French Toast Easter Bake with Free Printables #Hallelujah (created by My Computer is my Canvas)

This week I have a great Easter Breakfast recipe to share with you, courtesy of My Computer is my Canvas!   This looks super YUMMY and I can’t wait to make it with my kiddos next Sunday!

In an effort to use a basket full of fresh backyard eggs, Colette from My Computer is My Canvas started experimenting with a French Toast Bake Recipe that has quickly become a family favorite. Plus, with Easter just around the corner and the #HALLELUJAH Initiative gaining steam, she recently related each of the ingredients to the Savior; making this recipe not only a great Easter-Eve Lesson, but also a delicious Easter Morning Breakfast Tradition!

To get started, print off the Scripture Scavenger Hunt PDF and let your kids dive into the New Testament to learn more about the Savior as they fill in the blanks to complete the recipe! A couple of the scripture clues are a tiny bit tricky, so be sure to use Page 2 to find extra clues.

Next, it’s time to get baking!! After many attempts with this recipe (and fails) – Colette finally identified the perfect bread for her French Toast Bake... bagels! They are soft AND dense which allows them to effectively soak up the egg mixture and maintain their shape for soggy-free baking. A fun twist to this might be Cinnamon

Swirl bagels or even gluten-free ones for those intolerant.

From there... just follow the recipe! Cut bagels into 1⁄2” cubes, make and beat the egg mixture, then pour over the bread.

Be sure to recruit your kids to help you, they’ll have fun making the recipe with the clues they found! Colette likes to mix the cubes and egg mixture in separate bowl to make sure the bread gets well coated – in fact, for that step, she relates how the tempest was raging and the Savior calmed the storm... so get those cubes tossing and turning like a ship at sea! As noted in the image above, this is a “make ahead” recipe and it should be refrigerated overnight. This allows extra time for the bread to adequately soak up the egg mixture. Then, before baking, prepare a brown sugar crumble and “spread” it across the top, just like the Palm Branches were spread for the Savior as he entered Jerusalem! (Crumble recipe included on the cards.)

Colette has included lots of printables for us... recipe cards in 3 sizes + an easy to print PDF to do the Scripture Scavenger Hunt with our families!

The final step? Take a picture of your family making it, baking it or eating it and share it on Social Media with the #HALLELUJAH! If your on Instagram tag @colette_mycanvas and @Cgroveacademy so we can see you having fun!

Visit Colette at My Computer is My Canvas, she has lots more great printables!

Easter Advent FREE Printables (Created by @SugarBeeCrafts) #HALLELUJAH

Hi Everyone !  I’ve got another great Easter themed printable for you this week!. I’m so excited to be able to share this inspirational holiday posts to help your family celebrate this amazing Easter season and our Savior, Jesus Christ.

I want my kiddos to get a deeper understanding of the holiday, and so I am SO excited to try out the new Easter Week Activity Advent from Sugar Bee Crafts. 

It is an advent (because my kiddos LOVE advents and opening something each day in anticipation) of activities to do the week leading up to Easter. Everything you'll need in way of cute printables and outlined activities has already been prepared ­ it doesn't get much easier than that.  

Your biggest preparation will be putting together the eggs. I used sticker numbers, but a sharpie marker will work just as well. You will need 8 eggs, numbered 1­8. You will open them in reverse order, starting with egg #8. We simply used a stick from our yard and tied the eggs to it with twine. Most plastic eggs have holes in the top ­ I used a large needle to get the twine threaded through those holes.  

Activities range from journaling as a family to watching an online video to baking treats and delivering them to a neighbor. It is focused on learning more about Jesus and His teachings and the events that led up to Easter Sunday.

You can find all the materials in the FREE printables EASTER WEEK ACTIVITIES ADVENT found HERE. Simply print out the advent, cut the strips apart, fold them up and put them in the coordinating numbered eggs. There are also cute quote printables, journaling pages, and more.

