"Rockin'" Resurrection Party

On Easter Sunday,

we had a lot to celebrate

in Children's Church!

The sins we had buried in our

Hill of Calvary garden

were gone!

Just like on that first Easter

years ago,

the tomb was

EMPTY!

Jesus was ALIVE!!!

***

Since we had a lot to celebrate,

we had a party

in Children's Church...

(The kiddos were pretty excited as they arrived,

can ya tell?)

I decorated our Fellowship Hall

with some simple table clothes...

...balloons, the Resurrection Cake and

Hill of Calvary Garden.

***

To kick off the party...

 ...we played the "Right-Left" game.

All of the kiddos sat in a big circle

and were each given an Easter Egg

with a prize inside.

I also put into the mix two "special" eggs

that were empty and decorated with Washi tape-

those eggs had special prizes attached to them.

When the kiddos were ready,

I read a part of the Easter story

I summarized from

Matthew 28:1-10,

Mark 16:1-11,

Luke 24:1-12,

and

John 20:1-18.

In my summery,

I used the words

"left" and "right" often.

Whenever I said the word "left,"

the kiddos had to pass their egg to the left.

When I said the word "right,"

they had to pass their egg to the right.

The kiddos then got to keep

whatever egg they ended up with

at the end of the story.

The Washi tape egg holders received

either a chocolate cross or

chocolate Jesus fish.

(You can download a copy

of the game for your own use

by clicking HERE.)

***

After the game,

I had the kiddos sit at the tables

and I reviewed the story

and pointed out the empty tomb in

our Hill of Calvary garden.

Then I showed them the...

...Empty Tomb cake.

Oh how the woman at the tomb must have felt!

Scared, confused, sad, excited-

all at the same time!

After we reviewed the story,

it was time to have some of that cake!

I got the idea for this cake over at

His Mercy is New.

I used Devils Food cake mix

(hee! hee!)

and chocolate icing for the cake,

both from Duncan Hines,

since their mixes are peanut allergy free.

I decorated the cake using figures from

THIS Oriental Trading Company Resurrection set.

I also had sheet cakes in the back to serve to the kiddos

so there was PLENTY to go around!

***

We ended our party by making

a Prayer Rock craft,

to remind us that the stone has been rolled away

from the tomb!

I found THIS free printable

Prayer Rock Poem

to hand out to each of the kiddos.

Instead of painting a rock,

like I have seen most of them done...

 ...we used Washi tape to decorate the stones.

I did NOT want to chance the kiddos

spilling paint

all over their new Easter clothes-

plus Washi tape is just so fun and colorful!

***

As the kiddos left Children's Church

to go and celebrate Easter in "big" church

 with their families,

I had a little party favor to give to them...

...Rolos!

(Love THIS free printable from the

Happy Home Fairy!)

***

We celebrate...

...for He has risen!

Yes-

He has risen indeed!!!

Planning a Simple and Purposeful Community Resurrection Easter Egg Hunt

The weekend before Easter weekend...

...I donned my best Easter Bunny eggs

in preparation for our church's

Community Easter Egg Hunt.

God blessed us with beautiful weather

and a nice little crowd of egg hunting experts.

But in order for an event like this to have

any kind of impact on the community,

there had to be some organization, thought, and prayer

put into it.

Here are some of things I have learned when planning

and event like this one.

***

1.  Have Pre-Event Activities Planned

Our egg hunt was scheduled to start around 10am.

To keep early arrivers entertained

while we waited until about 10:10am to start...

...we had table of simple activities

for the kiddos and their families to participate in.

Our church Preschool Coordinator

had set out three jars with different

Easter candies in them.

The kiddos could each guess

how many pieces were in a jar,

and then place their guesses

in the basket behind the jar.

Later,

the papers were tallied,

and the closet guessers won the jars.

There were also lots of coloring pages

on the table for the kiddos to work on while they waited.

We copied them from a book similar to

 THIS Resurrection Eggs resource book.

***

2.  Gather Up Some Good-Humored Volunteers

My husband...

...is pictured above as

the "Easter Bunny."

He assisted me in the event planning,

not only by leading the kiddos to the hunt site...

...but also by stuffing and hiding countless eggs.

This lovely Mama

lead the craft at our event.

And there were others-

many others.

Others who planned, stuffed, set up, cleaned up,

took pictures, prayed, handed out flyers-

you get the picture.

An event like this CANNOT be put on by one

individual!

***

3.  Ask for Lots and Lots of Candy Donations

Here is what our preschool playground looked like

before the hunt-

it was littered with about 500 eggs.

If our congregation had not stepped up

with candy and prize donations,

this hunt would not have been nearly as fun

for the kiddos!

Now,

our congregation is generous,

but forgetful.

I had to have the help of one of our tech guys

to put together a little candy donations promo video

which was shown two weeks before the hunt.

After it played,

the candy donations came pouring in!

(Ask and you will receive, right?)  ;0)

Our preschool coordinator also donated some

lovely little stuffed animals and books

for bigger prizes.

Again,

if lots of people chip in,

and event like this does NOT have to break

the Children's Ministry budget!

***

4.  Designate Different Egg Hunting Sites

for Different Age Groups

We had a little over 1,000 eggs to be found,

so half of them were hidden on the preschool playground

for Nursery-Preschool

and the other half were hidden for K-5th grade students

behind the Youth House.

