Easter Baskets

Easter baskets, are they supposed to be Christmas stockings for the spring, just a basket to hold the eggs you find or is it something in between?

Normally, I know just what to put in my children's Easter baskets. They always have gotten a chocolate bunny for each of them to bite the ears off of. I would throw some toys or a stuffed bunny in there along with some jelly beans. My kids have gotten bunny ears in their baskets, because lets face it, they're just adorable. However, this year I have been struggling quite a bit. Of course the stores are packed with items I could purchase, then in about a day or so it will be eaten, broken, lost or forgotten. 

Starting this blog made me dig deeper with Christ and it made me focus on fact checking. This is all for His glory and my intention is to never stray from that. Each week that goes by on this new journey there are new challenges, new revelations and a lot more intentionality. That's were these silly Easter baskets have tripped me up. This day is about Christ conquering death. What am I choosing to teach my kids on this holy of holy days, or rather what am I choosing to focus on most. 

I was running out of time, frankly I still am. But, I did need a basket or bag no matter what I decided to put inside. 

I was given a Cricut for Christmas this past year and it has already paid for itself due to my obsession with personalizing everything. Being able to monogram, label and create myself has proven to be beneficial. So, I picked a font, printed out names and a cute bunny, then simply ironed them on. Adding a bow and some cotton tales and I had the kiddos bags already to go hunting. However, I still wasn't so sure if that Easter bunny was going to show up or not.

I finally started getting some ideas based on the thought, "what do we spend the most time doing, what would they really use that points back to Christ?" Well then it was a no brainer, the car! It seems as if we are always in the car. We are fortunate enough to have a minivan with the DVD player so the first item to go in their new bag, a DVD. Now, I frequent Goodwill and happen to know ahead of time that the one in my neighborhood always seems to have Veggie Tales or Hermie and Friends on their shelves, that helped keep me on a budget.

Once I got started stuffing the baskets the ideas were flowing. Next, to buy some eggs so that we could "egg our neighbors". We live in a great neighbor and have wonderful relationships with several of our neighbors. We also live in a community that is growing rapidly and changing with that growth. What a better way to show our neighbors we love them and to welcome the new ones than to "egg them"? And by egg them, I mean surprise them with a stuffed egg on Easter morning. I have stuffed two eggs for each kid, that makes a total of eight eggs in this house. Which in turn will be eight homes my children will disciple to. The eggs have been stuffed with a simple note, "Jesus Loves You" along with little treat. On Easter morning before heading out to church, each kid will take their two eggs and set them at two different door steps. My children love to knock our neighbors door and they love being sneaky so I am pretty confident they are going to love this.

I enjoy watching my kids hunt for eggs. The toddlers get so excited and proud of themselves. While the older two ask for hints or if they are "getting warmer" as they look for their eggs that are a little trickier to find. This is a tradition I want to keep alive.

However, my kids get too much candy as it is. Money, change, we all have it laying around. In the cup holder of our car, in our junk drawer or under the couch cushions. This called for a scavenger hunt. Once I found what I thought was enough, I stuffed the eggs with the coins. I chose to pick one color for each kid to find, that way I could divide up the money equally and it would avoid any arguments later. This way they each had a certain number of eggs to find and we wouldn't be discovering them months down the road. 

There is a lesson to why I chose to put the coins into the eggs. There are two actually, first, it's a conversation starter. Shake the egg and let the kids do the same. This can easily lead you into " did you know that the soldiers cast lots for Jesus' clothes while He was hanging on the cross?"

The second lesson it this, a tithe. The tithe is something that we as adults can struggle with. Why not teach our children while they are young that it holds importance and help them to make it a habit in their youth. We do not have allowance in our home. I saw this as an opportunity to show our children that with any increase we get, we give ten percent to our church. My hope is that this will also bring up more conversation about church, money or Christ.

I want my kids to know that Easter is a celebration. Friday is they day to focus on the cross and Sunday is they day to focus on the resurrection. I mean Christ conquered death! He rose from the dead! When I saw these confetti eggs it was an easy buy. I found them at Walgreens for only a couple of bucks. Sunday morning you will find us blasting some praise and worship while throwing confetti!

Now that I have the gospel pretty well covered and the focus starts on the true reason we will be celebrating all day with friends and family. A little treat may have snuck its way into my shopping cart. I picked out one toy that each child is intrigued by currently and a chocolate bunny to eat the ears off, it is tradition after all. Plus Mom gets to eat the left over bunny bodies!

If you have been struggling with what to put in your baskets this year or have just simply been procrastinating, I hope this helps. 

Have a wonderful Holy week and check back with us Friday for a special Good Friday word!

Rachel Batey

Isla Jayne's Birthday Party

Its a Jolly Holiday with Isla!

A child's birthday is such a precious thing. The opportunity to celebrate the life of someone you love so dearly, to put them in the spotlight for the day, a day to take the time to show them in such an obvious way that they are so special.

