Easter Preparations!

My darling princess and I prepared ourselves for Easter last weekend. And Oh boy did we have a good time!!

We had seen pictures of Easter Gardens on Pinterest earlier this month and we decided that would be a really cool thing to try. My little lovely is VERY into Jesus and I am totally okay with encouraging that. So off we went to the local Pat Catans to get some supplies. When we got there we had the pleasant discovery that Pat Catans had all kinds of craft projects for kids going on. My princess had a wonderful time crafting and looking for the next craft station while I gathered up a "rustic" saucer/plate thing, some dried moss, and a small terra-cotta pot. We also sampled some yummy chocolate melt free samples.

By the time we were finished, she had 5 lovely craft items, and we had stayed WAY longer than we had planned. It turns out that crafting for kids at Pat Catans is a pretty common thing. I'm sure my darling and I will be back, although weekly trips into a giant and fabulous craft store might not be the greatest thing for my budget!

So we came out of Pat Catans with our ground coverings, our base, and our tomb for our Easter Garden. We knew that we had enough sticks in our yard to make the crosses. And I had checked so I knew we had some leftover garden soil in the garage. But we had no large stone to put in front of the tomb. I'm pretty sure that I didn't have any in my yard either. I mean, I knew where some pea gravel was, but that's hardly big enough to roll away from a tomb. Sooo I did what any life long sinner would do. I stopped at the gas station and stoll a rock from their landscaping. 

Once home, the princess and I set to work. First I put a shallow layer of soil down in the pan/saucer/plate. Then I put the tomb flower pot in on it's side and put the large stone in front to seal the entrance. I added more soil and mounded it over the tomb. While I did this, my darling went searching for some good sticks. She decided on 6 different sticks and the I twisted a rubber band around them to make the three crosses. She then decided on where to place them. We did have a discussion on which is the best cross for Jesus and how Jesus' cross had to be in the middle.

Then she made a pathway using some cool mossy rocks from Pat Catans. They're really light, so I'm not actually sure if they are real rocks. Anyway, she made a path from the crosses to the tomb. 

Then she covered the rest of the soil with moss and we watered it so that we wouldn't have crazy amounts of dust in the house.

We then moved to the computer and picked out a good bible verse to go with our garden. 

Mark 15:46

And Finally, the princess made a sign for when I roll the rock away from the tomb on Easter morning. 

Hallelujah! He is! risen!

This was a really cool project to do with my darling girl. I like the looks of the garden and I like that it is a fairly constant reminder of what Lent is all about. It sits right on our dinner table so we have some really good conversations about Lent and Jesus' death and resurrection. Yesterday, for example, we had a whole discussion of how painful Jesus' death must have been. I think it's awesome that my little girl and I can just randomly start discussing our faith. 

There was some serious concentration...

Of course shortly after making the garden, my princess decided it was time to dye some eggs. This is great! I don't have her for Easter this year, but I do like some hard boiled eggs. And I had loads of eggs in the fridge so why not dye some? Well, except I didn't have any egg dying kits. So in the spirit of winging it, I pulled out some white vinegar and put the kettle on to boil. Then I discovered that I don't have any more of those squeezy drippy food colorings anymore. But I figured food coloring is food coloring. So I got out the food coloring I used to make her galaxy mirror birthday cake. 

The food coloring I used.

She didn't seem to mind that we weren't doing usual food colors and I was curious to see if my homemade egg dyes would work. I'm pleased with how vibrant they came out. I think we'll be doing this again!

3 rose, 2 violet, 3 royal blue, and 2 sky blue

Homemade Egg Dye
3 Tbsp white vinegar
1 cup boiling water
Some food coloring (I used a heaping knife tip full)

Stir the coloring into the vinegar. Then add the boiling hot water and stir until well combined and there are no more floating clots of color. Dye your eggs.


After dying the eggs, my funny little princess left a note for the Easter Bunny.

Michael is a boy in her class