"For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God
that brings salvation to everyone who believes."
-Romans 1:16
I'm not sure what hats have to do with Easter, but each year, schools hold a 'parade' at this time, and the children are encouraged to make an Easter themed hat to wear, or something to dress up in, or to bring a book about Easter to show the school. I thought I'd share the things we've made for both last year's and this year's Easter Hat Parades.
I may be one of those 'slack' parents who don't really get too involved in things like this, OR spend enormous amounts of money or time on putting bunnies, chickens, and chocolates on hats - because that's just not what Easter is about to us... Easter is about Jesus dying on the cross to save humanity*.
I was incredibly proud of my children for what they decided to make last year (without any input from me) to wear to the parade at their school (which they'd only been going to for about 6 months at the time). So, knowing we needed hats to start off with, I went to a discount shop and bought them each a plain off-white-ish hat.
Total cost: $5 - $10. Can't remember exactly!
It was then up to them to decorate it with whatever they could find from home... I was not against anything to do with bunnies or eggs, if that was what they wished to go on the hat, as I wanted them to be creative for themselves... They told me what they wanted to do, and I was amazed at their ideas. I printed out pictures that they had asked for, and from our craft box, they found coloured paddle pop sticks and pipe cleaners to make the things they wanted on their Easter hats...
This is what they created!**
They each had the true meaning of Easter on their hats - 3 crosses, and pipe cleaner people to represent the people who died on those crosses, with the middle one being Jesus. They had both written notes that I stapled to their hats, which read "Jesus is Alive" on one, and "Jesus is raised from the dead" on the other. My daughter who was 7 at the time requested flowers to go around the shade of the hat, because 'what Jesus did for us was a beautiful thing to do, and flowers are also beautiful'.
I was so proud of their enthusiasm to display the hats they'd created.
This year, my son did not wish to create anything new, and so wore the same hat from last year (which had been sitting at the top of his wardrobe since he'd worn it at the previous parade.
My daughter, however, wanted to decorate a basket we'd found in the shed to carry around for the parade (decided on the evening before the parade!)... So we had to get creative!
With the basket, some water balloons I'd found earlier that day, and a permanent marker, we attempted to imitate a basket full of Easter eggs. She told me what patterns she wanted me to draw on them, the balloon colours she liked, and when to stop. She'd also found a pair of bunny ears to wear on her head (that she was given probably when she was about 3 years old).
Total cost: $0.
When I picked them up from school that day, I had to tell them that I didn't get any chocolate Easter eggs for their teachers (which they'd asked me to get - but I know that teachers get enormous amounts of chocolate at this time of year, but I didn't get my act together quickly enough to make something for them). But again, I was proud of their responses! Along with reassuring me that I'd made the right decision, Ben had been given some Easter eggs (that he got from his friends), to his teachers, and Tamara had given away her water balloon Easter eggs to her friends and teachers.
Which was another relief for me - because there will be plenty of chocolate given and consumed over the weekend I'm sure!
They had both had a great last day of school for the week, and I am ever so proud that these two children (who sometimes fight with each other or their little brother, refuse to eat their food, don't go to sleep on time, battle with me about cleaning their rooms, and occasionally argue with our authority)... Are mine!
*My next post will be more about that, but this one is about our Easter hat parade creations :)
** They look so little in this photo, even though it was taken only a year ago.
No comments:
Post a Comment