Resurrection Rolls

Easter.  The day is supposed to be the top holiday celebration for Christians; the reason we are Christians.  Yet like so many others, I definitely get caught up in the Easter Bunny, eggs, baskets and ham, mmm....  Don't get me wrong.  I see nothing wrong with playing up the cute springtime hippity hoppity cuteness that comes with the season.  My kids love it and so do I.  However, I make it a personal challenge to tie in all of our fun activities back to the reason we are doing them in the first place.

This year I was really excited to wake up Easter morning and make resurrection rolls with the girls.  I had never personally done them before but had heard about them and gotten a good recipe off of, where else, pinterest.  I wasn't too sure how much of the concept that my little ones would get but I'm all for starting new yummy traditions that I know some day they will grasp :)  So, here's how they went.

All you need is...
8 marshmallows (or however many rolls you are making)
Crescent Rolls
Cinnamon Sugar
Melted butter
Parchment Paper

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  While waiting, read John 19.  We read a simpler version out of one of the girl's kiddo Bibles.  I explained to them that the marshmallow was Jesus, pure and white because He was sinless.  We dipped him in the embalming oils (the butter) and then the spices (cinnamon sugar) that were used to prepare Him for burial.   We then wrapped Jesus in his burial "blankie" (the crescent roll) pinching the sides all closed.  He was now in the tomb.  Just for yummy goodness and no relation to the story,  I brushed the outside of each roll with the remaining butter and sprinkled it with the remaining cinnamon sugar.  I was out of parchment paper but I highly recommend using it since mine really stuck to the baking sheet!

We placed the rolls in the oven and while they were baking for the 12 minutes that were instructed, we read John 20 to the girls.  We asked Adelyn what she thought would happen to Jesus in his tomb.  She said, "He's probably going to Heaven with God but I really want to eat his blankie..." Well she was getting part of it :)

She was sooooo excited when the rolls were done and she got to open it up and see what happened to Jesus.  The marshmallow melts away and leaves an empty "tomb" inside the roll.  She kept yelling, "Daddy, He is Risen!  He is Risen, but where's my marshmallow?" Magic.

Not only was this activity a fun illustration of what Easter is about, and a new yearly tradition at our house, they were incredibly delicious.  Next year I will be making double.  Especially since Adelyn kept asking for more "delicious Jesus blankies" and Marcella kept making a open and close fist while shouting "more blankie!"  They took something away from it :)

It WAS Relatively Quiet Around Here...

The past month has seemed pretty uneventful and I kinda liked it that way.  Jason was home for a week for his spring break.  So, we were able to catch up on a lot of yard work and quality family time.  I had no idea that a few down pours and some unseasonably warm weather would cause the jungle, that is our back yard, to get wildly out of control over night.  It has been fun to see all the plants grow and bloom at our new house, since we had no idea what had been planted here moving in the winter.  I took some great action photos (to Jason's disapproval) of him mowing his first lawn for the first time.  However, the fourth dimension that hides in our house has engulfed my camera cord.  So, unfortunately, those and some other cuties, including our Easter Party at the church and the finished nursery, will have to remain hidden until we figure out where it has vanished to. 

But, I was smart enough to capture this spring break project on my phone.  I have been racking my brain on what art work I wanted in the girl's room.  I was drawn to Eric Carle prints but they are pricey.  And I am... cheap.  So, I got an idea from Pinterest (naturally) and went with it.  I taped the girls name down on two canvases with masking tape.  It was a challenge but we fit it all in.  Then, placing a little of the color paint I wanted directly onto the canvas, I let them go finger painting crazy all over the canvas and taped letters. I kept placing a little at a time to avoid a complete paint nasty mess.  The girls LOVED it.  Actually, Marcella loved it so much that quite a tantrum was thrown when it was time to be done and she realized that, no, I wasn't going to let her snack on the leftovers. 

We waited patiently for a few hours to ensure they were completely dry before removing the tape.  Voila, painted name artwork for $2 (since I already had the paint).  I then framed them and hung them up.  The girls were proud to say the least.  I love that they are not perfect and are original.

But all good things must come to an end, and Adelyn felt the need to break the silence on our nice quiet month with a loud stage of regression and tantrum throwing that we can only attribute to the fact a new baby is coming.  Probably the highlight of this season so far would be her epic decision making at Chick-Fil-A.  I thought I would be a nice cool mommy and let her play in the big play area.  The problem began when she decided that she wasn't coming down.  After 20 minutes of negotiating, a fake mommy leave and pulling every trick in the book I was faced with the daunting inevitable decision of climbing up into that thing and pulling her stinky butt down.  My 8 month pregnant fat body wedged its way through the tunnels to discover she was hiding out in of course the most unstable, ceiling supported car.  I thought, "This is how I die. Falling from the sky in a moo cow car. I can think of worse."  I thought when she saw me she would definitely come down, but no.  She clung to that steering wheel with all her might, me tugging on her ankles with her shouting at the top of her lungs, "I want to be naughty today, Mommy.  Sometimes I like being naughty."  She's lucky we were in public, that's all I have to say about that.  My friend got a kick out of it and I'm sure plenty of other parents were able to leave the restaurant thankful that it wasn't their kid that day and they weren't me.  I'm learning to ignore the thumb sucking, baby talking and full blown desire to be an infant and have me hold her non-stop.  Let's pray that her loud phase isn't as long as my quiet month.