A hunting we will go ...

What a busy Easter weekend we had!

Egg Hunt #1

Friday night, Claire and I headed out to the annual Carrico egg hunt, hosted by our friends Chris, Claire, Dean and Madeline.  David was at a birthday party, so Will stayed home with Luke and picked up David from his party.

Hostess Madeline and my Claire.  These girls are cute buddies.

All the kids ready to hunt some eggs.

And they're off ...

Here comes Claire!

Egg hunter egg-traordinaire.

The kids were anxious to sit down and eat some candy after all the hunting!

A rare grown-up picture!  My friends Holly & Claire.

Egg Hunt #2

Saturday morning, we headed out bright and early to have breakfast with the Easter Bunny (and hunt more eggs).  Claire and David really liked the bunny.  I think they have finally conquered their fear of characters after several painful trips to Disneyworld!

They really could not get enough of the bunny.

Luke, on the other hand, was not a fan!

Breakfast is over ... time to hunt eggs! 

A rare picture where all three kids were looking forward.

Walking to the egg hunt with Daddy.

Easter Baskets and Egg Hunt #3

The kids were up bright and early Sunday morning to see if the Easter Bunny had visited.  He did!

The kids tore through their baskets like maniacs so I did not get many good pictures.

After church, my sister and her family came over for lunch and another egg hunt.

My sister and my nephew.

Hunting more eggs.

Love the face on my nephew above ... he was mad that somebody else found the golden egg.

Cousins!

Silly Luke!  That is about all his Easter basket is good for!

This was the best picture I could get of all 3 kids (and Will's black shoe is in the corner).

Oh my, what a fun weekend celebrating our risen Savior! (with family, friends and fun!)

Happy Easter!

I'll post some pictures of our egg hunts and Easter baskets and such soon, but to focus on the true meaning of Easter, here we are all dressed up for church Sunday morning.  We worshipped at 8AM and kept the nursery at 9:30.  Claire was very excited to attend "big church" and help us with the babies in the nursery.  I was very excited to attend "big church" too as I have not been in a worship service since August. (I go to small group at 8AM and teach 2 year olds at 9:30.)  The worship did not disappoint!  And I got to sing my favorite

We've been reading the Easter story to the kids from the Jesus Storybook Bible and it always brings a tear to my eye.  I thought I would share some of my favorite quotes here.

(from the Lord's Supper)

"My body is like this bread.  It will break," Jesus told them.  "This cup of wine is like my blood.  It will pour out." 

"But this is how God will rescue the whole world.  My life will break and God's broken world will mend.  My heart will tear apart -- and your hearts will heal.  Just as the passover lamb died, so now I will die instead of you.  My blood will wash away all of your sins.  And you'll be clean on the inside -- in your hearts."

(when Jesus was being ridiculed on the cross for not saving himself)

You see, they didn't understand.  It wasn't the nails that kept Jesus there.  It was love.

(when Jesus was getting ready to leave after he had risen from the dead)

"There's a place for you.  I'll get it ready" ... "you know the way."  Thomas had panicked.  "I don't know the way to get there!"  "Yes, you do," Jesus had said.  "I am the Way and the Truth and the Life."

So simply put but so true!  Happy Easter!

Menu Plan Monday: April 9

We have some traveling this week and a special 6-year-old's birthday to celebrate so I don't have a formal menu plan this week.  We will munching on some yummy leftovers from the weekend and I wanted to share the recipes here.

Slow cooker cheesy chicken & rice
My husband and kids all loved this.  And it makes a ton.

Ham & cheese sliders
I took this to an egg hunt on Friday night and it was a big hit!  I used Pepperidge Farm slider buns instead of Hawaiian rolls.

Peanut butter pie
This was a big hit at Easter lunch.  I recommend removing it from the freezer 20-30 minutes before serving just to make it easier to slice.  This seriously took me like 5 minutes to make and it was so good!

Slow cooker beef & noodles
(from my friend Jadie ... she's an excellent cook and photographer!)
This is one of our favorite recipes although my kids are not a fan.  They probably would have liked it better had I not accidentally used tomatoes with green chilies.  It was a bit spicy this time.  I make this meal a lot when I take meals to people for new babies, sickness, death, etc.

1-1/2 lbs. stew meat
1 can french onion soup
1 can diced tomatoes
1 can cream of celery soup
1 can golden mushroom soup
4-6 oz. sliced fresh mushrooms
Combine soups and tomatoes.  Pour over beef & mushrooms in crockpot.  Cook on low for 6-7 hours.  Serve over hot buttered egg noodles.

Check out Laura's blog for more Menu Plan Monday.

Preschool Corner: Letter M ... The Mitten

Most of our activities for Letter M focused on The Mitten by Jan Brett.

{David is 3 years, 11 months old.  Claire is 5 years, 11 months old.}

Our m&m printables came from Confessions of a Homeschooler's LOTW curriculum. 

Our Mitten printables came from Homeschool Creations.

The Mitten puzzle.  We also read the book everyday.

 

Mitten maze.  Claire and David both loved this activity.

Mitten size sequencing.

Mitten "which one is different?"

 

Right mitten, left mitten.

Mitten letter sounds.

More size sequencing.  I think these printables came from Homeschool Share.

Playing a mitten matching game.  Read more about how that really went down here.

Mitten colors ... working on our lapbook from Homeschool Share.

Story sequencing ... which animal got into the mitten first?  Claire was good at this.

Mitten handwriting.  Since Claire's homeschool curriculum teaches cursive handwriting, her manuscript print still needs lots of work!

More lapbook coloring. These were things that started with the letter M.

Mouse coloring page.

Macaroni on M.

M&M color sorting.  A great snack too!

M&M building.

M&M patterning.  These great pattern cards came from here.

Cut & paste our M words onto the M page for our alphabet notebook.

Our finished Mitten lapbook from Homeschool Share.

And our Letter M board.  We didn't do much crafting this week.

This post is linked up to these great blogs ... check them out for more great learning ideas!