PS, for the treat activity, you can find detailed instructions as a printable, and then photo step-by-step HERE: Resurrection Rolls   I hope you look forward to this coming Easter Week as much as my family and I are ­ I can't wait!! I know that we will be able to more fully understand Easter and gain a deeper love for it and Christ as we do.

As we go through our activities, I will be sharing our celebrations on my social media channels and using the hashtag #Hallelujah so you can follow along with others as well. Tag @SugarBeeCrafts and @CGroveAcademy so we can see how you use these freebies with your family and celebrate with you!

I am going to have a slightly different set up, so be sure to follow me on Instagram so you can see it!!  Here is a sneak peek of my advent:

I finished my advent:

I drew on the envelopes with my Cricut Explore One and then put some washi tape on the bottom.  I used pictures of Jesus from this photo pack, a few also came from this pack.  This photo pack would also be a great option!

I made the frame at a craft day at church back in November.  I used it for Christmas cards in December/January, I hung paper hearts in February and had shamrocks hanging previous to this!  It’s a great addition to my mantle!  You can get that FREE banner too! 

“HE LIVES” FREE PRINTABLE EASTER DECOR (Created by @PagingSupermom) #HALLELUJAH

This is my first post in a series of #HALLELUJAH posts this month in celebration of Easter and Jesus Christ (the true meaning of the season). 

Easter is such a special holiday for my family, and today I wanted to share a little bit about why I love Easter, but also I have rounded up some fabulous resources to help make your Easter celebration beautiful, meaningful and totally easy to pull off!

Here is a past post I made with ideas we implemented in the past for a Christ Centered Easter. 

Another incredibly easy way to bring that Easter Spirit to life in your home is to create this “He Lives” banner. Using this free printable template created by PagingSupermom.com you can create this banner in a snap.

TO MAKE:

All you need are six pieces of white cardstock, scissors, twine or ribbon, and a printer. Print, cut and string the pennants then hang it on your mantle or over a window to enjoy.

Paging Supermom also created a whole packet of coordinating decor for your Easter table. These pieces would also be perfect to dress up your Easter brunch or dinner table or even use them for an egg decorating party or egg hunt. The templates include instructions, and most of the pieces are multi-purpose so they’ll be easy to incorporate with your family’s traditions.

My favorite part are these Scripture Strips that can be used as napkin rings (or as labels on water bottles). Have everyone take turns reading their scriptures out loud to tell the Easter Story. There are 12 scriptures in all, and the same scriptures are also on round scripture tags. If you will be having less than 12 people, you can use these round tags to supplement by tying the additional scriptures onto glasses or flatware. You could also put the Scripture tags inside of the eggs in your Easter hunt or tie them onto items in your children’s Easter baskets and have the kids look them up!

Check out this video if you want more Easter inspiration and a closer look at Paging Supermom’s beautiful Easter table. I hope these ideas will inspire you to create a beautiful and inspirational Easter celebration for your family this year. If you share photos of your festivities, use the tag #Hallelujah. Happy Easter!

You can download these printables HERE, They are FREE for NON-COMMERCIAL USE.

I want to thank Paging Supermom for sharing these wonderful printables and allowing me to share them with you!

Please check back each week for more #HALLELUJAH

Please be sure to share photos of your festivities with tag #Hallelujah and @PagingSupermom  and @CGroveAcademy so we can check them out!

Tools & Sources

2-inch Circle Punch

Mini Hole Punch

The BEST Scissors

4-inch Lollipop Sticks

White/Gold Twine

Napkin Fabric JoAnn - Quilter’s Showcase in Peach Polka Dot (SKU 14691364)

Gold Binder Clips

Mini Clothespins

White Square Dishes

Gold Flatware (similar to shown)

Lemonade Bottles

White & Gold Globe

19-inch Christus Statue

Book Review: The Best Easter Egg Hung Ever by Dawn Casey

Best Easter Egg Hunt Ever! by Dawn Casey is a beautifully illustrated picture book for kids for Easter!  Little Rabbit is on the hunt for a very special Easter egg, which she eventually find!  I don’t want to give it away….but your kids will love this sweet, sweet story! 

