Easter 2016

Although we are secular, we do celebrate a mix of religious holiday in gentle ways, perhaps more as part of our seasonal rhythm and sometimes as part of our curriculum.

This year, we enjoyed the ten day audio story about Easter from the Martin & Sylvia collection from Sparkle Stories. We love Sparkle Stories and I find I often learn something, whether it is new knowledge or a parenting tip!

Wrapped into the ten days including and leading up to Easter, the kids dyed eggs (with natural dyes) with my parents, but not at home. This is the first time we haven't dyed eggs together since they were old enough, but they were satisfied with what they did with Nonno and Grandma and it left us more time for other projects.

We made hot cross buns for the fist time ever. Ours are gluten free and are a modified version of the recipe found in Gluten-Free Baking Classics by Annalise Roberts, my heavily used go-to cook book for gluten free versions of gluten filled classics. All of us loved them, which doesn't always happen with baked goods.

We also had fun making stained glass window eggs, using the directions posted at Nova Naturals.

The kids insisted that hubby and I leave out Easter baskets, as well, so I did and they were filled with goodies to share. The pattern blocks, Wreck This Journals, and the story cubes were hands-down hits. Woo hoo!

 

After a nice morning together, we joined family for a delicious, beautiful lunch at my parents' home. It was a gorgeous day and the egg hunt was good fun, with everyone involved by the end. We wound up with a mini concert, completely organized, as a secret, by Lala Bug and Little Brown Mouse. She was on the piano, he was on the ukulele. 

 

All in all a beautiful week, day, and entry into spring.