Sunday, April 08, 2007

Happy Easter! Christ is Risen!!

Hallelujah! Our Christ is Risen!! What a day to celebrate!! Freedom, joy, love... all that comes from Christ dying on the cross for ME and for every one of YOU too.

I hope you are all having a wonderful Easter Sunday! We have so far....

The first year we've actually been in our own home for Easter as a family! We've been with my grandparents in Toowoomba a couple of years, and at the Bunya Mnts with old church friends another, so its good to be home for Easter this year.

So what family traditions do you all have? I'd love to hear some of them.

Since Christmas last year, we've decided to 'get rid' of Santa, the Easter Bunny etc as we really felt those secular characters take the emphasis away from these special Christian celebrations. Yeah, it might sound really mean to Jaidyn, but its the best thing for our family, and in future years I hope it will be easier...

So anyway, instead of having the 'Easter Bunny' leave eggs and treats for the kids this year, we've done something a little differently today. Now, I didn't want to totally disappoint Jaidyn in the morning when every other year he's been used to finding goodies at the bottom of his bed, so we placed a couple of little eggs in a bucket, and this note:

Happy Easter! Now don't be sad,
Mum & Dad don't think you've been bad.
After church we'll have lots of fun
Finding your Easter eggs one by one.
So right now, don't be at a loss,
Just remember what Jesus did on the cross.
He died for your sins, so you could be free!
And he came back to life on day number three.


He loved it too, and has been very excited to do his egg hunt when we got home from church. I really wanted to remind him too of the importance of remembering Christ today, as He is the reason we have this weekend to celebrate!

Anyway, the hunt... when Greg was young, his Dad would write cryptic clues for them to find their eggs, so we decided to do the same thing for Jaidyn this year (and be practicing his reading while he does it too!). So Greg and I spent about an hour last night writing little poems for him to find his eggs around the house today.. well I turned out to be the better poet, lol...

So I'm just going to put it all up here, coz I'd like to have this written down somewhere in case I want to scrap it sometime, and the clues will no doubt get thrown out.... so bear with me...

We started Jaidyn off in his bedroom with the following clue:
This is your first clue, to start you on your way,
I wonder if we have any letters today?

We had to help him with the first clue, as I don't think he quite got the idea of the 'crytpic-ness' of it, but after a little prompt, he was right on ball! He ran down to the letterbox... with myself in hot pursuit... Where he found a couple of eggs and this clue:
Hip Hip Hooray! You found your first one,
I hope you're having lots of fun!
The next place sounds like your middle name,
but starts with a 'g'
I wonder where it could be?

After helping him to take the 'j' from the front of his middle name, James, and add a 'g' instead, he says "GAMES!" and runs back inside... with me dragging my fat pregnant body behind him... did I mention we live in a hill...?! lol...
He searched around where we keep his board games to find nothing... but then Dad said, "What other games do you like to play?" and he said "X-box?" and went to find the next clue: On a rainy day Mummy might cry,
But there's something else that can get the clothes dry...


He guessed this one pretty well, and ran straight down to look in the dryer (its too dark in there to get a photo so I didn't try...)

In the dryer, he found the following clue:

You're doing so well, you're such a clever boy!
You will find the next clue
where the baby keeps his toys...

He ran back upstairs and started looking through Eli's toybox in the lounge room, only to find nothing there. We asked "Does Eli have any other toyboxes?" which prompted him to look in another one with stuffed toys in the loungeroom... nothing there.... and then he ran into his room - and found the eggs and the next clue in his little box in his room...

Do you think you have found them all yet?
The next clue might be near the swing set...


From behind, as I chase him down the stairs...

Now this one took a bit of attention to detail... as Daddy hid them 'near' the swingset, so we had to look around the backyard a bit...


But he found them in this little pot, with this clue:
Is there anywhere you have not been?
The next clue you'll find where you get yourself clean...



"The bath!" he says and runs back upstairs (me a little further behind this time, gee!) He found them, a little wet, in the plughole of the bath... (the bath is not so clean, so I decided not to show that pic!) and this clue:

This food does not need a dish,
You'll find the next clue
where we feed the ........