It also has a great moral of helping others and it’s what on the inside that counts!

It’s filled with all sorts of beautifully drawn animals and signs of spring!  It would make a great Easter Basket surprise this Easter!

Disclaimer:  I received this book free from Parragon Publishing in exchange for my honest review.  I was not required to give an honest review, nor was I compensated in any other way.  All opinions I have expressed are my own or those of my family.  I am disclosing this in accordance with FTC Regulations.  This post contains affiliate links.

Easter Ideas

I can not believe that Easter is almost here!  Thought I would resurrect some of last years posts on Easter for those that are looking for ideas!

Egg Math -  of course this post was geared towards Dinosaur Eggs, but we used Easter Eggs, so it could quite easily be an Easter activity!

See the post HERE

Preschool and Tot workboxes – Lots of easy trays for your little ones found at this POST (ages 15mos-5yo).

Want some more Christ centered activities?  Check out this post with a photo timeline and resurrection rolls

Christ Centered Easter

 First off we will be using this book as a family this week, to bring the true meaning of Easter into our home. I also purchased a Resurrection Easter Eggs Kit from Oriental Trading, as well as a Jesus’ Ascension Craft Kit.

I just wanted to share a couple more things from our Easter Week, taken from the Book A Christ Centered Easter. 
We hung a timeline of the last week of Christ’s Life (Passover Week)

Then on Saturday night we made Resurrection Rolls -

I found an easy recipe on this blog using crescent rolls.  We did the same thing, but I used homemade bread dough…after we made them, I let them sit to rise,  then baked them in the morning!   I used Pampered Chef’s Sweet Cinnamon Sprinkle for the top!

The blog I linked also has several other really great Easter activities, including Easter Story Cookies, which we also made (but I forgot to take a picture of).

To see what else we did on Easter and for a link to the book I mentioned that we used see my previous post – Easter Week

Spring/Easter Wreath

I found the cutest wreath over on pinterest, and decided to give it a try with a little of my own personal flare…
and here is my final result -

I used the foam circle that I had bought for our lighthouse unit, then covered it in some lime green feathered yarn (50yds found for $2.50 at Wal-Mart, but I didn’t use it all), the flowers were cut from a ream of ribbon that alternated pink and green flowers ($4.47for 4ft). Then I added the Easter eggs that I had on hand from egg hunts last year, and the ribbon to hang it came from my scrapbooking stash.  I am really happy with the results!

Easter Week - Preschool Workboxes

In Z’s workboxes this week- (35mos)

Sharpening an Easter Pencil

Easter Stamps

Open/Close/Sort activity using Easter erasers and plastic eggs

E is for Easter Egg – Egg shaped magna doodle and Ee magnets

Sorting Easter themed brads (eggs, carrots, chicks, rabbits)

E box- Fridge Phonics, Letter E box and Sandpaper letters Ee

How many Jelly Beans?  The Jelly Bean jar is from the Easter Symbols pack at 2TeachingMommies, I have it in a coversheet, with a magnet page, and magnet numbers.

Prewriting practice, also from 2TeachingMommies

Gel Clings to use with the lightbox

We also have Ee is for Egg do-a-dot sheet, and magnet page printed from DLTK’s

For the littlest tot – (16mos)

He’ll have fun with the gel clings too; I also made up an Easter Basket sensory bin and a Easter themed book bin

You can find 4 of these 6 books at my Usborne Books website, 3 of which are touchy feely books, they are a great sensory experience and my kids LOVE them.  This is my duck also plays duck sounds!

Sensory bin – Easter grass, little fuzzy chick, bunny in an egg and some empty eggs, (not pictured: an egg shaker which I added as an afterthought as I was typing this up!) 

Linking up with these great blogs:
Tot School
Montessori Monday
Teach Me Tuesday
Link & Learn
Preschool Corner
The Sunday Showcase
What my Child is Reading