Resurrection Rolls

One of the many Easter-related things we did on Saturday was to make Resurrection Rolls. I had not ever heard of these until seeing them on a few other blogs this year. I thought the boys were at just about the right age to do this activity so we gave it a try. I thought I took more photos during the process, but just now realized that most of them show the boys' faces which I don't allow on the blog. So.........there aren't very many photos. Sorry! Here is a great post with more photos and the recipe.

Basically, each part of the rolls and roll ingredients represent part of the story of Jesus' resurrection. You start with a large marshmallow which represents Jesus' body after he was crucified. Then the marshmallow is dipped in melted butter to represent the oil that was used to anoint his body and rolled in cinnamon and sugar which represent the spices that were also used. The marshmallow is then wrapped in a crescent roll which represents the linen clothes used to bind the body. Then the rolls are baked for about 10-15 minutes (I had to bake mine closer to 15) which represents the time spent in the tomb. When the rolls are cooled and ready to eat, the children discover that Jesus' body (the marshmallow) is gone which, of course, represents the resurrection. My oldest son knew that the heat from the oven melted the marshmallow, but still gained a lot through the experience and will most likely not forget making the rolls. Next year I think we may try resurrection cookies, which I have heard about before but never made. If any of you have tried either recipe, I'd love for you to comment and leave me some feedback about your preferences.

The photo below shows my littlest boy's hands as he tried to wrap the crescent roll around the marshmallow. If I make these again, I might try substituting flaky refrigerator biscuits for the crescent rolls to allow for a bigger piece of dough. It was kind of hard to make the crescent rolls stretch around the marshmallow.




This shows what the rolls looked like before we baked them. As you can see I baked them on my well-loved and well-used Pampered Chef baking stone.



Here is what they look like when finished, more or less. Some of them didn't come out as puffy as this one and were kind of flat. They do taste pretty good but are VERY sweet and sticky due to the melted marshmallow.

Egg Hunt for the Grown-Ups

Last year for Easter I sewed up a bunch of Secret Pocket Eggs and we took them to my mom's house for Easter. After our meal and the boys' egg hunt outside, my two boys hid the fabric eggs all over inside my mom's house and each adult had to go search for one for themselves. My boys LOVED doing this, so I wanted to do something similar this year. So............last night I put together these little Easter baskets that I made using a tutorial I found through this link at Katie's Nesting Spot. They are so easy to make and I'm already thinking about the possibilities for May baskets this year. I made mine using 6 inch squares of double-sided cardstock. I also hand-stamped the little tags to go on each basket. For May Day, I think I will involve the boys in the decorating. I didn't with these simply because our Saturday was SO BUSY that I literally didn't have time to get these done until after the boys went to bed last night. And after all, the best part for them was hiding them inside my parents' house and having all the grown-ups look for them.







Each basket held a little bit of Easter grass (the paper kind........I HATE the other kind!) and one plastic Easter egg. The baskets made using 6 inch squares of paper are just the right size for holding one plastic Easter egg. I put a Mini Cadbury chocolate egg and some jelly beans inside each plastic egg. That way the adults got to partake in all of the candy frenzy surrounding Easter.



I stamped the office supply tags with a yellow chick on one side and "Happy Easter" on the other side and tied them to the handle of the baskets.

I love this photo of all the little baskets nestled in the box and ready to take to Grandma's house. I wish I had gotten photos of the adult egg hunt, but mostly I would have gotten pictures of everyone's backside! One cool thing this year was that we had two special guests.........my cousin Lesha brought two college student friends of hers who are studying abroad here in the US this year. One is from England and one from Spain. Neither of them had participated in an egg hunt before ever, so it was fun to introduce this tradition to them.

Our Easter shelf

I don't have many Easter decorations, a small fraction of what I have for Christmas. And truthfully, I usually forget to put out what I do have. This year I resolved to pull out what I could find to welcome spring into our home. The photo below shows how I've set up our decorations on the top of my boys' art shelf. I found the Easter egg lights in my "Easter decorations" tub and didn't even remember where I got them. I THINK I bought them at a thrift store or at a garage sale last summer, but I had totally forgotten that I had them. So that was a fun discovery to pull out of the tub!



Last year for Easter I sewed these two bunnies for my boys to add to their Easter baskets. I was pretty happy with how they turned out. I just used quilting cotton; however for the bunny on the left I put a piece of fleece between the cotton pieces on the ears. This made them stick up better and I would recommend doing that if you are making these using only cotton fabric. I used this free pattern from Wee Wonderfuls. I would like to make something by hand for the boys for their baskets this year, but haven't decided what to make yet. And (obviously) I don't have much time to figure it out. I have a few things bookmarked from Google Reader that look pretty easy and cute. We'll see.




Bunny buns!!




Last year I also made a bunch of these eggs. They have a tiny little secret pocket, just big enough to hold one jelly bean. My boys took these over to Grandma's house where we had Easter dinner and hid them around the house for the adults to find. Several of the adults wanted to keep theirs afterwards (mostly the women!) and the photo below shows the ones that were left. My littlest boy has been bugging me to put jellybeans in them. I used this free pattern to make them.




The next photo shows our Easter tree. Believe it or not, this is the first year since I've had my own children that we've put this up although I've had it since before I became a mother! The problem is that I store this with my Christmas things and notice it every year when I put away my Christmas decorations, then I forget about it until after Easter. Luckily I remembered this year and the boys had fun putting it up. I already had the eggs, but I just bought the carrot garland at my favorite local thrift store.......the one I'm always raving about here. I bought it for 75 cents and couldn't have been happier to find it!!




The other handmade decorations on our Easter shelf are the yarn nests that I made last weekend with the boys. You can see them in the photo below filled with Whoppers Easter egg candies.

I am so glad I pulled all our decorations out this year and set up our Easter shelf. It is a lovely reminder of the beauty of this season.

Yarn Nests

This weekend the boys and I made yarn nests as a new spring decoration for our home. It has been a while since we've done any projects and I was so glad we did these. I've photographed the step by step process below.



First, each boy cut the yarn into pieces that were about 4-6 inches long.



Then they dipped their yarn into white Elmer's glue and wrapped it around a balloon that I had inflated and placed into a bowl.



Here is what they looked like when we were done. I was skeptical about how they would hold up once the glue dried and we popped the balloons. I didn't know if we had used too much glue or not enough.



My husband was perplexed when he saw these drying on the counter. When I told him they were nests, he was even more confused!



They actually held together pretty well after we removed the balloons. As you can see from the photo, the white glue left some film on the inside of the nest as well as some fringy pieces along the rim. I cut some of the glue film off with scissors, but I don't know what we could have done differently to avoid seeing the glue residue when we were finished. If anyone out there has made these with better results, be sure to leave a comment with your tips! The boys still liked how they turned out. They are kind of fragile, but do hold malted milk egg candy........at least until little hands discover it and it disappears!