When life gives you lemons, make lemonade! I love this saying since life is constantly changing. Though I plan and schedule activities, sometimes life happens and those plans fall through. Such was the case during Easter this year, so we changed plans to celebrating Labor Day – Easter-style.

I had great plans for celebrating an unhurried Easter, and then our family caught a spring cold that brought our schedule to an abrupt halt. Our recovery lasted through Easter and into the next week, so our Easter celebration was simple without lots of extra activities.

My children still wanted to complete the Easter activities, so we kept out our decorations. With the busyness of the end-of-the-school year, summer, and family vacation, I finally pulled out the Easter activities on our rainy Labor Day weekend. Yep, 5 months later, we celebrated our Labor Day – Easter-style. 😉

Resurrection Eggs

My favorite Easter activity is reviewing the Easter story through the hands-on opening of the Resurrection eggs.

On Labor Day morning, we setup on the living floor. With their eggs before them, my children opened the eggs in numerical order as I read the Easter story.

I enjoyed hearing my children tell me portions of the Resurrection story using the items found within their eggs.

After finishing the Easter story, I listened as my children used their eggs to re-tell the Easter events. At the conclusion of play, we packed up our Resurrection Eggs for safe-keeping until March or April of 2013. Well, that’s the current plan because you just never know. 😉

Coloring Easter Eggs

After a Labor Day lunch of grilled cheese sandwiches, my son chose to play a game with Paul while the toddler took a nap. My older daughter had begged for months to color Easter eggs, so we created them together.

Upon prepping our work space with newspaper, she chose the coloring kit and plastic colored cups that matched the colored tablets. We measured the water, added the tablets, and watched the water change colors.

We had a blast as my daughter colored 2 dozen eggs. While patiently waiting the 5 minutes between colorings, she drew with a wax crayon on the white eggs.

When she colored those eggs, her writing remained white as the wax prevented the dye from coloring the egg. The Easter egg coloring process took around an hour and was time spent wisely.

Though we did not have an Easter Egg Hunt due to the rain, we opened the Resurrections eggs while reading the Easter story and colored eggs. Our unconventional Easter-style Labor Day offered fun activities and ended with Easter decorations neatly packed and organized for spring activities.

In using time wisely to prepare for holidays and special events, plan well. When your plans fall short, reschedule – even if it’s 5 months later. Plans will change, but when life gives you lemons, make lemonade. Happy planning!

Question: What holiday have you celebrated unconventionally?