easter

 

Happy Easter!!

Our weekend consisted of non-stop family time, beautiful weather, overflowing Easter baskets, and time spent reflecting on Jesus’ incredible resurrection.

Steve’s brother Phil and his family stayed with us the past few nights, and it’s been fun to share this big old house with another family of four :) Nolan and his two little girl cousins have limitless energy, and they wear us out, that’s for sure!

Nolan lucked out with an Easter basket from Mommy & Daddy, and two other Easter baskets from grandmas & grandpas. He now has “Frozen”, “Veggies in Space” a VeggieTales parody of Star Trek, Play-Doh, tons of bubbles, Color Wonder, new summer sandals, and plenty of candy. Lucky, right? :)

Little Ephraim spent Easter weekend clinging to his mommy while wearing the cutest baby outfits known to man. What a sweet, sweet baby he is!

Hope that you had a wonderful Easter weekend!!

our family room & easter decor

Welcome to our family room, decorated for Easter!

To start, I want to share that we are renters. Steve is in his fifth year of post-college studies (working hard now on his doctoral dissertation), so we aren’t in our forever-home yet. We moved in last summer, and we are in the unique position that we’re allowed to make changes and updates to the house while we are here to increase the house’s value :) Oh, and it was built in 1920, so it has a TON of character.

I’m linking up with Andrea for the “Come On In” series. I can’t wait to share more of our house over the next several months!

We love these bay windows. They are beautiful when the morning light comes streaming in!

We haven’t done much to this room since we moved in. Steve sanded and refinished the hardwood floors, as he did for the whole house. Last week, he did a little bit of electrical work by the TV. The house still has some knob and tube wiring, so replacing that will be a big job. Someday we will have to give these walls a fresh coat of paint. :)


I cut this fabric bunting from a large piece of white eyelet cotton. I left the strips unfinished to give them a frayed look, and then I tied them onto a piece of jute twine. The white fabric reminds me so much of the Easter story and the linens that Jesus’ body was wrapped in. Peter and another disciple went into the tomb on Easter morning and found the strips of linen lying there, and they then believed that Jesus had risen from the dead.
 

Pastel Easter candy makes for an easy, colorful display :)
My Christ is Risen free printable 

The paper straws are from Target.


My favorite Easter candy—(extra delicious when baked as Cadbury mini egg blondies!)

I’ve started collecting these white glass pieces from Goodwill. The vases I just picked up on Saturday. :)
 
Spring has Sprung free print


We have Ephraim’s dresser in the room (and a changing table not pictured). It is SO helpful to be able to change him on first floor. Also, I love how many windows this room has!

We have our DIY Resurrection Eggs displayed on the dresser, as well as a table runner I sewed last year.

  I made some Easter gift bags with these adorable Shabby Chic Bunnies.

Hope you enjoyed this little tour :)

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resurrection eggs

I pulled these Resurrection eggs out of a box in my mom’s garage a few weeks ago. My sister, Hannah, put this set together—making it extra meaningful to me.  It also means the saltine cracker below is at least 14 years old. Still looking good, no? ;)

Feel free to use this idea for your children, grandchildren, Sunday School class—as a teaching tool for the stories of Good Friday and Easter Sunday.

All you need is an empty egg carton, a dozen plastic eggs, and 11 little items to put in them (most of which you can find around the house).

1. A cracker to represent bread at the Last Supper.

Matthew 26:26: “While they were eating, Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying, ‘Take and eat; this is my body.’”

 

2. A dime to represent the 30 pieces of silver that Judas received to betray Jesus.

Matthew 26:14-15: “Then one of the Twelve—the one called Judas Iscariot—went to the chief priests and asked, ‘What are you willing to give me if I deliver him over to you?’ So they counted out for him thirty pieces of silver.”



3. A piece of rope to represent the soldiers whipping Jesus.

Mark 15:15: “Wanting to satisfy the crowd, Pilate released Barabbas to them. He had Jesus flogged, and handed him over to be crucified.”



4.  A piece of purple cloth to represent the purple robe put on Jesus to mock him as “King of the Jews”.

Mark 15:17: “They put a purple robe on him, then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on him.”



