Our extended family has a few Easter traditions that began back when I was a child. My grandma used to fill eggs with change and money for a hunt in her front yard when I was a little girl. My sister and I got to do the hunting until we had kids. Grandma passed away 5 years ago, but my mom and aunt have kept the tradition going.
I was shocked to get a shot of all of my kids hunting. Granted it is the back of all their heads, but I’ll take what I can get. In the background is my brother-in-law, my dad and my grandpa.
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My dad and brother-in-law decided to make it extra hard on the boys. The literally dug up clumps of grass and buried eggs. The only way the boys could find them was by playing “Your hot…getting hotter…on fire…”.
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One of the first things people usually say when they meet Little One in person is how tiny she is. For some reason she looks so much bigger in pictures. I feel like this shot you can see a bit better how tiny she really is…just a petite little thing. Little One and her great grandpa.
Sister cousins.
My parents and all their grandkids. My second son thinks it is hilarious to make odd faces for group shots. Does it every time.
Chris’ family also had an egg hunt…with more surprises inside. We had such beautiful weather over the weekend.
Grandpa’s boat got taken out on the little pond. (all the boys are swimmers)
And Grandpa gave the kids rides on the four wheeler. I’m pretty sure he had as much fun as the kids.
I used my Canon 85mm over the weekend. The shots below are straight out of the camera. I think my 24-70mm has been dropped too many times. I feel like is isn’t as sharp as it used to me. The 85mm is still my favorite lens…
We had a great weekend celebrating. We cherish our families and are grateful for the traditions our parents have with the kids. We are also starting our own traditions, our own ways of making this incredible special holiday memorable for our kids. What are some of the ways your family celebrates(ed) Easter and conveyed the meaning of the day? I’m always looking for new ideas!
Nicole Baans - We celebrate Easter in a similar way- with an egg hunt. In the lead up to Easter we blow eggs (remove the yolk) and the kids decorate the shells. We hang them on our ‘Easter tree’ which is made using pussy willow branches. This is a German tradition that my mother passed down to me.
Liane - What great photos of the kids doing their hunt! I love natural photos
Your blog always makes me smile. Thank you for that.
Liane x
kimberly oyler - i want the 85mm so bad. i got the 35mm and i don’t love it. nothing ever feels super sharp. which is probably user error, but i mean i’m focusing using the focus points, so like what’s the deal? for as much as that lens cost, don’t you think it should be sharp! heelllllppp me.
Lisa - Since I have been 16 I have moved within Europe quite a lot, without my family but easter is my favorite holiday to return home… We either use hard-boiled eggs, or like Nicole, shells of the eggs after blowing them out to decorate. Growing up this was done with a big group of children (: We also always have a BIG breakfast both on Easter Sunday and Monday. Lovely to see the Boys and Girls enjoying their hunt!!! I really enjoy your blog, it is a safe haven during busy Uni times…(:
Amanda - I don’t normally do marble/candy type rewards for my kids, but this year a few weeks ( or u could do just one week) before Easter, I started them on a quest to fill their jar with jelly beans. They each had a jar, but you could do a combined jar too. They would get jelly beans for anything I saw them doing good, great attitudes, helping without being asked, etc. If they could fill their jar to the top by Easter they earned a family date night, one of their favorite things. But I purposefully made this quite the challenge. They only got 1 or 2 jelly beans at a time. It would take a long time to fill their jars. They got discouraged some. This was part of the plan. I kept encouraging them. A few times I gave them a little handful of jelly beans for something big they did. In the end their jars weren’t even half full. But on Easter morning they found their jars filled to the brim with white jelly beans filling up the rest of their jars. The white jelly beans symbolized Gods grace. We talked about the fact that no matter how hard we try to please God, our good deeds will never get us to heaven. And that when we are weak, He is strong. His grace is all we need, and it is enough. We cant be good enough on our own, but He is perfect and supplies grace to us all the time. So they STILL earned the family date night they were working for. It was such a fun lesson on Easter morning.
Necole @seriouslysassymama - I have not been able to celebrate Easter with my family in years. I chose to work weekends so I could be at home with my three daughters during the week. Their daddy always sets up an eater egg hunt, and lets them paint eggs. We do not do Easter baskets, because to me that is not what it is about.
