Leading up to Easter...

Without a doubt, this was one of the busiest holiday Easter weekends we've experienced in a long time. Some things were expected. Some were unexpected. Isn't that life?!

It was our week to do the church cleaning so Thursday night we got that out of the way. Good Friday morning was the communion service at church. From there, Max went home with my parents for the afternoon while Keith and I headed straight up to the Linwood house to get some work done. Our day did not go as planned though. For the past two weeks, Keith has been battling a bad head cold. That day, one of his teeth started acting up and he had severe pain. So I called our emergency dentist and got him in late that afternoon. Turns out it wasn't a toothache. But a sinus infection which made it feel like a toothache. The good news was, the dentist was able to prescribe medication for him so we didn't have to hit emerg and wait for hours upon hours to be seen by a doctor. We picked up his prescription and headed back to the Gerbers to pick up Max. Needless to say, that was the end of our work day.

Saturday was busy. I woke up feeling kind of tough...a minor "springtime" cold. Not enough to keep me down and out though. Keith was feeling better. Amazing what those meds do! He took off to run some errands and then head to the house to wire. Max and I picked up a few groceries and did some cleaning as well as colouring easter eggs. We packed up a lunch and then we too headed to the house for a painting day.

Excuse the quality of the next photos. I get zero morning light in my kitchen. It makes photo taking next to impossible. The only time we had to colour the eggs was in the morning so garbage quality photos is what I got. Oh well.

Max had been helping Grandma and Aunt Vanessa colour eggs the day before so he was a pro and was able to do everything by himself this year. Awesome!

One of his teachers at school had told the class about a little trick of wrapping elastic bands around the eggs before dipping them in the dye to add patterns. Max was all about trying that out on a few. They turned out pretty cool. Now of course, he doesn't want to eat any of the eggs with the lines. We have to "save" those for the last.

See that poor little "Canucks" egg stuck in there? That's the good luck egg! There will be three very unhappy people in this house if they completely choke and lose this next game. I'm just sayin'.

Picnic lunch is packed and ready to go...

Oh hello LeeAnne! She was helping to paint on Saturday too.

So was Heather...

And Sheila too...

Here is me...

We got lots painted. The end is in sight....painting wise. Kinda.

Mr. Jantzi was hard at work wiring...

He had a little helper part of the time to pull wire...

The rest of the time, the little helper spent time doing this...

Surprise. Surprise! (He had saved up his weekly alloted DS time, to use on this day. He had been looking forward to it.)

Every so often, I would ship him out the door and have him run 3 laps around the yard to get some fresh air and clear his head! :-)

We spent the majority of our day there. Max and I left a little before Keith to get dinner going. Also I had to bake some pies and get a salad ready for my mom's Easter dinner the next day. Plus finish cleaning. And get laundry and ironing done. You know. All that *fun* stuff.

I always like to try something new or do something a little bit extra special on the various holidays. This year, it almost slipped right by me. But in the nick of time I came across a recipe for "Resurrection Rolls" and thought I would try them.

THEY WERE DELICIOUS.

A hit with boy my boys. And me.

I think I'll probably make them every year.

Here are a couple of photos of them...

They are supposed to resemble the empty tomb. I cut off the side of one so you can see.

Resurrection Rolls

Ingredients

Pillsbury Cresent Rolls

Large Marshmallows

Melted Butter

Cinnamon Sugar

Method

1. Take the Pillsbury Cresent Rolls and unroll.

2. Take one marshmallow and one triangle of dough.

3. Wrap the dough entirely around the marshmallow. Pinching the seams together. There should be NO openings. The marshmallow needs to be completely enclosed inside the dough.

4. Dip the dough ball into a bowl of melted butter.

5. Roll the butter dough ball into a bowl of cinnamon sugar to coat it.

6. Bake in the oven. (According to directions on the pillsbury wrapper).

(Make sure you use a pan that has sides to catch any drippings from marshmallows that have escaped a seam not properly pinched shut.)

These little buns will puff up nicely. When you bite into them, they are completely hollow (The marshmallow melts and coats the inside of the bun) which reminds us of the empty tomb at Easter. Meanful and delicious! A great way to talk about and share the Easter story with your little ones. :-)