Easter + April Fool's

With Easter Sunday falling on Conference Weekend this year, my normal routines were thrown off.  We usually have an FHE dedicated to Easter the Monday before, with scripture reading that week focused on the events of Holy Week, and then a fun non-spiritual Retsae the day before Easter when the Easter Bunny visits and we do an egg hunt and all that jazz.  During the week leading up to General Conference we also do a special FHE and use quotes from General Authorities to help us prepare for Conference during our scripture reading.  We ended up focusing on Easter the week before, with the order of things altered due to extenuating circumstances.

Ben was out of town the first few days of the week before Easter so we had our
Easter FHE on Sunday night.  Cat made our traditional dessert-nests for the treats.

Luke had an egg hunt at school where the kids each had three eggs labeled with their
first name, last name, and initials.  I love that they had to find their specific eggs.
He also brought home an egg he had dyed at school.

We used these pictures from the Gospel Art Picture Kit to discuss the events
of Holy Week.  That Friday evening Whit was over and I was hanging out with the kids
until Ben came home so we could go on a date.  With General Conference starting
the next day, I decided to do a quick version of our Conference FHE, but the kids didn't get
much out of it because they were just bounding off the walls.  I was frustrated, but I pressed on.
I then pulled out the picture of the crucifixion and proceeded to talk to the kids about that part of the
Easter story, per our nightly family scripture time.  Amazingly, the kids were immediately interested
in the picture and what it was depicting.  They were sitting down, listening quietly, and even
asking questions.  It was a small Easter miracle, and a beautiful experience.

Saturday afternoon, after the PM session we dyed our eggs.
My girls were particularly proud of their eggs.

That night after the Priesthood session we made our Resurrection Rolls.

The kids took baths while the Resurrection Rolls were in the oven, and while everyone was
occupied the Easter Bunny arrived!  Nobody even noticed while they were eating their rolls, haha.
But they enjoyed their books and little surprises from the Easter Bunny once they found them.

Saturday night Ben helped me prepare a little Easter-April-Fool's surprise.

Normally we do our Easter Egg hunt the day before Easter so Easter can be more Christ-centered,
but the temptation to prank the kids was just too much for me to withstand.  So we had an
extra-special egg hunt after General Conference and a yummy Easter dinner.

The kids' emotions were all over the place when they discovered their
rice-filled Nerds boxes.  There was surprise, sadness, anger, and betrayal.
Maybe there's another Easter lesson in there somewhere?