2014 Easter Activities: Resurrection Eggs

April 15, 2014 by Tracy

During this week between Palm Sunday and Easter, our family focuses on the events from Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem through his death, burial, and resurrection.

In teaching our children about our faith and why Easter is more than egg hunts and filled baskets, we use Resurrection Eggs as a teaching tool.

Defining Resurrection Eggs

Resurrection Eggs are plastic eggs filled with symbols that represent a portion of the Easter story.

If placed in order, the eggs tell of Christ’s entry with a leaf symbol to Christ’s trial with cloth and thorns to His resurrection, an empty egg.

In past years, we limited the eggs to 5 which is a great starting place with younger children. But, as their attention spans increase, we expanded our Resurrection Eggs to 12 this year. I created our own set from these instructions posted by Jenny Martin at Southern Savers.

Teaching with Resurrection Eggs

When I visited my son’s classroom at school, I downloaded and printed the verses that explain each egg. I then cut the printed sheets into 12 strips – the verses for one egg per strip.

Each student chose an egg. To make this activity efficient, I handed out the strips, so that one would open the egg and discover the contents while another child read the corresponding verses.

Our activity went like this: Student with egg #1 opens the egg and reveals a leaf. Student with egg #12 (the last egg) read the verses about the content of egg #1. After questions or discussion, student with egg #2 opens the egg to show the crackers/bread. Then student with egg #1 reads the verses about egg #2.

We then continued revealing an egg, and then having the student that previously opened his egg read about the contents of the next egg. When we get to egg #12, the student with egg #1 reads about the empty tomb.

These Resurrection Eggs continue to fascinate my children as they remember the meaning of this Easter week. Miss 4 loves to get out these eggs and tell the story to her stuffed animals.

I love to hear my children tell of Jesus’ sacrifice for us. What a great teaching tool and focus on these life-changing events. Happy Easter week!

Question: Do you use Resurrection Eggs to remember the Easter story?

2014 Easter Activities: Community Egg Hunt

April 14, 2014 by Tracy

At the beginning of April, I helped with our community egg hunt. As the social activities in our neighborhood have been non-existent for a couple of years, I was not surprised to find a low turnout. However, those in attendance had a great time.

Advertised in our quarterly newsletter and posted to our neighborhood’s Facebook page, our community egg hunt was on a Saturday from 10:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. in a cul-de-sac close to our playground.

Had it rained, the invitation indicated that the event would be canceled.

All members of the community were welcome to come as the children, ages 12 and under, hunted for eggs.

Each participating child was asked to bring the following:

Ten plastic eggs, each filled with a small item (e.g., sticker, coin, trinket, wrapped candy, etc.)
Basket or container for collecting eggs
Supervising parent or adult

In helping with this event, I assisted with preparing, setting up, executing, and cleaning up our community egg hunt.

Preparing for our Community Egg Hunt

With the residents invited, we took the extra step to personally notify the residents in the event cul-de-sac. This courtesy was extended to give them a contact name should they experience any issues. Having a one-hour event, we planned the following tentative schedule:

Tentative Schedule

10:30 a.m.: Collect eggs and children’s activity

10:45 a.m.: Parents and teens hide eggs while children get organized into age groups

11:00 a.m.: Hunt eggs

11:15 a.m.: Open eggs and enjoy the contents

11:25 a.m.: Conclude with refreshments

To pull off this event, we gathered the following supplies:

Tent/canopy
Table
Tablecloth
Centerpiece
Clipboard with resident names and addresses to verify residency
Pens
Two egg collection boxes – one for children ages 0-5 and another for children ages 6-12
Egg hunt book from the library
Blankets on which children can sit
Chair(s)
Water
Lemonade
Cookie tray with 84 cookies from Sam’s Club
Cups
Napkins
Cooler
Plastic trash bag

Setting up for our Community Egg Hunt

Our team of volunteers arrived around 9:30 a.m. We setup the tent and table. Then arranged all the items and waited for the children to arrive.

Executing the Plan for our Community Egg Hunt

10:30 a.m.: Collect eggs and children’s activity

As each participating child arrived, he or she added the 10 filled-eggs to the appropriate box. Then the child came to the blanket where we played a game. At 10:30 a.m., I read the egg hunt story titled, Last One In Is a Rotten Egg.

10:45 a.m.: Parents and teens hide eggs while children get organized into age groups

While reading the story, adults went to the playground to hide the eggs. The plan was to hide the younger children’s eggs in front of the playground and the older children’s eggs behind the playground. However, with a small showing, all the eggs were hidden in front of the playground.

After the story, which teaches about playing fair, instructions were given that each child was to hunt 10 eggs. We then marched out to the playground to have them line up. Once in place, we gave the signal and sent them hunting.

11:00 a.m.: Hunt eggs

The big ones did a great job helping the younger ones. They wandered all over the place finding all the eggs and making sure everyone received 10 eggs.

11:15 a.m.: Open eggs and enjoy the contents

As they began opening the eggs to find their prizes, we headed back to the tent area for cookies and lemonade.

