Easter Weekend - Passover and Good Friday

I love Easter weekend. It is always filled with so many good things (and I'm not talking about the chocolate overload and seemingly endless sweets). We work pretty hard to come up with and plan the best ways to spend the Easter weekend. Each year things have been tweaked a little bit more to find the balance that best suits our family and our situation for that particular year and how to best facilitate the kids' discovery of the real meaning behind the Easter season. We feel really good about how this year went.

For 30 days beforehand we counted down as we worked our way through The Living Christ. And during the week before we had a small little lesson and activity each night for that particular day in the last week of Christ's life. The things we taught were quite simple, but I am still amazed and how much the children grasp about Easter and I am so looking forward to building on that knowledge throughout the year and again next year.

On Thursday we held a small passover dinner. Last year we did the full seder plate. This year I felt concerned about doing the full Seder plate (as is traditionally done in the Jewish religion). My concern was that it is a very time-honoured and meaningful tradition in the Jewish faith and I was worried that my attempts could not possibly do it justice and that it would be disrespectful. So, at the last moment I made some tweaks and tried to simplify with a focus on the Savior, his atonement, and the sacrament (which, really, is a large portion of the Jewish Seder plate anyway).

We invited our friend, Mark, over for the dinner and everything went quite well.

The Passover Dinner acts, in a large part, as our official welcome of the Easter weekend. We talk about the last Supper, Jesus praying in Gethsemane, and the importance of what he was willing to do for us. We try to keep the night simple, focused and enjoyable.

On Friday we went for our Easter walk to look for symbolism of the Savior and signs of spring. It was quite strange to still need to bundle up to go out for our Easter walk (not exactly typical weather for the end of March). We also stopped by to wish our neighbours a Happy Easter as well.

I love this picture. While Atticus and I are working to give Milayla kisses, she is busy reaching for the chocolate bunnies that our neighbours had just gifted the children with.

 I was a little hesitant that we would see many signs of spring with how prolonged winter has been here this year but the kids did an incredible job catching every little flower bud, bug, colorful eggs or even chalk drawings of wishes for spring time.

And you know the winter here was abnormally long when people are trying to protect their trees from the elements...

 Between thorny bushes, new flowers, dead tree branches and a few other treasures we found plenty of opportunity to talk about the Saviour naturally. It was a great opportunity.

Then it was home to work on colouring our Pysanky eggs and our Easter Story book.

 The kids are so proud of their eggs and book. Both are on display in our home (even still) and I think its going to be a little while longer before the kids are ready for them to be put away with the rest of our Easter decorations. Just as well, I like the extra color that they give our monochromatic color scheme anyhow.

And with that, I must post about the rest of our Easter weekend another time as I need to wake some adorable children from nap :).

Weekend in Holland

We had the lovely opportunity to head to Holland the weekend before Easter. Our trip served a dual purpose - one, to visit the temple and two, to visit the Prins family. Typically we would head to Holland to celebrate Easter, however, this year we felt we needed to stay in Bremen for Easter so we followed that feeling and planned accordingly which put us on a last minute trip to Holland the weekend before Easter. And even though it was last minute, we sure had a lovely time; the temple was incredible, as always, and we had so much fun catching up with the Prins family - egg hunts, kids playing, trips to market, dutch church, talking into the night. It was a nice break from the daily routine. 

Of course, I took a lot of pictures. Yet, somehow, Leah escaped all of them despite the fact that she was certainly there. The Prins family were great hosts and we are excited to visit them again soon.

Due to the volume of pictures, I figured I would let the pictures do the talking for the most part. 

Reading on the way to Holland

First stop was The Hague Temple from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints so that both Jason and I could attend a session. The kids got to spend some extra time with the person who was not in the session.

The kids posing outside the temple. The wind was so cold and very strong - they were such great troopers!

Atticus and Milayla got to go into the visitor waiting area inside the temple and they sure were excited about that. It led to a lot of little questions about when they will get to go inside the temple. I love their questions!

Jason and I took turns doing a temple session while the other person (not doing the temple session) spent time with the kids in the little pedestrian area of Zoetemeer (the small city where The Hague temple is located). Walking those streets and visiting some of the little shops sure brought back a lot of lovely memories.

