1st Easter

This was Riley's first Easter and the last of her "first" for major holidays, except for her BIRTHDAY! Easter is always a unusual holiday to celebrate when you are far away from family. Since we have lived in NC we have always gone out to eat at a nice restaurant after church on Easter Sunday, which I always love to do, but growing up we always had a big family dinner at home with extended family, a large Easter hunt with all the kids, and Easter baskets filled with candy! I miss doing that, so this year we decided to have Easter at home and invite people who don't have family nearby either. The egg hunt & baskets with candy will have to wait till next when Riley is bigger! As usual, we woke up early to get to church and help set-up. Thomas has been the interim pastor at our church while we found a new pastor to replace our brother-in-law who left in January, so he spoke at our service on "Why Jesus Died" and did an awesome job! (or so I hear, I was with the little kids)

Some of the wacky kids from MoTown (kids church)

Riley matching Auntie Paige

We planned on doing a brunch at our house after church with Thomas' brother Ryan and a friend or two.  The number grew a little at the last minute, as is sometimes custom in our life, but the more the merrier! We had a great meal (some of the best mashed potatoes ever...thanks Cali!) and a great time!

I made up a small Easter basket for Riley this year with a few Gerber snacks, Baby Einstein animal cards, and a few things from the $ spot at Target. She enjoyed taking the things out of the basket and making a mess.

After everyone left we made something called Resurrection Rolls. I have made these for the last few years on Easter and think they are a great activity to do with your children to teach them about Jesus' resurrection! And the rolls are really yummy!

If you are interested in making them, they are real easy:

You need crescent rolls (we just used biscuits because I forgot to buy the crescents), melted butter, cinnamon/sugar mixture, & large marshmallows (I tried the strawberry ones this year).

Preheat oven according to dinner rolls packaging. Take individual dinner rolls (Jesus' tomb) and spread melted butter (anointing oil) on rolls. Next place marshmallow (Jesus) in the roll. Sprinkle with cinnamon/sugar mixture (anointing spices). Wrap marshmallow tightly in the roll- leave no cracks. You can also sprinkle more cinnamon/sugar on top if you'd like. The tomb will open & be empty when done cooking!

This is how they look when they are finished.

We had a wonderful Easter and maybe we started a new tradition...Easter at our house, again next year! And we will have an Easter egg hunt!