he has risen!

my friend, ashley, recommended a book to me before i even had kiddos (i think). the title is treasuring God in our traditions and it is written by noel piper. It is a book that is filled with ideas on how to saturate your children's' lives in Christ's love. i give it two thumbs up.

on monday we used an idea from that book and it was a huge success! we made an "Easter mountain." using a play dough recipe we made a mountain/cave so that the kids could reenact the story of the cross. i will put the recipe at the bottom of this post. after reading through the story, we made pipe cleaner people to help us tell the story. obviously, Jesus is green!

caleb has told the story a dozen times today! here he is putting Jesus in the tomb. then he rolls the stone in front of the cave and puts the soldiers (black w/ swords) up to guard the body.

i love to hear him tell this part... he shouts, "he has risen" with a huge grin...

and then mary (in purple) tells Jesus how she is so glad to see him again! and Jesus responds with, "i know, but i had to go in the hole."

it has been so fun to see how his little mind sees God's goodness! i hope you all enjoy celebrating what God has done for us! much love to you this Easter.

Easter mountain recipe:

4c flour
1 1/2 c salt
1 1/2 c water
1 T oil

mix and knead. use twine or string to tie to sticks together. shape the dough into a mountain, leaving an opening on one side for the tomb. press the cross into the top to form the hole and make it a bit larger than the stick b/c it will shrink in the oven. press a rock into the cave to give it a firm fit. remove the cross and rock and bake on a cookie sheet for four to five hours on 250 degrees. when finished color with paint or markers (we didn't get to this b/c they were having too much fun playing with it)!