After the temple we headed to the Prins' home. Man, those kids have grown! The kids picked up right where they left off and went about playing - nonstop.

I love this series of photos with Milayla. She was so excited that she was finally getting a turn riding the little Bakfiets and then watch what happens...

first there was one...

then there were two...

and then there were THREE!

 Oh man. I love that girl. Bless her very patient heart. She is a continual sweetheart. On Saturday morning we headed downtown to market (at the Birthday Boy's request, Jason, - we headed down to reminisce and let Jason indulge in some market treats).  The kids loved the bus ride.

And Atticus and Evia were back to their little dynamic duo. 

Milayla, who did not sleep well the night before (new bed + new room = very little sleep for most everyone..), was pretty quick to fall asleep in her little wind-protected bubble.

I love downtown Leiden!

Jason got his fill of Stroopwaffel, pomme frittes, and raw Herring. The raw Herring thing is something I will never understand - I'm sure of it. Atticus even gave it a try - and LIKED it! At least Atticus showed a little bit of hesitancy before he went in for seconds.

 Then the kids played the afternoon away. Well, actually, Atticus napped (which surprised us) and Milayla (who slept the whole morning) loved getting to play with Evia. Milayla may look to be playing a little strange in this photo, but these two sure had a big case of the giggles.

 Then we headed out for an Easter egg hunt. Milayla had fun trying to put her bunny ears on (the bunny ears are still making repeated appearances around here!)

I handed the camera over to Jason after I took the first couple shots so that I could sneak into some of the photos as well.

 And the kids wasted no time, once we got inside, opening their eggs to check out what was inside. Thankfully, Leah did a really good job of picking small candies so there were no sugar-overloads.

 Then there was more visiting. Good meals. More chatting. And lots of praying that a certain little girl would sleep better that night (which she did!). We headed to church Sunday morning and loved catching up with everyone there. It worked out that we were able to stay long enough after to visit with some people from our old branch that also meets in the building - what a treat that was! It was a big reminder to us that we need to make another trip back and be more dutiful in setting times to meet with everyone and catch up. We know a lot of wonderful people in Leiden :).

 And, all too soon, it was time to load into the car and head for home. See those smiles down there? Those are the smiles of two tired children who have absolutely no intention of falling asleep on the way home. It worked out just fine though, because they danced, sang and conducted to The Lamb of God cd (from Rob Gardner) for a good portion of the journey anyhow.

 Before we officially hit the road we stopped by our old apartment to see if anything had changed. It hadn't. Except that our old apartment is for sale. The building is still the same. The view is still incredible. The windmill is still as quaint as ever. And the neighbours are as lovely as ever. As we were driving by two of our neighbours happened to be arriving home and we ended up having a great conversation with them. We sure were blessed with great neighbours!

And with that it was time to officially head for the high way. It was hard to resist the urge to shed a few tears about leaving Leiden again. We love that city and the people who live there. Our brief weekend there was so nice and relaxed, everything was so familiar and it felt like we had never left. but despite our love for Holland we know that we are where we are supposed to be right now and that was a hard realization for me to remember (and yes, I do mean remember because it was something we knew waaaaayyyyy back when we first made the decision to move to Bremen). It was certainly a reminder that I need to be more present in the place that we live now, work harder to build relationships and do more to serve. Not to mention all the things on my list of stuff to take the kids on adventures to explore :). Bremen has been a hard city for me to learn to love, but it has it's own unique charm that can be quite endearing and I am determined to love it for all it's quirks and charm because I am sure the day will come, all too soon, where it will be time to say goodbye and I am certain I will miss this city and, most importantly, the people who live here (because we have come to know some awesome people here!). Of course, I have no idea when/if that day will come, but I will be keeping that prospect in mind as I put forth the effort to be present, to serve, and to enjoy the moment of living here.

POST EDIT:::

Just realized I missed adding this comical photo of us trying to get a picture of all four kids on the couch as we were heading out the door for church. Poor Aeonia was feeling sick and just happy to be hanging out in her pyjamas. And Milayla was falling over in her snowsuit. We took a few photos and this was the only one we managed to get without any blurry children. Sure hope we can get these kids all together many more times to come.