. :)