Godly Play Banners

 I just finished the Easter banner for our godly play room at church. Technically it was finished in Eastertide, though it won't get hung this year. The good news is I finished the Pentecost banner too.   So we have the correct banner for a week.   

I worked with a friend on these and we were going for simple. The Easter banner was done by freezer paper painting with gold fabric paint on cotton (the only white I had on hand). The Pentecost banner is just paintbrush streets of paint on red fabric (sateen I think, someone gave me a big piece of it at some point). 

Easter Books: Sacred

Eastertide :: 45/50

I have tried the past couple years to get the Easter books out on or just before Easter and leave them in 'circulation' through all fifty days of Easter.  I thought I would share a few here.  I've been trying to build our collection, we have a small stack of Easter books.  There isn't nearly the selection of Easter books as there are Christmas books, so I'd love any suggestions of favorites you might share! 

I'm pretty sure I've mentioned these before in this space so I won't go on, but they are the two sacred books that we read the most.  I started reading these to the boys just before Holy Week to prepare them to journey though the week.   Peter's First Easter follows Peter through the events of Holy Week and Easter. It is divided into chapters and would be great to read through Holy Week or throughout Lent.  The Easter Story is told from the donkey's perspective.  I always love the details in Brian Wildsmith's illustrations.  Both of these books invite a child to enter a full and difficult story, but they do it in a way that is imaginative and grace filled, allowing the child to enter however far they are ready, but not forcing them into the darkness.

Easter Books: Eggs!

Eastertide :: 44/50

I have tried the past couple years to get the Easter books out on or just before Easter and leave them in 'circulation' through all fifty days of Easter.  I thought I would share a few here .  I've been trying to build our collection; we have a small stack of Easter books.  There isn't nearly the selection of Easter books as there are Christmas books, so I'd love any suggestions of favorites you might share! 

These are two books that have been added to our collection over the past couple years.  I'm enjoying them both immensely.  

The Easter Egg is filled with classic Jan Brett illustrations packed with lots to see and adding so much depth to the story.  The boys adore this book and ask for it again and again.  A small bunny watches in awe as all the other bunnies decorate beautiful eggs in all sorts of ways.  He ends up taking care of a fallen robin's egg instead of finishing an egg of his own.  I'll let you guess who wins the contest.

The Egg Tree is precious and an inspiring story.  Cousins go on an egg hunt and one finds some beautiful old eggs in the attic (they weren't part of the hunt) which they hang on a tree.  This book leaves me ready to run to the craft shelves to paint some eggs to hang.  Perhaps next year...

Easter Books: Old Favorites

Eastertide :: 43/50

I have tried the past couple years to get the Easter books out on or just before Easter and leave them in 'circulation' through all fifty days of Easter.  I thought I would share a few here over the next couple days.  I've been trying to build our collection, we have a small stack of Easter books.  There isn't nearly the selection of Easter books as there are Christmas books, so I'd love any suggestions of favorites you might share! 

These were my two favorite Easter books as a child.  I read them over and over.  I have so enjoyed sharing them with my boys, who also ask to read them over and over again.  Both are sweet magical stories.

The Country Bunny and the Little Gold Shoes is the story of a mama rabbit who is chosen to be an Easter Bunny.  Her well trained children are quite able to carry on without her while she brings joy to children and one sick child in particular.   My favorite part of the story has always been when the 21 children (heavens!) are all assigned tasks - two to paint pictures, two to sing and dance, two to set the table...  The illustrations are precious and I love how the family works together to care for their home.

Grandpa Bunny is a tale of how a rabbit family paints eggs, leaves, birds and bugs, making them all very beautiful.  It is a fun and imaginative story.  When I was growing up my family called any beautiful sunset a Grandpa Bunny Bunny Sky.   The other day my middle boys were inspired to be painting bunnies themselves.  I have a pair of stained shorts to prove it (isn't tempera paint supposed to be washable?) as well as a nature table full of painted pieces from our garden.

