resurrection rolls: an easter breakfast

it's been a few years since i shared one of our favorite easter traditions: making resurrection rolls for breakfast! we usually make these on the saturday morning before easter since sunday mornings almost always find us running late... we also enjoyed a huge easter breakfast with our church family this morning, so making our resurrection rolls the day before worked perfectly. here's a peek into our morning:

these kids are just a little excited about resurrection rolls! the ingredients are simple: crescent rolls, marshmallows, butter, cinnamon, and sugar.


each child gets a triangle of crescent roll dough. the dough represents the linen cloths that Jesus was wrapped in.
dip a marshmallow in butter. the marshmallow represents Jesus and his sinless life, and the butter represents the oils of embalming. (this year, we brushed the butter on the dough, and it was a lot easier. you'll see the marshmallows in a minute...)


sprinkle on some cinnamon & sugar. this represents the spices used to anoint the body.


there's the marshmallows! (i highly recommend the order you see pictured... much simpler for little hands.)


don't worry-- everybody got a turn!


when you're making two batches of these things, mommy jumps in to speed things along.


but i let them help with the marshmallows. :)


wrap the marshmallow TIGHTLY in the crescent roll. make sure you bring the sides up & seal the marshmallow inside. this represents the wrapping of Jesus' body after death.

and keep a close eye on that 3 yr old.


time to go in the oven! (it's a lot more fun if you have a big 'ole flower in your hair, by the way....)


place in a 350 degree oven for 10-12 mins. the oven represents the tomb. pretend like it was three days!

when the rolls have cooled slightly, the children can open their rolls (cloth) and discover that Jesus is no longer there, HE IS RISEN! the marshmallow melts and the crescent roll is puffed up, but empty. (see top picture.)

in theory, the rolls are supposed to look like this one...


but a lot of ours came out of the oven like this... with melted marshmallow stickiness oozing all over the pan...


it's ok, though... the marshmallow (Jesus) is still gone. and the kids are still amazed. :)


(and these big kids reminded me of some little children i once knew...)

this is such a fun and delicious hands-on reminder of Jesus' glorious resurrection!
i pray your resurrection sunday was a blessed one! stay tuned for pictures from today.

good friday, indeed!

today, we are praising God for the gift of Jesus' sacrifice for us! that friday didn't seem so good to Jesus' friends when He was hanging on the cross... but OH! it was a good day! it was the day that He took our burdens, the day He who knew no sin bore all of our sins on the cross.

one of my favorite children's praise and worship songs expresses the joy of good friday... here is the first verse, then click on the video to hear my kiddos and their friends sing the rest.

who can say, "i have made my heart pure, i am clean from my sin?"
no one's blameless in God's holy eyes...that's why the Savior came....


what a reason to rejoice! we look forward to celebrating our risen Savior this weekend! we're kicking off tomorrow with one of my favorite easter traditions.... i can't wait to make resurrection rolls in the morning with the kids!

back to the beach!

today was our inaugural beach day for 2012! a gray sky and forecasted afternoon thunderstorms did not keep us from attempting to enjoy some surf and sand... i've learned over the years that it's probably not going to rain, and if it does, it will probably be later in the day. SO off we went, and the skies were a beautiful blue as we made our way to the beach! we enjoyed a couple of hours of beautiful weather (and wind, wind, wind) when ethan said, "mom, it's really dark behind you." we all turned around, and sure enough, a storm was a-brewin'. the wind picked up, and we made it out of there as fast as we could. i would've loved to have stayed longer, but it was probably just long enough for our first day out there this year. the kids were all still happy and not over-tired, which made our loading up so much easier. :)

ethan had the most fun searching for shells in the water...


and caroline spent a good part of our beach time boogie boarding! (we may finally make a swimmer out of her this year...)


we've been blessed with some new friendships this year, and ethan has especially loved playing with isaiah. (and i think his mom is pretty fun, too.)


isaiah was all over the boogie board today, too...


the kids found a bunch of little crabs in the water, and karina caught one in a bag. i think it was digging down into the shells by the time i snapped this shot...


so then catching crabs in baggies was all the rage...


this little stinker would not look at the camera...


aaaaaand this is all she would give me...


amelia spent most of the day playing in the sand while wearing her floaties and goggles--not sure how i totally missed snapping a picture of that.

i don't know how many more times we'll make it back to the beach in the next month before miss hallie arrives... but i imagine it won't be too much longer before i see this sandy smile again...

cousin sleepover!

the girls were so excited for karina to stay the night with us earlier this week. they were all given matching pajamas at christmas, along with matching pjs for their dolls... and they've been talking about having a sleepover ever since then.

i piled the girls on the couch for a picture, and ethan got so excited. "oh! can i put on my star wars lego pajamas?!" the boy wasn't even phased by the fact that he was totally outnumbered. so he joined the pile on the couch, and they all just went straight to the silly pose...


caroline crawled in karina's sleeping bag to read a book together before bedtime... and i just couldn't resist snapping a picture of these two cousin-friends. the older they get, the more fun they have together.


and it seems like it was just yesterday that the girls were in their matching pjs for the first time. (christmas 2006: caroline- 1 mo. old, karina- 4 mos. old)


the big girls went right to sleep, which was a good thing, since amelia woke them up at 6:45 the next morning. (i was praying they'd sleep till 8!) there's always that one girl at sleepovers who wakes everybody up....

we loved having karina spend the night, and we look forward to many more cousin sleepovers in the future!

lately