5. A cross to represent Jesus carrying his cross, our cross.

John 19:17-18: “Carrying his own cross, he went out to the place of the Skull . . . There they crucified him, and with him two others—one on each side and Jesus in the middle.”

 

6. A nail to represent that Jesus’ hands and feet were nailed to the cross.

John 20:25: “So the other disciples told him, ‘We have seen the Lord!’ But he said to them, ‘Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.’”



7. A dice to represent the soldiers casting lots for Jesus’ clothes.

Matthew 27:35: “When they had crucified him, they divided up his clothes by casting lots.”



8. A piece of sponge to represent the sponge used to give Jesus a drink of vinegar.

Matthew 27:48: “Immediately one of them ran and got a sponge. He filled it with wine vinegar, put it on a staff, and offered it to Jesus to drink.”



9. A toothpick (with one edge cut off) to represent the spear that pierced Jesus’ side.

John 19:34: “Instead, one of the soldiers pierced Jesus’ side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water.”



10. A piece of gauze or white fabric to represent the linens that they wrapped Jesus’ body with to bury him.

Matthew 27:59: “Joseph took the body, wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, and placed it in his own new tomb that he had cut out of the rock.”



11. A rock to represent the stone rolled in front of the tomb.

Matthew 27:66: “So they went and made the tomb secure by putting a seal on the stone and posting the guard.”

12. And an empty egg to represent the empty tomb on Easter morning!

Matthew 28:6: “He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay.”

Easter Peeps S'mores + free printable

 

If you've been reading this blog for long, you know I have a thing for s'mores. I've made these s'mores kits a few times, and I think they are the cutest idea! You can make them to pass out to friends and family this Easter!

To make these s'mores kits: Put a halved graham cracker, a mini Hershey bar, and a bunny Peep inside a plastic bag. Then print the image on cardstock, fold it in half, and staple it to the top of the bag.

 

 To eat the s'more, just pop the Peep in the microwave for 10 seconds until it's warm, and place it in between the graham crackers with the chocolate bar.  :)

Right click image below and save to your computer:
(I printed them as 4" by 4")

 

To print four on a page, right-click and save the image below:

 

Enjoy!!

cadbury creme egg cupcakes

I was at Walmart a couple days ago in the Easter candy aisle, and I ended up with a lot of Cadbury in my cart: Cadbury Creme Eggs, Cadbury Mini Creme Eggs, Cadbury Mini Eggs (I restocked after last week’s Mini Egg Blondies), and a large Cadbury bunny. I just think Cadbury makes good chocolate ;)

I chose to use the Mini Creme Eggs to make cupcakes that I saw here.
I just ate one this afternoon, and let me tell you, it was probably the best cupcake I’ve ever had. There is a Mini Creme Egg on top of the vanilla buttercream frosting, and a Mini Creme Egg melted on the inside!

Ingredients:

1 chocolate cake mix (I love Betty Crocker’s Super Moist Chocolate Fudge)
Eggs, Oil, and Water as the box calls for
24 cupcake liners
48 Cadbury Mini Creme Eggs (24 of them frozen so that they don’t disappear in the batter when baked)

For the buttercream frosting:
1 stick butter, softened
4 cups powdered sugar
3-4 splashes of milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Yellow dye
Bags for piping (I just use Ziploc bags with their ends cut off)

Note: you could buy a can of store-bought vanilla frosting, but I don’t know how easy it would be to pipe onto the cupcake.

 
Directions:

Fill the cupcake liners 2/3 of the way full with batter. Place the egg in the center of the batter, and spread a little bit of batter over the egg.

Bake the cupcakes according to the box’s directions. Let them cool completely.

With an electric mixer, combine the butter, powdered sugar, milk, and vanilla until the frosting is the right consistency. Add more milk if it’s too thick, or more sugar if it’s too thin. Separate one cup of the frosting, and dye it yellow.

Frost the cupcakes—piping a circle of white around the outside, and a dollop of yellow frosting in the center. Place a creme egg in the center of the yellow.



Eat, enjoy, and share with friends!