Easter Egg Hunt

I'll confess, we did the Easter egg hunt Sunday in between LDS general conference sessions instead of Saturday. We did it inside since there was snow on the ground outside... craziness! Thomas hid all of the eggs around the living room (even in his shoes) while the boys and I finished up lunch in the kitchen.
Evan is soaked because he dumped a cup of water in his lap, and it's on his bum because he sat in the puddle it left on his booster chair. Cute shirts on the boys, right Grandma and Grandpa Nordquist? Thanks!
We'd dyed eggs Saturday, some hard boiled, and some not. We tried to limit the secular things to Saturday, although we've enjoyed using the pretty eggs throughout the week. Parker had so much fun looking for the eggs. Evan just kept trying to open them all. But, then he got the hang of putting them in his bucket, but he'd put the ones we'd already found in the bucket.
Parker kept trying to help Evan with it :)
Mommy helping with some of the hard to reach places!
Twelve of the eggs were numbered, and those we'd put aside into a basket for our Easter activity...
Gotta love the basket ball "eggs" thanks Mom! The boys loved the basketballs too!


You can see the numbered eggs in the basket, and Evan trying to take them all and put them in his bucket. He's been saying "back" lately whenever he cleans something up, or puts it... "back." Guess he's heard us tell him "Put it back!" too many times :) He loves cleaning up now, and putting his dishes in the sink... sometimes!
He also loves the candy! I like chocolate better than jellybeans, so we just got peanut butter cups, m&ms and kit kats to put in the eggs. We had to be careful which candy Evan got a hold of though, since he's allergic to peanuts, poor bud :*(

The twelve numbered eggs each had symbols of the Easter story in them, so we had a little family devotional after the egg hunt to talk about the Easter story with the eggs. You can see Parker holding a picture of the Savior praying in Gethsemane, and I have a little picture of the sacrament being passed. Some eggs had pictures, some physical objects, depending on what I could find. I posted the list at the end of this entry, if anyone's interested.
Ah, more chocolate :)

I love Christmas, and being able to focus on the Savior at that time, and it's easy since the whole Christian world is helping out with it! Easter has such an incredible story and message, but it seems to get overlooked so much. Thomas and I really want to be able to teach our children about the Savior, so that they can come to know, love, and trust Him. We had been talking about what we could do to include the Savior more in our Easter activities, and then a sister in the Primary Presidency did this activity in Sharing Time. It was an answer to our prayers. It was a small thing, but it was so nice to know that even our small, not as important or life shattering, wants can be met. We'd decided against doing an egg hunt at all, cause what does an egg-laying, secretive bunny have to do with the Savior? But, they are fun. This gave us the opportunity to do both. And really, the hunt to find items about the end of the Savior's mortal life can remind us of the need to seek Him out everywhere in our lives. Sometimes His hand is hidden, sometimes in plain sight, and sometimes we need other people to help us find it, but He's always there. We had a good Sunday, and were so grateful to hear the counsel and teaching of modern prophets and apostles as they too testified of Christ.

Easter story egg hunt: (it's actually from a non-denominational Christian website; I can't take the credit!)

1. Item: Small cup or sacrament cup. Scripture: Matthew 26: 39-44 Jesus went to Gethsemane to pray. He asked Heavenly Father to bless Him. He did not want to suffer. He said to Heavenly Father "if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt." But Jesus wanted to obey Heavenly Father. He would suffer for all people who repent of their sins.

2. Item: 3 dimes. Scripture: Matthew 26: 14 - 49 One of Jesus's twelve apostles, Judas, made a deal with some wicked men. He would show them where Jesus was in exchange for thirty pieces of silver.

3. Item: Knotted twine. Scripture: Matthew 27: 1-2 When morning came, the chief priests and elders of the people decided to put Jesus to death. They bound Him, led Him away, and delivered Him to the governor, Pontius Pilate.

4. Item: Piece of soap. Scripture: Luke 23: 13-24 and John 19:6. Pilate asked Jesus many questions and then told the Pharisees that Jesus had done nothing wrong. Pilate wanted to release Jesus, but the Pharisees wanted to crucify Him instead. Pilate washed his hands in front of all the people, saying, I am innocent of the blood of this just person: see ye to it. Then he let them crucify Jesus.

5. Item: Square of purple cloth. Scripture: Matthew 27: 28-30 and Mark 15: 15-19. The people stripped Jesus, put a purple robe and a crown of thorns on Him. They mocked Him, saying "Hail, King of the Jews!" The spit on Him and whipped him with a reed.

6. Item: Nails. Scripture: Mark 15: 15-19 and Luke 23: 26-27, 33. After they mocked Jesus, they took the robe off Him and led Him away to be crucified. The soldiers nailed His hands and feet to a cross.

7. Item: Dice. Scripture: Luke 23: 24-34. When Jesus was on the cross, he asked Heavenly Father to forgive the people who crucified Him because they didn't know He was the Savior. The soldiers took Jesus' clothes and cast lots for them.

8. Item: Small rocks. Scripture: Matthew 27: 57-60. When Jesus finally died, His spirit left His body and the sky was dark. There was a big earthquake, and the ground and rocks broke into pieces.

9. Item: Strip of white cloth. Scripture: Matthew 27: 57-60. One of Jesus' disciples, Joseph, took His body and wrapped it in a clean linen cloth and laid it in his own new tomb.

10. Item: Stone. Scripture: Matthew 27:60, 65-66. After Joseph had laid Jesus' body in the tomb, he rolled a big stone in front of the tomb so Jesus' body would be safe.

11. Item: Spices tied in a small piece of cloth. Scripture: Matthew 28:2 and Mark 16: 1-9. Jesus' body was in the tomb for three days. Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Salome had brought spices to use to anoint Jesus' body.

12. Item: Leave egg empty. Scripture: Matthew 28:6. When the women got to the tomb, the stone was rolled away from the door and it was empty. They saw an angel there, who said to them, "Jesus is not here, for He is risen." Jesus was resurrected.