Celebrating Passion Week

I hope to celebrate the whole Passion Week more next year than we did this year.  Starting with Palm Sunday, I want the whole week to be BIG... don't think it could be as big as Christmas (even though I think it should be) so maybe second biggest holiday.  There are so many fun things to do!  I am blessed to have so many cute faces to do the fun things with!

Siah in his toddler hunt.  He was so careful to take every grass blade off his eggs before putting them in his bag.  (I got baskets for them, but put their gifts in early and forgot they'd need them for this hunt!)

Poor Noah's bag ripped a hole in the bottom and all his eggs fell out.  Luckily, Siah was kind enough to share his bag. 

Eli was cleaning up the eggs like a mad man!

Yeah!  FUN FUN FUN

Sorting through all the booty.  :)

Decorating Eggs.

Careful!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This idea just came to me on Good Friday.  I wanted something to do Saturday... the day we wait... the day He was buried and our sins were carried far away.  We got black balloons and wrote a bad choice we're thankful we have forgiveness for.  For Siah's balloon we just wrote "sin".  Eli wanted his to say, "fighting with Noah" and Noah wanted his to say, "sneaking gum."  After we wrote our sin on the balloons, we let them go far, far away until we saw them no more! 

Thank you Jesus for carrying our sin away- as far as the east is from the west!

That's right!  Lookin' good for Resurrection Sunday!

Our eggs all done and waiting to be hidden after church.

This is what happens when we try to get a picture together.  :)

Time for a backyard hunt with our decorated eggs!  I told the boys to let Zekey out first- he's pretty happy about that.

Yay!  Siah was SO EXCITED for every egg he found!!

Eli found his golden egg and there was a dollar in it!

Huh?  Say what?  What are we looking for? 

Resurrection Eggs- SUCH a cool thing to do!  The boys loved it!

Of course, we've got to have the stories!  This one is GREAT!  Talks about the whole passion week.

Another story.  This was a really cute way to relate an Easter Egg to the REAL meaning of Resurrection Sunday.

We've got to do an activity on a holiday!

Pictures from Valentine's Day

Our Valentine's Tradition to bring Daddy lunch and balloons!

Eli & Noah were excited to have a Valentine's exchange at school.  I don't know how long the average boy is "into" Valentine's, so I'm soaking up every year that they want to celebrate with me!  They're so cute!!

Giving Gratitude to God

• God's strength
• That Jesus is praying for me, pleading my case before the Father
• That He sees the depths of my heart and loves me the same
• That I get to be part of a church that PRAYS
• That I get to watch teens lives change
• Healthy kids
• Good friends
• Oatmeal chocolate chip cookies
• Tickling Baby Boy and giggling with him
• Cheering for Baby Boy learning to walk
• Watching Eli be a considerate friend
• Watching Eli play basketball so enthusiastically
• Siah's sweet Mommy loves (my Velcro attachment) :)
• Siah getting to learn how to share and be patient
• Noah LEARNING TO READ!
• Noah's big bear hugs
• Holiday traditions
• Husband who cleans the kitchen most nights he's home (say what!?!?)
• All of our needs being met
• Our homeschool group!  LOVE IT!  LOVE our community.
• Sweat pants and cozy blankets.
• Camomile tea
• Good talks with the hubby
• Breaks of sunshine between the rain
• A good run
• That my presence and touch can calm a sad boy (makes me feel SO special!)
• Laughing with my sister
• The internet!  (What did people do before?)
• Fun visits with old friends
•  My job :)

We love Fridays!

Here is a picture of Noah's class during Fine Arts time.  This is our third of six weeks studying ancient artists during Fine Arts  (don't tell anyone, but I'm SO glad tin whistle for Fine Arts is over! ;)  ).  Today's artist was Fra Angelico.  His work was often biblical scenes where the people were embellished with golden halos.  For our class today, we painted crosses with gold halos around them.  The kids did a great job!

Next, I wanted to share videos of Eli & Noah's presentations.  They get to do little presentations every week with our homeschool group.  They've gotten so good at it!  I've only got to watch Eli twice, so I was very excited to video him today.  You can't hear him very well, but I still wanted to share because I just love my boys and I'm so proud of them!!  Thank you, Jesus, for letting me be a mom!!!!!

click here to see Eli's presentation

click here to see Noah's presentation

Zeke's favorite hobby- climbing inside of things

My silly boy!

 

A look into our week

Right before Christmas break ended, we got hit with a nasty virus that circled through three of the boys and is now finally, finally gone!  Now that everyone is healthy, we're back in our regular groove this week.  In celebration of my mom's birthday today, I thought I'd share some pics from our "back to normal week". 

 Happy Birthday, Mom!!!

Zekey out for a winter walk

Daddy & Zeke all tuckered out. 

Noah working on his numbers/counting.

Math is Eli's favorite part of school.

Noah has made some really cool things with his mini Leggo's lately.

Noah doing a reading game.

Siah learning his letters.

Cute face!

Quiet Time- looking at books.

Palydough project showing parts of the earth- core, mantle, crust.

Zekey likes to crawl inside of things.  Toilets, laundry baskets, puzzle boxes, desk drawers, diaper boxes, etc.

Cute boys in cute jammies.

Zekey and his crazy hair enjoying Story Time at the library.

Siah being a boy.  (This happens to be one of my favorite things about little boys!)

Eli made Mr. Gallon Man (with Mommy's help).

Giving Gratitude to God

I'm a couple weeks late on this ... again.  Ooops.  Okay, well this is what I'm thankful for:

• • Sweet worship this morning.
  • That His love never changes.
  • That He works all things together for my good.
  • That He knows all the details of my life and has them planned out for me to walk in.
  • A pastor who feeds us MEAT every Sunday.
  • Precious friends to live life with.
  • Fun visits over Christmas break.
  • Christmas traditions.
  • The GREATEST Christmas gift.
  • Smiling & excited little boys Christmas morning.   
  • Homeschooling.
  • A break from homeschooling.
  • Organization. 
  • Husbands new job of kitchen duty.  (Hip, Hip, Hooray!!!)
  • Handyman husband.
  • Sleeping in.
  • Pausing to watch and giggle over Zeke's speed crawling down the hallway.
  • Laughter at the dinner table.
  • Little boy cuddles.
  • A clean and vacuumed van!
  • Prayer.
  • Bills paid and money left over!
  • Scrabble with Nona.
  • Games with my boys.
  • Peek-a-boo with Zeke.
  • Heat and warm blankets!
  • Beautiful, clear blue winter sky.
  • Crossing things off my "To Do List".
  •  Good report after Grandma's surgery.
  • Living in a great place to raise a family.
  • That we had a wonderful year with our precious 4th boy, Jonah Zeke Oelkers!