In May we took a family trip to Corpus Christi as the culmination of our school studies in ocean science and explorers that sailed the high seas.
First stop was the USS Lexington – a WWII aircraft carrier.
We tried out life aboard a ship – suddenly their rooms at home seemed a lot bigger!
On deck we admired several planes and tried out a cockpit or two.
Garrison preferred the captain’s chair!
Later that evening we walked around the Marina, admiring the fishing boats. We also looked at a replica of the Columbus ship “Pinta.”
Amazingly, the owner was there along with a diver who was attempting to patch a leak in the bottom of the ship. We got quite the informative talk!
Because my grandparents lived near Corpus I knew of a special beach that held many memories from my childhood visits.
We called it “The Mountain Beach.” The clay mountains are still there to play on, though they have eroded a bit since I was young.
We gathered driftwood and built a fort – another childhood memory.
This was the first time at a beach for half my children! A small inlet where sea grass broke the surf and provided a gentle first experience with waves and salt water.
With the coming celebration on the Resurrection, we took time this week to do some activities with the kids each day.
Palm Sunday:
Brian’s mom had given us these nifty little “magic pencil” coloring books on the Easter story so we did those with each day’s story. It was hard to keep them from coloring more than one page!
Jesus cleansing the Temple:
Reading the Biblical account was followed by reenactment outside. (This was good because the kids were very energetic that morning!)
We had a snack of chocolate coins to remind us of the money changers at the temple.
We also started making a poster of what happened each day.
Next was Jesus teaching daily in the temple. In one of the Gospels he tells the story of the Vineyard owner with the hired workers who won’t give him his due and finally kill his son. We acted out that story and ate grapes as a snack.
Spy Wednesday
Again we read the account from the Bible, this time of Judas going to the High Priests and agreeing to betray Jesus. We read all the various “scenes” with Judas then acted it out and made a video.
This time the snack was a chocolate kiss to remind us that Judas betrayed Jesus with a kiss.
Thursday:
Foot washing
Last Supper
And snack was – of course – grape juice and crackers.
Good Friday:
Worked some more on our poster.
It happened that the cooperation/behavior of the kids this day was a perfect lead in to why Jesus gave his life. We wrote our sin and then nailed it to the cross. Then with the idea of Micah 7:19 we through the cross with our sin into the depths of the sea (or pond in this case).
Finished off with a crown of thorns snack (cookie with pretzels on top).
Saturday: Jesus was in the tomb and not much happened. Good thing because at our place we had a work day and not much happened on our Easter study either.
Resurrection Sunday!!!
Wake up to Hot Cross Buns!
Beautiful flower bouquet from our garden.
Brian made up the “empty tomb” game – you looked under each cup and if there was nothing under it, you won a chocolate chip! Played that about a dozen times until everyone had a chocolate chip.
Finished up with a scavenger hunt, getting items that related to various parts of the whole week.
Thanks for reading! Many ideas came from others who have shared on their blogs. What fun to try new things with my children. I hoped to do something that would stick in their minds and already they are asking about if we will do this or that next year – and so traditions start.
May you find the blessing of new life in Christ!!!
Lance’s 11th birthday is upon us! It is becoming apparent that he enjoys a good physical challenge. Last year it was nerf war games and this time around an obstacle course!
He also asked to design his own cake again. Ivy baked it and he set the figures – looks like this mom is almost out of a job!
It rained hard the day before, so it turned into a type of mud run, but that didn’t seem to phase the participants.
We took the whole group through it once, then set them in teams of two and timed them.
We used whatever we had around to build obstacles. From empty barrels…
…to piles of logs…..
…and even some wheelbarrows.
Happily, my neighbor had a bunch of tires and let me borrow them.
Since we ran it across 3 properties, we were able to take advantage of existing obstacles like our zip-line
and my parents cargo net.
We even borrowed my sister’s riding toys 🙂
We borrowed and reinforced some ninja jumps from another birthday party….
…and a few pallets took care of the rest!
A good time was had by all and we sent them home dirty and worn out!
The up and coming boy cousins took their turn running the course.
And judging by their enthusiasm, we’ll be running a similar birthday party in a few years!
