Easter Traditions

Every Easter we do some of the same things that a lot of families do, we dye eggs, have an egg hunt, and read about Jesus.
Some other things we do are a little more unique!

1. We fill the girl's Easter baskets (yes, we tell the Bunny that we like to fill them ourselves) then we hide them so that in the morning they have to first find their baskets. They LOVE doing that!

2. They normally get a new set of summer pajamas in their baskets.

3. We go through our set of Resurrection Eggs that tell the story of Jesus' death and resurrection.

4. Easter Eve we "egg" a few people's houses - no, it's not what you are thinking - we put filled plastic eggs in the front yards of a couple of people we know, changing families each year. This was actually started by a neighbor of ours who did it to us a couple of years ago. The girls LOVE secretly putting eggs in their friend's yards. Oh, we always leave one large egg that tells the family who did it so they won't freak out about letting their kids eat treats from an unknown source!

5. When we come home we make Easter Story Cookies (recipe can be found at http://www.allhomemadecookies.com/recipes/drop/easterstorycookies.htm).
As we make the cookies we read Scritpure about Jesus' death and resurrection that correspond to the ingredients going into the cookies (meringues actually).

6. And, of course we head to church in the morning after eating a cookie or two!

7. After church we have lunch and then our big Easter dinner in the evening with our china and crystal. Now that we are vegetarian we do all of the side dishes that we did before, but we don't have ham like we used to! Our menu this year is: sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole, cornbread dressing (Joe's grandmother's recipe), crescent rolls and chocolate pie. Actually, that is the basic menu for Thanksgiving and Christmas too with a couple of variations!

We always want the girls to remember that Easter is about our Savior and are always looking for new ways to do that. Any ideas?!

P.S. I will try to post Easter pictures tomorrow.

Toothy

Cody just lost her first tooth! (With the help of her dad!)
Oddly enough it is a top tooth. Most kids lose their bottom 2 before their top 2, but that's our Cody - doing everything in her own special way!
It makes me sad when they lose their first baby tooth, their toddler smiles are gone and it, in some strange way, is the beginning of really growing up.
But, it has to happen and we are happy that it finally came out! She was beginning to look a little like Nanny McPhee with that one tooth sticking out farther and hanging down lower than the others! She would even walk around the house saying, "Hello, I'm Nanny McPhee." with the accent and everything!
Her new smile is beautiful and she had a great time showing it off to all of her friends and teachers at our homeschool co-op!

The Garden

Well, we finally did it!
Our garden box has been built - thanks to Joe and Casey! We filled it with "dirt", 1 cu yd of topsoil + 1 cu yd of compost (and I even did the math to figure our how many cubic yards we needed!). Whoever said, "Hard work never hurt anyone" must not have hauled 2 yards of dirt using 5 gallon buckets from a trailer in the driveway to a garden against the back fence!
We have sectioned the garden off so that we know exactly where to plant everything and have added marigolds to help with pest control.
We will begin adding seedlings that we started inside along with some seeds either today or tomorrow, and we have the tarp ready to throw on top for the cold nights we still have awaiting us.
Plus, thanks to a new friend's blog I am hoping to talk Joe into building us a compost box to help "feed" our plants throughout the summer.
I will keep you posted as the days get longer and warmer!

Flashback Friday - My Kids

Locks of Love

Last month Casey made her second hair donation to Locks of Love. This time she gave over 12 inches of her hair! She had been growing it out for a year and a half and finally decided it was time. We had a bad experience last time with the salon that we went to so I cut it myself this time. She LOVES her new haircut and can do so much more with it. I love that she did this, it shows that even a child can make a difference in someone else's life. She is learning that sacrifices are good and that she can give just as much as any adult, sometimes more.

Hope you enjoy the pictures.

Free Food!

Thanks to my friend Angel over at Faithful & Frugal for helping me learn how to shop better!
Also, thanks to Casey for taking the picture!

Here is the photo of the groceries and household items that I bought today. You should be able to double click the photo to see it enlarged. Every item on the table was bought on sale, buy one get one free (BOGO), and/or bought with a coupon (or two!).
The total price before sales, BOGO, and coupons was $220.19, about what I used to spend every other week for a very full shopping basket of groceries. My basket was every bit as full but for all of this I only paid $116.26. (Some of the items that are hard to see are as follows: 28 rolls of toilet paper, 10 boxes of frozen vegetables, 8 boxes of pasta, 6 containers of 100% apple juice, 4 jars of spaghetti sauce, 3 cartons of orange juice, 12 cans of soup, 2 bags of frozen biscuits, 2 bags of pizza rolls, and 2 small cartons of strawberries).

To me, that is $104.13 of FREE FOOD!
Happy Shopping!

The Cave

Here are the photos from the cave at Cheeks Bend Bluff trail. Although it appears to be well lit, it is, in fact, VERY dark in the middle! It is also not as big as it looks in the photos. Here is a link to another website with all of the information about the trail and the cave, as well as a book that lists other hikes around Nashville.

Special thanks to Casey for taking the majority of the photos on this post and the previous one.