We had lots to celebrate!
Yesterday was a big day for us; we had so much to celebrate: the resurrection of our sweet Savior, Jesus, and our littlest man, Ethan, turning 2! It was a doubly blessed day for us!
In the last year or so, I’ve really started to think about traditions for our family. I think they really help kiddos understand the meaning of things that we celebrate. Sometimes it just helps having something tangible to look at, you know? In the morning, the boys came downstairs to this 🙂
The big basket in the middle was for Daddy; the boys helped pick out all his favs. Of course he knew about his “surprise” the second he came home that day :o/
After getting dressed in our birthday shirts (and one yellow foam crown for the birthday boy), Easter baskets were demolished opened promptly. We talked about the reason that we get a special gift on Easter, that Jesus gave His life for us so that we could have the gift of life, life with Him for now and forever!
Then a special birthday breakfast: chocolate chip pancakes, except for Daddy who doesn’t love chocolate. Just pancakes for him (still made with love 🙂
Pancakes and mini rock ’em, sock ’em robots which came is Daddy’s basket
Then some fun with a frog hopping game (also from Daddy’s basket).
Of course the boys knew Daddy would share when they picked it out 🙂
More rock ’em, sock ’em fun
Then it was time to plant some seeds, a super easy tradition that we started this year for Easter.
All you need is
~ a small planter
~ seeds of your choice
~ potting soil (or potting soil pellets in our case)
~ a spoon (technically a shovel 🙂
We also got a little ceramic gnome, just because it was funny and holding
a little shovel, but completely unnecessary.
We had to add water to our soil to reconstitute it.
Ethan volunteered to take care of this messy fun job.
Once the soil was ready, we spread it into the planter
We used a mix of flower seeds which were really easy to plant. I haven’t had great success with gardens, but hopefully it will be different this time! Our soil was already moist and clean, so we sprinkled seeds over the top.
The instructions said to turn the top 1/8-1/4 inch of the soil.
Then mist with some water to moisten. Keep lightly moistened until second set of leaves start to grow, then spread out flowers to give them a little growing room and water regularly. Easy peasy, right? I hope so 🙂 We talked about how after being planted, seeds have to die in order for a new plant to sprout, just like Jesus had to die for us, so that we might have new life!
Then it was bath time and back into birthday shirts (we had to change out of them for pancakes). I’m not sure what’s up with Silas’ face here, but the shirts came out cute, right?
Then it was time for making birds’ nests, another new Easter tradition! You’ll need:
~ 2 cups mini marshmallows
~ 4 cups chow mein noodles (the kind you put in egg drop soup at the restaurant)
~ 1/4 cup butter
~ eggs (jelly beans)
~ a muffin tin
Grease your muffin tin and pour the noodles into a large bowl
Melt butter and marshmallows in a saucepan
Mix melted marshmallows with noodles
Press mixture into muffin tin; leave space in the middle for eggs. We used malted milk eggs, but you can use jelly beans too.
Just one more (delicious 🙂 way to talk about the new life we have in Jesus!
After naps, it was party time!! My family came over bearing balloons and my mom’s addictive spaghetti! Someone told me that eating noodles on your birthday is supposed to be a sign of a long life. We just like spaghetti 🙂
Ethan starts off using his spoon but always ends up using his hands
(actually his entire fist is more like it!)
Cake time!! Chocolate with ganache icing (recipe and tutorial coming soon!) topped with dinosaurs made with my mom’s fancy Cricut Cake machine
Silas is always willing to help with blowing out candles 🙂
Then it was time for presents
We got Ethan his first baseball glove, the same present we got Silas for his 2nd birthday (Daddy loves baseball). What’s funny (and I think really cool) is that baseball is really the only thing Ethan is really into! Not Elmo or cars or anything two year oldish, just baseball. He sleeps with a baseball every night and always asks to borrow his Brother’s glove and cap. But no longer, now he’s got his own. (His tiny Braves baseball cap is on it’s way 🙂
Well, that was our very full and blessed day yesterday 🙂 Thanks for letting me share! If you have any great Easter or birthday traditions to share, I’d love to hear about them!