A Birthday Crown for my Sunshine

Eastertide 39/50 :: in Celebration and Gratitude 

We are celebrating my wonderful one-year-old today.  When they handed me Athan a year ago I was filled with the most intense feeling of gratitude I have ever experienced.  For here he was, my fourth precious baby boy.  I pictured that his symbol would be a sunshine before he was born because Athanasius means 'Eternal Life' and the sun seemed fitting for a baby born in Eastertide.  But, as I've come to know this little man the image of the sun has been fitting beyond what I would have imagined.  He so very content and quick with smiles for everyone; he brings a bit of sunshine wherever he goes. 

                                                Happy Birthday Sunshine!

On the Easter Table

Eastertide 

Flowers Jim picked on his walk home from work :: Jonah's monthly memory work for school, so well timed with the church year :: A new runner for Easter made from the hem of our first curtains (We lived in a 6'4 hobbit home/ basement apartment when we were newly wed seminary students, so all our curtains needed hemmed.  I've saved the scraps all these years.)

Easter Eggs

Easter lasts for seven weeks.  So for these forty-nine days of Easter I am hoping to share moments of celebration and gratitude.  I adore the idea that the mystery of Easter is so great it spills into six more weeks.  But in reality, more than any other time in the church calendar, Easter alludes me.  So my hope is that the practice of sharing moments of celebration and gratitude will illuminate (at least a bit more) what it means to live out this spectacular redemption for forty-nine days.


All thoughts and comments on what Easter spilling into six more weeks looks like for you and/or your family are very, very welcome!
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3/49

Last year we somehow missed egg dying.  And this year it didn't get done till this Monday.  For some reason dying eggs during Holy Week doesn't really appeal to me.  I know that the tradition began when eggs were a typical item to abstain from during lent, so when Easter arrived everyone had lots of eggs around and would gift them to one another.  So preparing eggs during lent makes sense historically, but I realized this year I would rather have it as an Easter activity.  

I honestly wondered about just skipping dying eggs again this year, but I had a kit from last year (yes, we've always done natural dyes in the past, but I bought a kit last year when I realized that the traditional dyes, which take a lot more time, weren't going to happen).  The joy dying those eggs (over and over again in every color) brought the boys was something to behold.  I had no idea they would be quite so into it.  It was really rather over the top.  One might think they'd never had anyone show them paint or how colors mix before; it was truly celebration.

He is Risen

Lent felt so so fast this year.  And then Resurrection Day took an unexpected twist as we tended to a toddler with a stomach bug.  Our empty tomb cake this year, which was meant to be for a picnic with friends, wasn't actually assembled until dinner time.  The boys enjoyed the story, and those of us who were well enough enjoyed the cake! 

Happy Easter Dear Friends!

Easter Begins

I'm grateful that Easter lasts six weeks, because there is so much I want to think about and so much to celebrate.  We've been busy with preparations for the royal wedding (more on this soon - certainly a cultural experience) and everyday comings and goings (which there seem to be more of lately) and having six weeks for this important occasion feels so right and good.  

I'm hoping to be in this space more soon, the photos are piling up and there is lots to share, but for now...

Happy Easter.  He is Risen! 

to which Jonah says "He is Risen Indeed!" and Rowan says "Deed!"

How we dyed (or dissected) eggs...

The Last Sunday of Easter

Today is the last Sunday of Easter. I love the way the godly play curriculum says "the mystery of Easter is so great that it spills into six more sundays". I'm also grateful that we are an Easter people, continually living in the work of Easter.

We've been celebrating the six sundays of Easter with a little candy. I filled six small jars (spice and individual sized jam pots) with jellybeans and gummy bears. They sit on the windowsill and each Sunday we divide and eat the candy, much to Jonah's delight. The events between resurrection and Ascension divide nicely into six stories to read over six weeks. Last week I decided to fill the empty jars with flowers so they didn't look so forlorn on our windowsill and I love the visual reminder the jars are to us and Jonah has never looked forward to sunday quite so fervently.

And so, for the last time this year I wish you "Happy Easter."