11:25 a.m.: Conclude with refreshments

We munched and concluded our community egg hunt by finishing the games we started prior to reading the book. The older children enjoyed figuring out the buzz word from the list of given clues.

Cleaning up our Community Egg Hunt

With a few homeowners coming out to watch the festivities and getting in on the refreshments, we ended a little after the one-hour scheduled time frame. With everything together, tear down was quick.

We packed up the leftover items into the two empty boxes, folded up the table, and took down the tent within 15 minutes. Making sure all the trash was picked up and the area free from debris, we headed home chatting with our neighbors.

My oldest and youngest participated in our community egg hunt and enjoyed the activities, especially the lemonade and cookies. With a plan in place and the supplies gathered, the event was executed as scheduled.

Having the participants bring plastic filled eggs alleviated the element of guessing how many would attend. Also, limiting the event to one hour made this event relatively easy to assemble.

We had a great time at our community egg hunt, and my children are ready for more egg hunts this Easter season. Happy hunting!

Question: What additional activities do you include with your egg hunts?

2014: Our Spring Break Activities

April 10, 2014 by Tracy

Photograph Credit: Microsoft Images

Thankful for another early spring break this year, we planned a little getaway.

In years past, we have stayed near home and enjoyed the activities around town while the other school-age students were in school.

In 2012, we spent time entertaining, playing, jumping and visiting.

Then in 2013, we played arcade games at Chuck E. Cheese, jumped, met friends at the park, colored Easter eggs, and hunted eggs.

This year, we started our spring break as soon as school let out.

Friday: Preparing for our Getaway

With our children getting bigger and ready for more adventure, we planned a weekend trip up to Charlotte, NC. When school let out early on Friday, March 7, we headed home to finish packing for our weekend trip.

Saturday: Travel and Visiting Two Science Museums

On Saturday morning, we headed to Charlotte to visit the Charlotte Nature Museum and Discovery Place using our favorite history and science museum membership.

Getting FREE admission to both venues, we enjoyed the displays, activities, and programs. Both museums were in close proximity, and we had packed our lunch to cut down on time away from playing.

Though we ended up staying longer at the Nature Museum to see the showing of Grandpa Tree, we had about 1.5 hours to find our favorite activities at Discovery Place before they closed at 6:00 p.m.

At closing time, we headed to our friends’ home in the area. We were fed a delicious meal and enjoyed talking the night away with them.

Sunday: Daylight Savings Time, Church, and the Great Wolf Lodge

It was a short night as Daylight Savings sprung us forward an hour, so we were yawning a bit in church the next morning.

After church, we said our thank yous and goodbyes, and headed to the Great Wolf Lodge.

We stopped by Krispy Kreme Doughnuts for our FREE original glazed doughnuts and grabbed a quick bite to eat at Wendy’s getting our $1 key tags for this spring and summer.

We then arrived at the Great Wolf Lodge in Charlotte/Concord, NC. To read more about our wonderful stay and adventure, check out this series recap for all my tips and tricks for a fun visit.

Monday: Day 2 at the Great Wolf Lodge

We continued our two-day stay at the lodge with lots of waterpark fun.

After leaving the lodge in the early evening, we stopped by Chick-fil-A for dinner where we used our Chick-fil-A calendar cards for FREE Chick-fil-A sandwiches. Yum!

With full tummies and worn out from the busy weekend, we all relaxed as Paul drove us home.

Ah! Home . . . it was a nice getaway, but getting back home was really nice.

Tuesday: Recovery Day

We spent the day relaxing, unpacking, and working on the piles of laundry while we recovered from the great weekend.

It was really nice to have no place to go and no schedule to follow.

The girls were fun to watch as they rediscovered their toys. They missed playing with their favorites while we were away.

Wednesday: Crafts

With the weather getting a bit chilly, we had another day at home with the girls painting a craft and asking for more projects.

Getting a little restless after being home for 2 days, we planned an outing for Thursday.

Thursday: Jump Zone

Needing to work out their stored up energy, my children jumped all morning and afternoon at our local jump zone.

By early evening, they were ready to head home for dinner, baths, and movie night.

Friday: Outing with Grandparents

Taking up my in-laws’ offer to watch their grandchildren on Friday, I dropped them off and ran some errands alone before heading home.

After Paul finished work, he picked them up and brought them home.

They had learned to whittle with Grandpa and were working on their blocks of wood until dinner was ready.

Saturday: Bonding Time

As our spring break was coming to an end, we were gearing up to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day.

For a little mother-daughter bonding time, Miss 6 and I painted our nails for the Irish holiday.

Kicking off our spring break with a getaway and then taking the week to recover worked well for us. My children enjoyed their time off but were not exhausted when heading back to the school routine on Monday morning.

As the school year is winding down and schedules are ramping up, recovery days are necessary in our home for a bit of calm. Finding a balance takes time, but the recovery days allow us to rest which is keeping us healthy this allergy season. Happy spring break!