This keeps injuries from happening,

and enables ALL kiddos to have a chance at finding eggs.

***

5. Schedule the Creative Chaos

Here is a picture of the kiddos opening their eggs

after the hunt.

But this noisy fun

was all one the "schedule"

for the day...

An event like this CANNOT be planned to the second,

but it can have a schedule.

Here is what ours ended up looking like:

9:45 am-10:05 am

People arrive and work oat the coloring table.

10:05 am-10:20 am

Directions for the hunt are given,

kiddos are led to the hunt site, and the hunt occurs.

10:25 am-10:35 am

Kiddos open their eggs, collect their loot,

and put the empty eggs into the storage box.

10:35 am-10:55 am

Snack and story time

10:55 am until the end  

Craft and Photo Booth time

***

6.  Use the Snack as Part of the Story

Kiddos need to be fed,

so I took this time as an opportunity

to reinforce the

Resurrection Eggs lesson.

The kiddos and their families all got to come up

and make their own mini-bag of

Resurrection Trail Mix.

Each of the ingredients for the mix

symbolized a part

of the Easter story.

You can get the "recipe,"

(along with the scriptures and Resurrection Egg items),

for this trail mix by clicking

HERE.

***

7.  Have the Kiddos Participate in the Story

The lesson I did with the kiddos

was the Resurrections Eggs.

To include the kiddos

in this lesson,

we hide 12 special eggs that had

numbers in them instead of candy.

I would call the kiddos up

who had a certain number...

...and have them open up the corresponding

Resurrection Egg.

The kiddo would tell everyone

what was in the egg

and then go a claim a prize off of the prize table

while I explained the item further.

***

8.  Have a Simple Craft for All Ages

This can be a challenge.

But our craft guru came up with a simple

activity that all ages could do

(even if the littles required some assistance).

They made simple

Stained Glass Crosses...

...out of clear contact paper and tissue paper.

***

9.  Bring on the Fun With a Photo Booth

We were very blessed to have a pretty fabulous

amateur photographer

come and take pictures at the event.

(All of the photos in this blog post are from her,

Jan Christy,

in case you are in need of a photographer

for your next event!) 

To set up the photo booth,

we strung a white shower curtain

on our entry coat rack

and added a string of Easter eggs.

I then purchased several fun items

from The Dollar Tree,

like bunny glasses, hats, and garland

for the kiddos to dress up in

during their pictures.

The pictures were bunny-tastic,

if you ask me!

To gain access to the pictures,

I created an event Facebook page.

I passed out the information in a flyer

at the photo booth table

so that visitors could pick

the pictures they like and print them at home

if they so desired.

Our photographer also linked up a

Walgreens photo page for families

to print pictures off of.

***

There ya have it!

My tips for a simple and purposeful

community Resurrection Easter Egg Hunt.

If you all have any tips

that help with the planning of an event like this,

feel free to mention them in the comments section below!

Expecting Easter: Burying Sin

This past Sunday...

 ...I brought my

Hill of Calvary garden

to use during our

communion time at Children's Church.

(To learn how to make your own

Hill of Calvary garden,

just click HERE...)

***

At our church,

we participate in communion every week,

with homemade unleavened bread and grape juice.

Once a child makes the personal decision to 

follow Jesus,

and is baptized,

he/she may participate in communion

with all of the other disciples.

(If you are curious about what communion is,

just go HERE...)

***

Since we participate weekly in communion,

I try to give different object lessons

to ready the kiddos' hearts and minds

before taking the Lord's Supper.

 I showed the kiddos my garden

and discussed its elements:

the hill, the crosses, and the tomb.

Then I read the following passage of scripture:

The Burial of Jesus

(Matthew 27: 57-61)

57 As evening approached,

there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph,

who had himself become a disciple of Jesus.

58 Going to Pilate, he asked for Jesus’ body,

and Pilate ordered that it be given to him.

59 Joseph took the body, wrapped it in a clean linen cloth,

60 and placed it in his own new tomb that he had cut out of the rock.

He rolled a big stone in front of the entrance to the tomb

and went away.

61 Mary Magdalene and the other Mary

were sitting there opposite the tomb.

I then talked about how when Jesus was buried,

so were our sins.

His sacrifice, and then his resurrection,

made our reconciliation with God possible.

I then passed out paper and markers...

...and gave the kiddos a personal opportunity

to bury their sin.

They were to either write down or draw a picture

of something they struggle with-

and to NOT place their name on it,

since I wanted this to be a 

personal experience between them and God.

Yesterday afternoon,

I went through their confessions,

and I must say,

I was deeply touched.

Some confessions were "common"-

apparently several of them struggle with

their sister relationships.

 Some of their confessions related to

their behavior at school...

...and personal habits.  

:0)

And then there were

the confessions that got me in the gut...

***

But this last one really hits it home

for all of us, I believe...

If we spend more time with our Savior,

surely we will become more like him.

And to be more like our Savior-

our Redeemer,

our Father,

our Friend-

isn't that what life is all about?

***

After the kiddos buried their sins in the tomb...

...and the "stone" sealed it shut,

they went to take the Lord's Supper.

And they could dwell on the lovely sacrifice Jesus

made for us all-

so our sins could be buried in the tomb.

Amen!!!