Easter Countdown Week 1

Kaity loved unwrapping a Christmas book each day so much, that I thought we'd do it again for Easter.  Also, there are several blogs out there that do craft countdowns for holidays, and I think Kaity is old enough to try this.  She loves helping me put together crafts for our home, so I found some simple ideas online, at craft stores, and in old teacher artbooks I have from my teaching years.  We'll be trying them over the next month.
I'm starting on Saturday, March 10, which will give me a full 30 days with Easter Sunday as the last day.  Because we are blessed to have General Conference the week before Easter, there will also be some General Conference items the last week of March.  Some days are simple coloring pages, some are more involved crafts.  Where things are not copyrighted, I'll post them or the link here so you can try them with your kids, too!
Please note that the crafts and the books don't necessarily match - I don't have the patience to go through all of that work, I'm just trying to get a good mix of Bunny Easter and Jesus Easter.  Saturdays tend to have larger craft projects, so Daddy can help.  I also tried to get Sundays to have more religious themed activities.
Books for this week:

Little Bunny's Easter Surprise by Jeanne Modesitt, ill. by Robin Spowart
A cute little story about a little bunny who wants to share the fun of Easter with her whole family.

The Golden Easter Egg by Katherine Zwers and John Tobin, ill. by Carol Heyer
I was so excited this past Christmas that I found an Easter book about Sebastian and Hopscotch!  The roly-poly shepherd and his lamb are back in an adventure to find the greatest Easter treasure.

It's the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown by Charles M Schulz
Yep, Charlie Brown.  We love him at our house

The Egg Tree by Katherine Milhous
This is a Caldecott Medal winner with illustrations based on Ukranian Easter egg designs.  A very sweet story.

The Little Duck by Judy Dunn, photos by Phoebe Dunn
Showing the life cycle of a duck as it hatches from an egg and grows.  The photos are great.

ABCs of Easter by Patricia Reeder Eubank
Really pretty water color pictures accompany each page featuring alliterative descriptions of Easter fun: "B is for bright-ribboned bonnets, bold, busy, bunnies, and baskets of flowers."

My First Easter by Tomie dePaola
A short and sweet board book about the new things in Easter.

Supplies Needed for this week:
plastic suncatcher kit, crayons, cupcake liners, popsicle sticks, jewels or stickers or buttons, paint or markers, glue, green cardstock, plastic eggs, Easter erasers (make sure there are two of each), veggie party tray, scrapbook paper


Activities:
Saturday, Day 1: 
You know those plastic suncatchers that you paint and then hang up in the windows?  We got one for $1.50 at Hobby Lobby and it'll be much fun!
Sunday, Day 2:
First Easter Story and Coloring page.  From sugardoodle.net, one of the Primary 2 Lesson Cards.  You can read the simple story and then color the picture of Mary at the empty tomb. Download here.
Day 3:
Cupcake liner flowers - looks like so much fun! See directions here .
Day 4:
Happy Easter coloring page.  I found this at Kaboose.com.  Just search for coloring pages and there are several free ones to print.
Day 5:
Eggs and erasers memory game: match the erasers hidden under the eggs.  Directions
Day 6:
How Many Eggs? activity page from Evan-Moor (an old teacher workbook of mine).
Day 7:
Easter egg sorting.  I used some cute scrapbook paper to make Easter eggs and a veggie party tray as a sorter so Kaity could match the similar patterns into each section of the tray.

I hope you have fun with your little ones, I am looking forward to playing each day with Kaity.  I will post pictures as we work on each project!

Preview

Once I find my camera cord there will be a massive picture dump.  For now, here's one of Kaity on her Easter egg hunt yesterday

Prehistoric Peas and Shot Guns

Every year for Easter Sunday my family goes to the Lakefront Gun Club. By every year, I mean every year since my grandmother was a little girl. It's fun to go see everyone, but I wish we'd do it at a park or something. You see, when you read Gun Club, you're probably thinking of a nice building with a target range and lots of nice couches in a comfortable posh looking atmosphere. No. This is the view from the car:And another one of the clubhouse up close:There is an outhouse that hasn't been moved in a while, so thank heavens Kaity didn't need to pee while we were there (although there was a scramble for the bathrooms when we got back to my parents house). Why do we keep going out there, do you ask? Because it's important to Grandma and it's fun to spend time talking with family members. Dad & Jared like shooting ( I also have a shotgun that my grandpa gave me, but he says that I can't shoot with the baby because it's not good for her). I thought that was cute. I didn't want to shoot, though. My gun is a 14 gage and very old, it belonged to my great-grandfather. This means that the kick is quite something and I don't have very good balance right now. I shoot a 14 instead of a 12 because my arms aren't long enough to support the barrel of a 12 and aim properly. Anyway here are the boys:And here's the girls in front of the clubhouse talking. Aunt Linda is either trying not to be in the picture or her granddaughter just told her that she has to go potty again - Lex had to go 5 times! Sean dislocated his shoulder a few months ago and didn't want to re-dislocate it shooting, so he hung out with us. I suppose I shouldn't call it the girls out front then. Oh well.
So, when we returned from the gun club, we had a birthday dinner of pork roast, mashed potatoes, and creamed peas and onions. My other grandma (my mom's mom) turns 85 tomorrow and we had a little birthday party for her. She was very out of it, we think she had another small stroke Saturday night (she has 2-3 a month), but she appreciated having her family around. Anyway, my mom HATES peas. Flat out doesn't like them. Consequently, Jennie and I aren't too fond of them either, mainly because we never ate them growing up. My grandmother, however, likes peas and pearl onions in a creamy cheese sauce. So, my mom made them and Jared and Sean both said they were pretty good. Well, we asked my grandma how they were and she said that the peas were old and didn't taste good. Not sure what old peas means, but we all had a good laugh and teased Mom. Luckily, Mom thought it was funny, too. We told Grandma that when our neighbor Scott's peas come up in his garden we'd go get some from him and make her peas again. She can't think they're old if we pulled them off the vine the same day we made them, can she? After dinner we asked her if we could name Kaitlyn after her, and she seemed pleased (still a little out of it, we'll ask her again on a better day). My grandma's name is Vera Lenore, by the way, so Kaitlyn Elenore is now official. Dad, Jared and Sean gave her a blessing that she would regain some strength and enjoy her family and be able to accomplish the things she has left in this world. I am so grateful for the wonderful presence of the priesthood in our lives and the calming, peaceful effect of blessings. It was a great Easter Sunday. (We did go to church in the morning, by the way, but nothing really amazing happened there except that the first speaker spoke for 45 minutes and we were sitting by this guy who hadn't showered in three days and tried to cover it up with cologne. Needless to say, we weren't paying too much attention)