7 Days of Easter: Day 1 Palm Sunday

Last week I started thinking about how it's odd that there isn't more talk of Easter activities. There are whole months with day by day activities dedicated to preparing for Christmas and focusing on the true meaning of the birth of Christ. Which is awesome! That's how it should be! It just feels like there should be more of that for Easter, too. Without the atonement and the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the birth of Christ wouldn't have meant that much. I hope that doesn't come across as super harsh or sac religious. I just mean that Christ's mission wasn't complete until his resurrection.

Now, if I was a normal crafty mom, I would have just looked up activities online. Pinterest is bound to have something like the 7 Days of Easter. Or I would have made up really cool and creative activities. But I'm not, I'm a, "it's the end of nap-time and if I want to do a week long Easter thing I better plan something quick" mom. The truth is, even if I had all the time in the world, we probably still would have done what we did (ha). We put a lot of pressure on ourselves as moms and this was supposed to be a fun activity that taught J about the true meaning of Easter. In fact, I'm going to shoot for something every night, but I can tell you right now, there's a chance it won't happen. That's life with a toddler! We can't beat ourselves up about it, just try again the next day. Here's what we did today:

I gave J a brief synopsis of what was happening around the time of Palm Sunday. [Christ had recently raised Lazarus from the dead. This act was the tipping point. Naysayers couldn't deny his power any longer--not just anyone can raise a man from the dead. On the flip side, this act showed many Jews that he was, in deed, the Christ they had been waiting for. As Christ journeyed to Jerusalem, many went out to meet him. "Took branches of palm trees, and went forth to meet him, and cried, Hosanna: Blessed is the King of Israel that cometh in the name of the Lord." (John 12:13 KJV).]

To be fair her synopsis went like this,

Me: so Jesus, we love Jesus, right?

J: Yep! (she enjoys saying 'Yep' and 'Nope' and is getting pretty good at figuring out which I want her to use)

Me: He raised a guy, Lazarus, from the dead. Pretty cool, right?

J: Yep!

Me: Some people didn't like that and were mad. But others were happy, what does it look like when we're happy?

J: (not the actual moment, but the same face was made)

Me: So Jesus came on a donkey and people that loved him laid biiiiig (hand motions were involved) leaves out for him and they said "HOSANNA, HOSANNA!"(we like to yell at our house) Say, "Hosanna."

J: attempts, see video

Then we colored palm leaves, tried to talk J into getting in traditional garb (she wasn't having it) and reenacted the triumphal entry. At first I thought, "Is this sac religious?" But then I remembered earlier in nap time when I researched where the Easter Bunny came from (here and here)*, and I figured Christ would care more about her knowing the real story and true meaning. 

Our reenactment + a nice little dash of real life! Toddlers are fun :)

*Note: This was very scientific research. I typed in "Where did the Easter Bunny come from?" and clicked on the first two links google had. Also note, my child does wear pants, just not very often. YOLO, peeps!