Ernestine Treu - Hi Ashley, we’ve got two little boys, ages 5 and 3. This year I made Easter stones instead of doing resurrection eggs. I drew symbols for parts of the Easter story on black river rock with a paint marker. For 12 days leading up to Easter Sunday, we read a part of the story, let the kids hold the rocks, and talked about what happened. Then on Easter Sunday, we took communion together. We all really learned a lot from sitting together every night and going over the days that led to Jesus’ death and resurrection! I’ll keep the stones and would love to make them into a yearly tradition!
If you’d like to see some pictures, I did a post about them at http://www.treuimage.com/2013/03/easter-story-stones.html
megan - Some of my favorite pictures from you to date.
Katie - I really admire Amanda’s idea and think I might have to *borrow* it as my children (2 1/2, 14 months and #3 due in July) get older. What a great way to keep the message of Christ and God’s love intertwined with all our actions (while still recognizing our limits as humans).
We also do the traditional Easter Egg hunt for my younger cousins and now the next generation (mine and my cousin’s kids). Weather permitting (being in Northeast Ohio is pesky!), we take a walk around my grandparents neighborhood to greet neighbors, look for blooming flowers and see who else might have decorated or how others celebrate the glorious day!
Katie - Oh I love the black and white shots of the boating!
Anna@agoodhome - Love those pics! What cuties
We just started a new tradition this year that I totally love! My mom sent me a recipe for “Empty Tomb Cookies.” Have you encountered those before? They’re really just super simple meringue cookies, but you make them on Saturday night. Each step in the recipe is paired with some scripture from the Easter story and the kids get to do something (i.e. Jesus was beaten so they use a mallet to crush some pecans; taste some vinegar like the sour wine he got on the cross, etc.). My kids (2 and 5 yrs old) really loved the whole thing. The cookies stay in the oven overnight (after the kids tape it shut, sealing the tomb) and are magically hollow in the morning, like the empty tomb! Sorry for such a long comment, but I think your kids would love these! Here’s the link we used: http://www.food.com/recipe/empty-tomb-cookies-220621
Ju Fidélis - I started to think about it and found that my family have no tradition on Easter holliday.
Last year I tried the resurrection cookies (http://catholicicing.com/how-to-make-easter-story-cookies-with-a-printable-recipe/), and it worked very well with my daughter.
I loved the idea of the hidden eggs.
Thanks for sharing so many good ideas.
I have 1 question: how you teach your children the value of the most simple things?
Brandi - For many years now, we have been celebrating Passover. It so beautifully describes Christ’s sacrifice for us. One of the most important elements of the seder is to include the children and make sure that they understand all the symbols. We have found that this helps them grasp the concepts of Jesus’ death and resurrection more deeply than only celebrating his resurrection on easter. To take part in something that God commanded to do for all generations, as well as something that Jesus did to explain his sacrifice, is just amazing. As years go by, we’ve moved farther away from typical easter things (eggs, baskets, etc), and utilized the Bible’s symbols that were already in place. The kids enjoy Passover, they understand Jesus’ sacrifice and know that he is alive! Although it was hard to move away from the family traditions that both my husband and I had growing up, the kids really don’t miss anything. And knowing that they will relate this season to Christ makes me happier than giving them a basket of candy.
able mabel - I’m glad you made your comment about your 85mm still being your favorite lens. I’ve been debating which lens to purchase…
Monica - Beautiful moments! I love to see your family growing i such a great love.
Little One is a cutie. I like the picture when she is walking looking a the sun.
Kelsee - the 85mm is the BEST! I have a crop sensor so I don’t use it as often as I would like but when I get to play on a full frame sensor I can hardly handle the goodness!
Eryn - I really love “Big Brother”. He is just the cutest little thing. Blowing kisses in the group shot? SO cute!
Sweet sweet Little One is just darling in every picture I see of her. Precious girl!
