Easter/Holy Week Plans 2012

I finally nailed down our Holy Week plans for celebrating Easter and thought I'd share them with you! I spent all afternoon compiling our Holy Week "advent" devotions. I found some great adult and older children Easter devotionals, but had to put together my own variation because my kids are much younger and need a much simpler version to grasp. Each year I'm sure I will have things to add and things to delete. But here's our plan for Easter 2012.

I will be making our Easter tree this week and got a set of the Resurrection Eggs to use in our Holy Week Advent. I revamped some of the Resurrection Eggs content to fit our devotions. I used three of our favorite children's story Bibles for our readings. 

My inspiration for our Easter tree comes from Ann Voskamp.

Resurrection Eggs. You can make your own, or buy them online or at most Christian bookstores. I found it easier to buy as the little trinkets might be hard to find. Our awesome friend Aunt Megan Flinn bought these for Mekonen and Evie.

Our 3 Favorite Children's Story Bibles

The Jesus Storybook Bible

The Gospel Story Bible
You can actually preview the entire book here. So if you don't own the book you can pull it up, color pictures and everything, and read from there. 

The Big Picture Story Bible

Holy Week
(Family Devotions Tip: When we do family devotions, we do them during dinnertime. In our current stage of life, we find this to be the easiest time to have us all together and our very young children have their hands occupied by eating and aren't squirming around too much! It also works well for us right now as our two kids go to bed at different times. I wrote about wanting to do this tradition here, several months before Mekonen came home).

Each day has a reading from a story Bible, an Easter egg to open with a trinket that goes along with the story, and a picture ornament that goes along with the story. Both the trinket and picture will be hung on the Easter tree, much like our Jesse Tree from Christmas that hung ornaments from the Bible stories leading up to the birth of Jesus.

Day 1- The Triumphant Entry (Sunday, April 1^st)

•  Read The Gospel Story Bible pg. 216-217
•  Egg- dark blue- little donkey hang on Easter tree
• Picture of triumphant entry- hang on Easter tree

Day 2- Jesus Cleanses the Temple (Monday, April 2^nd)

• Read The Big Picture Story Bible pg. 288-305
• Egg- light pink- coins, hang coin picture on Easter tree
• Picture of Jesus cleansing the temple- hang on Easter tree

Day 3- Jesus Washes the Apostles Feet (Tuesday, April 3rd)

• Read The Jesus Storybook Bible pg. 286-288 (or The Gospel Story Bible pg. 220-221)
• Egg- green- cloth, hang on Easter tree
• Picture of Jesus washing the apostles feet- hang on Easter tree

Day 4- The Last Supper (Wednesday, April 4^th)

• Read The Jesus Storybook Bible pg. 290-292 (or The Gospel Story Bible pg. 222-225)
• Egg- light purple- wine cup, hang on Easter tree
• Picture of the Last Supper- hang on Easter tree

Day 5- The Garden of Gethsemane (Thursday, April 5^th)

• Read The Jesus Storybook Bible pg. 294-301 (or The Gospel Story Bible pg. 226-229, or The Big Picture Story Bible pg. 359-363))
• Egg- orange- praying hands, hang on Easter tree
• Picture of the Garden of Gethsemane- hang on Easter tree

Day 6- The Crucifixion of Jesus (Friday, April 6^th)

•  Read The Jesus Storybook Bible pg. 302-306 (or The Gospel Story Bible pg. 230-233, or The Big Picture Story Bible pg. 364-373)
• Egg- yellow- cross, hang on Easter tree
• Picture of the crucifixion- hang on Easter tree

Day 7- The Burial of Jesus and Darkness Covers the Land (Saturday, April 7^th)

• Read The Jesus Storybook Bible pg. 308 and The Big Picture Story Bible pg. 376-380
• Egg- pink- stone, hang picture of a stone on Easter tree
• Picture of the burial of Jesus- hang on Easter tree

Day 8- The Resurrection (Sunday, April 8^th)

• Read The Jesus Storybook Bible pg. 310-317 or shorter The Big Picture Story Bible pg. 385-395 (or The Gospel Story Bible pg. 235-237)
• Egg- white- empty! Nothing to hang on the Easter tree (or you can make a smiley face ornament to hang for Joy that Jesus has risen)
• Picture of the risen Jesus- hang on Easter tree
• Easter Night story time- Read The Big Picture Story Bible pg. 398-411. Great overview of why Jesus came, why He had to die, and the Promises of Scripture. 

 I plan on doing a special Easter breakfast here at home with just our little family. Not sure on the exact Easter breakfast menu yet, but definitely including something sugary and sweet that the kids don't get on a normal day! I thought it would be nice to decorate the table too... and maybe even include some flowers with colors like this!

Here are some craft activities I would like to do with Mekonen. I'm sure I won't get to all of them, but here is an assortment to choose from.

• Resurrection Play set made out of toilet paper rolls. We will use these to act out the story of Jesus' resurrection. You can print them in black and white and have your kids color them, or print them in color. 
• Praise Palm- paint or color and make a praise palm, praising God for Who He is (specific character traits of God) and specific things He has done in the life of our family. We will write these on the palm leaf.
• The Last Supper craft made out of an egg carton. Can be used when doing the family devotional reading on the Last Supper. 
• Play-dough Easter mountain
•  Easter story with jelly beans. I just bought the book My Easter Basket by Mary Manz Simon. Here's the activity to do along with it. 
• Paper plate tomb craft
• Marble Painitng. "By His wounds we are healed." Isaiah 53:5

We still have not decided on what to do about Easter baskets and gifts. I keep going back and forth on doing them with our kids. If we do decide to them, we won't go overboard with them and will probably let them open them on Saturday instead of Easter Sunday. Our pastor's wife Kacie shared what they do with their kids- they do the "Easter" basket thing as a Spring activity, but not necessarily on Easter. She mentioned that last year they did it on Mother's Day. I thought using them as a spring activity was a fun idea too. I also thought about an idea from my friend Rachel about getting books for our kids on Easter that will encourage their growth spiritually. For example, last year her son got The Jesus Storybook Bible.

As always, I'd love to hear what you do to celebrate Easter! If you have any other fun Easter activities, crafts, games, or traditions, please post them!