Easter Egg Hunt – Mom on the go in Holy Toledo

After church on Sunday the children went on a Resurrection Egg hunt. For those not familiar, Resurrection eggs are a set of 12 plastic Easter Eggs each containing a specific object inside related to the true story of Easter (crown of thorns, dice, chalice, etc.). Each egg has a scripture reading, devotion, and short story that accompany the small item placed inside the egg.

Since they had just listened to the Palm Sunday gospel reading of the Passion and the younger two discussed it more in-depth in Sunday school everything was fresh in their minds. So first I hid the eggs and they each went hunting for the eggs then we read the scripture reading and had the children guess what was inside each egg before they opened it.

It was priceless seeing their excitement before opening each egg. And I was pleasantly surprised how many they guessed correctly.

We officially started a new family tradition, Palm Sunday Resurrection Eggs hunt and discussion to help prepare the children for Holy week. Our daughter even came up with the idea of placing them in our Easter basket to be blessed.

If you are interested in making your own Resurrection Eggs the following sites offer free printables and instructions:

The Simple Home

Life Your Way

Play Eat Grow

Or purchase your own like I did by Family Life (from Hobby Lobby, 40% off, score!!) and the Family Life website has some great tips, idea, etc. for using the Resurrection eggs.

Got Easter baskets? Well we do, 9! While the kiddos are sleeping off their chocolate hang overs (yep, we had chocolate bunny heads for breakfast with a side of Reece’s pieces. I was tired and they were so convenient. This is not something I am proud of but I am keeping it real) and our toddler is slowly remembering other words beside, “more bunny….more bunny….” I thought I might take a moment to share the past 48 hours.

At the culmination of Easter Sunday mass the entire congregation joined the choir in singing Jesus Christ Has risen today Alleluia. Since we do not sing Alleluia during Lent this song is quite a celebration. On a personal note I felt it was also a celebration of the fact that I had survived Easter. I belted out Alleluia at the top of my lungs (yes, out of tune, bad breath, and all).

For those of you not familiar with this song here ya go…..

My poor hubby did not have the best Easter. We had my family over to celebrate on Holy Saturday and then we were going to celebrate with his family on Easter Sunday. After my family left Saturday evening he started to get sick. It was at that moment that I thought my worst nightmare was coming true. I thought for sure I had given my family food poisoning on the first, and what would probably be the last time, I hosted a holiday celebration. So, I did what any good hostess would do, I made a phone call to see if anyone else was puking. As I listen to the ring tone my thoughts wandered. It could have been the potato salad, I made a lot, and maybe the middle wasn’t cold or something? Or was it the kielbasa? I didn’t eat the kielbasa but my hubby went to town on it and so did my uncles and grandpa. Oh, God, my poor grandfather, he survived colorectal cancer and just celebrated his 80^th birthday, and now it will be the kielbasa he had eaten my house that kills him.

holysaturday 028 — Is that Killer Potato Salad in the corner?

holysaturday 026 — Is that Killer Kielbasa behind the Lamb butter?

Finally my mom picked up the phone. Good news, no one else that attended our Easter celebration was sick, phew!!! So, my hubby went up to bed after helping me clean up from our celebration, how sweet is he? He was feeling miserable but helped me clean up and rearrange the furniture.

While he was sick upstairs I, I mean the “Easter bunny”, put the kiddos Easter baskets together and hid the Easter Eggs for the Hunt in the morning.

holysaturday 054 — I had to make our toddler’s hunt a little more obvious than the older kiddos.

At 6:30am our preschool was ready to hunt for some Easter Eggs, I did everything I could to stall. But by 7:30 I ran out of ideas and the kiddos sprang to action looking for Easter eggs like it was their JOB. Then they went through their Easter baskets and started playing with and eating some of the goodies in their baskets. My poor hubby missed out on all the fun but I did record Easter morning for him to watch later. At which time he can also play referee and determine if our daughter fouled and infringed on our son’s eggs. (Each kiddo hunts for different eggs; we learned this the hard way a few years ago. So our 19 month-old hunted little animal characters, preschooler, sports balls, and our six-year-old, cupcake shaped eggs).

By this point of the weekend I was starting to lag a bit, from the lack of sleep, activities of the week, and festivities of weekend. This mommy needed a break but I had to momup! for mass and the remainder of the day. My in-laws had reservations at Maumee Bay State Park Lodge for brunch after mass. Since by know it was apparent that my hubby had the stomach flu and head cold I would be putting in some parent overtime.

I managed to get all four of us dressed, diaper bag and church bags packed, and out the door to mass a ½ hour early, which is basically like being on time on Easter Sunday. It seems like everyone is catholic on Easter Sunday. Seriously, where are all these people the rest of the year? It was so crowded, a little claustrophobic. But that just might have been because our 19 month old is going through a clingy phase. Have you ever gone to the zoo and seen the orangutan family? You know the baby that is always hanging off of the mom? That is precisely how my daughter and I looked during mass. I was getting warm, sweating, a little light-headed from the lack of oxygen since she was squeezing my neck, and during the quiet reflection portions of mass she managed to yell “Mama…mama..mama” like having my eyes closed meant I was miles away. Thus, by the end of mass, while the entire congregation joined the choir in singing the beautiful and celebratory song I belted out Alleluia. Jesus Christ had risen and this mommy made it through the weekend and mass solo.

As I walked out of church I felt the warmth of the sunshine and a soft breeze, it was at that moment that it felt like God was speaking to me, telling me I had done good and I deserved a treat. I deserved a Grande iced hazelnut latte from Starbucks! That’s right baby, lent was over and it was time to celebrate and celebrate I did.

I buckled the kiddos in and the Yukon practically drove itself there, as if it too had missed that mommy friendly drive-thru that would bring peace, joy, and caffeine to its mom on the go driver.

Hello old friend….it has been so long….