I was able to celebrate the third birthday of my daughter recently. She adores Mary Poppins, anything pink, if it has lace, glitter or a flower of any kind she must have it. Isla Jayne is a special, sweet-tempered and dainty little girl. Knowing all of this about her made it pretty simple to come up with the theme of her party, a Mary Poppins Tea. However, I had the desire to be very intentional about making it a party for her, meaning not wanting it to be over done or overwhelming.

My mom shared a simple rule of etiquette with me that helped keep the tea party manageable for an introverted three year old little girl. That rule is to have one more guest than the year the child is turning. In this case, Isla was turning three, so we invited four little guests.

It is no secret that children thrive in structure and routine. At birthday parties, we want our children to let loose and just enjoy themselves. However, I have found that they can quickly become overwhelmed. I did not create a schedule or any type of true time line, but I did have set activities that would flow from one to another easily. 

When each child arrived to Isla Jayne's tea party they found a personalize chalk board at their seat. This allowed the children to feel welcomed and it got them involved in a gentle way. They were able to begin to engage when they felt comfortable.

Once everyone had arrived, became comfortable with the environment and acquainted with each other, we introduced the food and tea. Food is another thing that can quickly become a task and unpleasant for a young child. To avoid any aversions to eating their lunch it was important to keep the food recognizable, fun and attractive.

To keep the simple kid food, if you will, in theme with the party, I cut PB&J sandwiches into smaller triangles without any crust. Then I made open faced cucumber sandwiches and put yogurt topped with berries in glass sundae cups. To be honest though, it is a child's birthday and the child that this party was for has a serious sweet tooth. So, we had lots of sweets, pet ti fours, french macaroons, spoons full of sugar (naturally), chocolate covered strawberries, and a chocolate birthday cake.

To display all of the yummy treats, I stacked different sized cake plates on top of each other. By using glue dots, it allowed the cake plates to remain sturdy enough for three year old's, but was not permanent. That way they could easily be disassembled.

I was able to find the cake plates in the dollar section of Target, Goodwill and garage sales. This helped make the party more budget friendly and affordable.

To keep the Mommy's happy and their tummies full as well, I created a separate food and drink area for them. They were provided with the same items as their daughters, but also some added foods such as cheese and crackers, potato salad, and to drink we had mimosas, coffee and tea. Having an area for the adults also allowed the little girls to have their own special place where they could enjoy a little independence to play and pretend. 

The flowers on the tables are in small tea pots that I have been given or collected over the years. The one in the picture above belonged to Isla Jayne's namesake, Isla Brown Taylor, her Great Great Grandmother. My mother and I both love heirlooms and we also love to hunt for treasure at some unsuspecting places. If that is not something you enjoy, please check out our Etsy shop "wrinklesandgrace". There you will be able to find affordable treasures that could help you create the practically perfect party. 

Family also makes a party special and in the case of Isla Jayne's Jolly Holiday, her aunt and grandma made it extra special. They dressed up as Mary Poppins and Bert. They were the perfect addition to the tea party fun and birthday excitement. Next week my mom will be sharing how to create Mary Poppins accessories and Bert's whole costume DIY. 

Finally, I wanted to be there for Isla Jayne, not for the guests. Polite and hospitable, but I wanted to keep my focus on the birthday girl. My husband and I made the choice to have Isla's siblings busy with something else at the time of the party for this particular theme and size. This decision made it easier to give focus to Isla Jayne. Being a sibling in a mix of a family of six, it was important to us to be intentional about giving our little girl these few hours. We wanted her to know how much she is loved, that she is special and has a great purpose. We wanted to make a little dream come true for her. To show her that dreams and aspirations are attainable. We wanted to reflect the love of Christ to our daughter. Our Savior gives His time to us, He gives us great resources, great vision and greater love than we can fathom. As parents, we desire to make sure our children know we are present in their lives just as our Father in heaven, whom also desires to be present in our lives. We desire to give them all that we can, and to show them that they can change the world. Isla Jayne loves Jesus and loves to dance and worship. I adore watching her grow in relationship with her heavenly father. I can not wait to see her light up the day when she discovers the plans God has for her. When a person makes God the center of who they are, when they give their future over to the purpose He created them for, He wants us to celebrate. We are told in Luke 15, "I tell you in the same way, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance." Also, in Acts 16:32 we are told, "and he brought them into his house and set food before them, and rejoiced greatly, having believed in God with his whole household". We are created to celebrate as a family, as a family of Christ, and as a household who believes in his love and wonder. Each person is knitted together inside their mother, with a purpose, for a purpose. That is something to celebrated. 

My desire is that even the third birthday of my daughter, something that could be so fleeting, so trivial, would bring God glory. A way to show my three year old daughter that the gospel is alive everyday all around her. She is loved by someone that has a greater love for her than even her own Daddy and Mommy could love her. I didn't just want each detail of the party to be intentional, but I wanted the purpose and the core of it to intentionally point back to Christ.