Wordless Wednesday 4/28/10

My Trained Dragon

Sam and I went to the movies yesterday to see “How to Train Your Dragon.” It was AWESOME! Such a good movie! When the credits rolled, Sam burst into tears. I thought he was scared but he was just upset that the movie ended!

And what has he been up to today? Why, collecting EVERY pillow in the house and making his own dragon’s nest, of course!

“He’s Not in There!”

I hope your Easter was as wonderful and blessed as ours!  This was the first year that I really tried to teach Sam what this most important day really means.  He was so confused the week leading up to Sunday.  I’m sure he was hearing lots of talk about Easter the the Easter Bunny from places other than home.  It took me about three days to convince him that Easter was not someone who was coming to visit us.  He’d say things like “Easter wants me to eat this candy.” Or “Easter is a cool guy.”  Hopefully, though, I got him straightened out.  By the end of the morning yesterday he was saying “Jesus is a cool guy!”

On Saturday, we did the traditional Easter Egg Hunt at the park with LOTS of other children and a few vicious adults.  There were refreshments and games and Sam’s favorite, an inflatable bouncer!  The Easter Bunny made an appearance and thankfully, Sam was SOOO not interested!  (Nope. We don’t do the Easter Bunny.  I have a hard time figuring out his role in the Easter story.  Any Easter gifts Sam receives come from his family. I see Easter eggs and the celebration we attended more as a celebration of Spring than Easter.) It was a beautiful day filled with dear friends and lots of fun activities. Here are a few of my favorite pictures from the morning:

Serious Sam, as usual, looking thoughtful and reflective.

Wow!  He looks like such a big boy, doesn’t he?! I can’t wait to get a hold of that dandelion shot in PhotoShop and clean up the water around his mouth.

   

A special thank you to Sarah.  She was so sweet to hang out with Sam and I and I was thankful for all the times she helped me!  We love Sarah!  (I have a feeling she loves us, too!)

Being our first egg hunt, I had no idea what was about to happen moments after this photo:

Sam’s not really look for eggs.  He’s just walking around, very close to me and the ropes.  See the mob of people waiting behind the line?  Crazy people, I tell you. Crazy people!  The adults, anyway.  There were about 4,000 eggs in this one little area for 3-5 year olds.  Plenty for everyone. 

Nearby where we were waiting for the signal to begin, there was a golden egg.

Experienced egg hunters would know that the golden egg is usually very valuable.  I had no idea.  There was a mother very close to us who was coaching her son to get the golden egg.  And he did.  He ran straight for it and held up his egg in victory.  Congratulations to you and your greedy mother, kid.  I had to laugh, because I had already been told by friends who filled the eggs, that all the eggs were created equal.  No “special” eggs.  You would have thought that there were vouchers for TVs and other grand prizes in there by the wall of adults that moved across the field, making sure every single egg had been claimed!  It was crazy!!  Not my child, though.  Sam took his time, carefully selecting the colors he liked.

And, thankfully, he was able to fill his basket and avoid being mowed down.

Soon it was time to go.  Sam had had enough, as evidenced by his heat and hunger induced meltdown.  It wasn’t easy getting him all the way up the hill and back to our car. 

On Easter morning, we gave Sam a great, very age appropriate book about the Easter story.  He loved it.  We read it several times and talked about different parts of the story.  We especially talked about Jesus dying and being put in the tomb and the women finding the empty tomb three days later.  Then we headed into the kitchen to make Resurrection Rolls.  I don’t know how long this idea has been around, but I heard about them just the other day.  I was so excited to make these with Sam.  Oh, and were they ever yummy!!  If you’re wondering what Resurrection Rolls are, I’ve included the recipe at the bottom.  A friend passed it on to me. I truly hope this becomes our Easter tradition.

Resurrection Rolls

Give your child a marshmallow.  This represents Jesus.

Have him dip the marshmallow in melted butter. This represents the oils of embalming.

Now dip the buttered marshmallow in the cinnamon and suger which represent the spices used to anoint the body.

Wrap the coated marshmallow tightly in a crescent roll and seal up the dough.  This represents the wrapping of Jesus’ body after death.

Place in a 350 degree oven for 10-12 minutes. The oven represents the tomb.

Let the rolls cool slightly. Your child can open the roll (cloth) and discover that Jesus is no longer there, that HE IS RISEN!

Oh, so yummy!  And, a very powerful tool for illustrating this most important story. The look on Sam’s face as he exclaimed “He’s not in there!” was priceless!

(I wonder if we have to wait until next year to enjoy these again?!)