Question: What do you have planned, or did you do on your spring break?

2014: March Madness – The Results

April 8, 2014 by Tracy

Photograph Credit: NCAA Tournament

March Madness was exciting and full of surprises again this year. With the teams ranked from a panel of sports experts, I found it interesting to see a team like Mercer, ranked #14, knock off a #3 seed Duke in the first round.

Poor Paul! He pretty much gave up on the NCAA Tournament after his team went out after the first game. 🙁

Though I was hanging in there through the Final Four, where Florida played, I lost interest once Florida lost to UConn (University of Connecticut) by 10 points. Although, if my team had to lose, I’m glad they lost to the National Champion.

Having shared how we setup our family competition through Sports Illustrated, I am not going to leave you wondering who actually won our family bracket. With our son being the reigning champion from 2013, we were all looking to bump him off.

So, the winner of this year’s 2014 Morrison March Madness Competition is . . .

Mr. 8

For the second year in a row, he beat us all again, and he’s not shy about telling anyone who will listen. He is very excited as he had no teams remaining in the Final Four.

In order to beat him, I needed Florida to make it to the final game. Well, it did not happen this year. So, our family’s final scores were as follows:

Family Member	Points Scored
Mr. 8	132
Tracy	116
Paul	110
Miss 6	76
Miss 4	52

Second place seems to be my spot for sports competitions this year. I played in a fantasy football league and was winning all season until the final game. Where out of the blue, one player in our league swept in and snagged first place. Oh well, there’s always next year. 😉

In using time wisely, our family enjoyed rooting for the teams we picked; or, if your chosen team was already out, then rooting against the team another family member picked – just to keep the competition going. Our son kept us informed on the winners as he watched his iPod Touch closely for the final scores.

As March Madness has come to a conclusion for 2014, our son is our family champ for another year. But, we’ll get him one of these times when either Florida or Duke makes it to the final game.

Until that happens, we will enjoy this fun family activity as we pick, watch, and win or lose. Happy playing!

Question:If you participated in March Madness, then how were your results?

2014: March Madness – NCAA Basketball Tournament

March 18, 2014 by Tracy

Photograph Credit: NCAA Tournament

March Madness has started! The conclusion of the college basketball season culminates with the Big Dance, also known as the NCAA Basketball Tournament.

Last year, I posted a video of my son and daughter making their picks when they were 1 and 2 years old. (Love that video as it takes me back to when they were little.)

As a sports family, we love March Madness. Having dealt with the criticism of how poorly the Florida Gators performed during football season, I am thrilled that they are currently ranked #1 in basketball. My husband is a Duke Blue Devil’s fan, so it may come down to a showdown.

For those unfamiliar with March Madness, the NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) hosts a single-elimination basketball tournament each year comprised of 68 college teams. Though the ladies have a similar competition, our family focuses on the men’s Final Four tournament.

March Madness Online

In 2013, Paul created a group on the Yahoo! Sports page for our family. We entered our picks, and the program kept track of our scores. Our son won the family competition hands down.

My only regret from last year was that I did not print our brackets. About a week after the tournament ended, I went to get the results, and Yahoo! had wiped out those groups to make room for fantasy baseball.

This year, Paul created a group with Sports Illustrated as Yahoo! would not setup a group without verifying a phone number. We did not wish to disclose that information, and Sports Illustrated did not require a phone number.

With the online version, all selections must be made by Thursday, March 20, 2014 at noon. This is the deadline for our bracket through Sports Illustrated. If you choose another online bracket, then check their deadlines to participate.

Once all our family members fill in their brackets, I will print them – even if the games have not begun. I want to be sure to have the brackets for this year. I can always go back to see who won the games and record the winners.

My children get excited about making their selections. The following embedded video is of my children making their 2014 first round picks. (Please pardon my youngest child’s manners as she is still learning proper etiquette, and I did not notice her actions while I was filming the event.)

March Madness on Paper

Prior to last year, Paul and I printed copies of the tournament bracket, made our picks, watched the games, and recorded the winners.

Photograph Credit: Sports Illustrated

If you prefer a paper version, you can print a bracket from ESPN, CBS Spo rts, or Sports Illustrated.

You can choose how you want to score your brackets. For our family, we followed this guideline for each correct selection:

Round 1: One point
Round 2: Two points
Round 3: Three points
Round 4: Four points
Round 5: Five points
Round 6: Six points
Round 7 (Championship): Seven points – we also guess the score.

If you have a sports fan in your family, then you will probably hear about March Madness, the Final Four, the Big Dance, or the NCAA Tournament – known by lots of names.

This competition continues to bring enjoyment to our family complete with bragging rights. In using time wisely, we love the bonding that this FREE activity brings to our home.

Watching the games and tracking the scoring heightens the competition. The games begin on Thursday, and the deadlines for the online versions are fast approaching.

Setting up a family group takes minutes which is a great use of time for this FREE family, group, or club competition. Happy choosing!

Question: Does your family make selections for the NCAA Basketball Tournament?

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