My Little Fortune Cookie: Soooo Many Opportunities for Easter Fun!

In the weeks leading up to Easter, we had many discussions about the spiritual meaning of this special day, and just like Christmas, I tried to "connect some of the dots" for Kayli in the simplest ways I could. There are lots of good suggestions out there for helping children make symbolic connections to the things we do at Easter with coloring eggs, waiting for the easter bunny to come and bring candy, etc. etc. Kayli learns alot at her preschool during the children's bible stories and discussions they have. Throughout Lent, she would ask me questions and want to discuss what they talked about at school. She would often shake her head in pitiful, disbelief and say "Mom, I just can't believe what they did to Baby J*esus!" As we got closer to Easter, she began talking about what she called "the happy part of the story." She'd say "Mom, that was SO mean what they did to baby J*esus, but here's the happy part of the story, he came back to life! Isn't that great?" "Easter. It's a good story after all!" And, the discussion would go on from there, usually leading to a conversation about Heaven, which then leads to Kayli reminding me that someday "we can all go there together", and this leads Kayli to remind me that it's just like she has plans for me to come to college with her someday, since she knows she will need me "to snuggle with"! (Yeah, I'll have to remind her of this someday) So, without further ado, I present to you the multitude of Easter activities we immersed ourselves in this year:

There was the "indoor easter egg hunt with Kayli's cousin:

Then, there was the VERY CHILLY outdoor easter egg hunt:

Complete with this very "authentic looking" bunny...NOT!!!

Then, there was this beautiful sunny easter egg hunt and church sponsored party, complete with inflatable slides, crafts, and prizes, where we met up with Kayli's friend, Abby:

We colored eggs with all the cousins, including a "special guest" cousin, James, who flew here from Milwaukee, where he's attending his first year of college at Marquette:

Then, there was the "BIG DAY", when Kayli woke up and yelled "Mom, today's the day!" and she could hardly wait for me to get the camera turned on (because of course I had the camera at my bedside, just waiting to be "fired up"!) as we went to see what the Easter bunny brought!
The first thing we noticed was the white footprints on the rug by the door. The second thing we noticed was a piece of the poor bunny's cottontail that got left behind when he apparently left in a hurry, squeezing through our door!!! Oh MY GOSH!

The bunny brought a nice array of sweets and treats! This weekend, during one of the group conversations about favorite candy, James and I were talking about how much we liked Hot Tamales. Well, Kayli remembered this, and couldn't believe that the bunny didn't bring some for me. As she was apparently pondering the reason for this throughout breakfast, she suddenly announced "Mom, you forgot to leave out carrots for the bunny. No wonder he didn't bring you any Hot Tamales!"