Kate @ Songs Kate Sang - They have to put on a play or skit or sing a song – thanking our hostess for all her hard work before we start the hunt (it gives us time to hide the eggs while they are making it up)!
stacey - love the pic of little one and her great grampa! …this is the first year we made an Easter garden. inspired by ann voskamp’s grace garden, we made our own version. as we planted, we talked about the Easter story and what it means for us…SO much fun, and now i have a cute center piece for our table! definitely our new family tradition! you can see it here if you’re curious : http://lifeasyouliveit.com/blog/index.php/2013/03/27/our-easter-garden/
Jen - We made resurrection rolls for breakfast this year using croissants and marshmallows. It was a tangible activity for my 5 year old to be able to understand how Jesus died but the tomb is empty and our Savior is risen. We’ll keep this tradition going for Easter breakfast. We are just beginning to make our own traditions, and I LOVE the ideas from other comments.
Beautiful pictures of precious memories!
gina - beautiful photos!! We had rain on Sunday so i so didn’t really bring out the camera. My 50mm is my fave lens but i have never used an 85. Did you see this… i think it is right up your alley!! http://www.iammommahearmeroar.net/2013/04/super-simple-star-wars-tees_2.html
Monique - Noel Piper’s “Treasuring God in Our Traditions” has some good ideas (for all holidays) and is worth a read if you haven’t yet.
Unrelated, but I have to ask. You’ve mentioned Lulu and ChaCha before, but where else do you find such great hair accessories for your girls? I intensely dislike the giant gerbera daisy trend, but don’t know where to shop for unique alternatives. Little One and Firecracker always have the cutest headbands and bows!
Melissa - We do a resurrection party for Easter with lots of crafts and food. We just started the tradition this year. I wanted a yearly tradition to celebrate Easter just like our Happy Birthday Jesus party for Christmas.
Susannah - What a precious Easter!
Amy - I love the sistercousins. My sister and I had girls six weeks apart….such an awesome bond:)
kelleyn - Sister cousins look like sisters! Happy Easter!
Elisabeth - I live in the east of Germany and we’ve got the ancient custom of bailing “easter water” at easter Sunday morning. The rules are that you have to go to a running water (we walk to a streamlet in the forrest) and wash yourself (face) with this water before the sun rises. Until you have washed yourself and bottled some water you are not allowed to speak! In the past only the girls were allowed to fetch this water, but our family is liberal so we allow everybody to join us.
Unfortunately we are the last family in the village doing this custom. The region (Upper Lusatia) is very famous for and rich of easter customs like easter riding etc., most of them come from catholic traditions. Our family is not religious so we only bail easter water and do a little easter nest hunt (filled with sweets). But of course we believe in the easter water! It is claimed to makes pretty, wonderfull skin and staying young. And until now it has worked very, very good! 
(Of course we “wash” our cat with it, too!) Moreover it is great to walk to the forrest in the early morning, maybee seeing roe deeds or rabbits, hearing the wind instrument players from the distance and the church bells… This year we had to walk trough 10 cm snow (first time for me – since 19 years now)!
I hope I could explain it to you without too bad english-mistakes…
Thank you for this great blog, I really love it very much!
Greetings from the other end of the world!
the chronic utilitarian - the architecture in your parents’ neighborhood is insane in the membrane.
gorgeous!
that brickwork is the best ever.
Lubka - Hi Ashley…i love to read your blog never mind I live in small european country (Slovakia). We celebrate Eastern in slavic tradition not popular for women at all. Men splash women with water and hit us with whip made from willow branches. And we have to give them money (boys) and chocolate eggs for that. And hang ribbon on that whip.I envy you your egg hunting !!!! The tradition says it will bring us beauty and health. We decorate egg shells in many ways (painting, boiling in water with onion, using wax,…)and hang them on willow branches.
Lucky American women
Staci - wow! Firecrackers looks like her “sister cousin”! They could be real sisters!
Eva - I think it’s so great that you and your sister live so close and that the cousins get to celebrate all the holidays together. My sister lives an hour and a half away, too fare to celebrate everything together. I love seeing everybody together. It warms my heart!
Kelli - The kids love to tell the Easter Story with their resurrection eggs at Easter family dinner. It’s wonderful, because not the whole extended family has Jesus in their heart yet. This year we talked extensively about WHY we hunt for Easter Eggs. No, it’s not because it’s fun. We hunt them as practice for seeking out truth, things that are hard to find or hard to know are worth the effort of seeking them out.