(he had to guess what rhymes with dish - fish!)

He worked it out pretty quickly (all that wonderful rhyming work they do at school!) and ran back out to the fishtank... I got there first this time and positioned myself to get a shot...In the drawer he found this clue:
Look outside when the weather is fine,
You might see us hanging on the line...

"Clothes?" he says? "Hmmm, what else is on the line?" "Pegs!"

Back downstairs to the peg basket, dodging the towels hanging on the line...By this stage, Jaidyn's little bucket of eggs was looking mighty full, so thankfully there was only one more clue:
It's been a long hunt, and the end is in sight!
Go to the place where you end your night.


"In bed!" But then he was a little confused, as we had him locked away in his room while we hid the eggs... ahh, but Greg sneaked in there and put the rest on his bed while he was running down to the letterbox!

And on his bed, this is what he found:

The jackpot!! We decided that we'd just put out the little hunting eggs and a few middle-sized ones for him on the hunt, and would put all the rest (from grandparents included) on his bed for the end result! At first he missed his bed, and was looking elsewhere in his room, but he saw them soon enough!!

We had a fun time! And I think we'll definitely do it like this every year now - much more fun... even though Greg may have to make a hunt for me again some time (I was deprived as a child, lol)...

So we managed to skip the whole Easter Bunny and reflect on the real reason of Easter... but also have a really fun time together as a family!

Here's the boys opeing their little gift from Nan and Pa - yummmm, lots of mini eggs! Thanks Nan!

And here's one of the little "Li-Li Monster" as we call him. He was getting a little sleepy so went down straight after Jai had finished the hunt. He looks tied (and incredibly cute!) doesn't he! (needs a haircut though)

Happy Easter all!!

9 comments:

Deb said...

oohhh i love the idea of the clues in the easter egg hunt - thats great!!

DenimAngel said...

What wonderful parents you are! I bet Jaidyn thinks he is the luckiest little boy. I enjoyed your poems too and enjoyed reading to find out where all Jaidyn's eggs were hidden.
Susan

Anonymous said...

You both did very well with your clues! And got lots of exercise in the process. Jai must have a lot to think about - did he draw a picture of the hunt? Eli is so cute - hard to imagine him becoming a pimply-faced teenager :)

smiles1965 said...

Happy Easter to you as well.

Fantastic idea leaving clues around for finding the eggs. That makes it a lot more fun than just letting the child go look for the hidden eggs like I do here....lol

My daughter had fun never the less, carrying her little cane basket around the backyard thsi morning looking under pot plants and behind bushes until she found a few surprises.

I can't believe how big both your boys are getting now. Wow time flies doesn't it.

I hope your feeling well and not getting too tired. Take care of yourself and have fun during the school holidays.

Thanks for sharing so much on your blog. I love reading your news.

From Susan@Scrapboxx xxoo

Jasmine said...

Nat - that easter egg hunt sounds great!!! I love your little easter poem and all the clues - how clever are you?!! I'm sure after all that fun Jai didn't even miss the easter bunny. It sounds like you've started a great tradition for your family, imagine how much more fun it will be every year when Eli and then the new bub can join in.

We don't really have any easter traditions yet - I was deprived as a child and missed the egg hunt too LOL! On Good Friday the kids and I made Hot Cross Buns (yep - baked from scratch!), so I'd love to keep doing that every year. They really weren't that hard, just takes a bit of patience to wait for them to rise. We've all come down with a really bad cold so there was no egg hunt yesterday - but we'll definitely do one next year with clues like yours ;)

Jas xx

miss~nance said...

Happy Easter Nat.

It sounds like your Easter hunt went off really well. The pics are fab.

Gail

Anonymous said...

What a fantastic way to celebrate Easter....I love that you focused on the real reason!! Jayden looked like he had a ball...that is fantastic
A.

Chrissy said...

Oh Natti, had a wonderful time reading all those poems and thankyou for sharing such special pics of your Easter.

Hugs sweetie!
Love as alwsy Chrissy xx

Shazz said...

what gorgeous boys you have nat and i think unknowingly, you and greg may well have begun your very own "mardon easter tradition".
glad you had such a joyful day xxoo