Puzzles and Eggs

Luke and Liam working on a puzzle

They did this same puzzle about three days in a row

Finished!!

I think I have mentioned it a few times recently, but we are growing very tired of winter around here.  Now that the time has changed and there is more daylight, it sure seems we should be playing outside.  There are a few issues with this idea: 1) we still have at least a foot of snow on the ground in most areas and 2) the temps still have not consistently made it about a high of 30 degrees.  Bummer.  It was quite a bit warmer by this time last year. 

One of the things we have done to fill our time this winter is puzzles. Luke and Liam, particularly, love to work puzzles and they have really gotten a lot better over the winter. For the first time, they are working an entire 100 piece puzzle without any assistance. It has been a good and challenging way to occupy time when we cannot play outside. It has also been a fun thing to do while Aiden naps in the afternoon since Aiden's attention span still isn't quite long enough for 100 piece puzzles. Luke and Liam pretty much gave up their afternoon nap when they turned five, but we still try to have a "rest time" where we do more quiet things and the puzzles have helped.

We also started doing our Resurrection Eggs for Easter this week.  I purchased these last year (see blog in April 2012) and they were a big hit with the boys.  The story of Easter with the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus is definitely not an easy one to explain to 5 and 3 year olds.  They seem to focus on the "bad guys" in the story along with the part where Jesus was hung on the cross and he was bleeding.  There were lots of questions about the blood, of course.  We talked about the definition of sin and how Jesus died on the cross to save us from our sins.  Later in the day, I heard Luke tell Aiden that he sinned because he took a toy away from Luke's hands.  Aiden started screaming and Liam told him he was being a bad guy "like Judas."  So, at least they were listening to the story of Easter.   Each egg contains an important element of the Easter story (praying hands, passover cup, silver coins, crown of thorns, etc...).  The boys get to open the eggs and then we talk about what the object means as we go through the story of Easter. 

Shaking the eggs to try and figure out what is inside

Everyone gets very excited to get their eggs and open them

Aiden is holding a leather whip similar to what was used to beat Jesus before he was hung on the cross.

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