on easter morning, we have a family tradition to start singing, as loud as we can when we very first wake up.
he is risen, he is risen, tell it out with joyful voice!
he has burst his three days prision, let the whole wide earth rejoice!
death is conquered, man is free. christ has won the victory!

easter 2022 was a happy time, celebrating the resurrection of our savior, jesus christ, and renewal, repentance, redemption … and jelly beans!!

the week before easter we dyed our easter eggs…

and then during holy week we had little devotionals to remember the last week of jesus’s life. we also made easter crowns, thanks to what popped up on american amazon when i searched for easter bonnets, a beloved tradition in the uk that we were so sad to not participate in this year. (school children decorate their easter bonnets and schools have big parades to show off all kinds of wild and cool creations.)

i was also sad to miss out on another british easter tradition – hot cross buns! so many yummy varieties in every bakery in london in the springtime, but when i searched “hot cross buns” for my grocery delivery order here in provo, all that came up was hot dog buns – booooo! this is not my year to make hot cross buns from scratch, so on good friday we ended up with pre-made dinner rolls with a cross made (by me) of nutella on top … haha!

we hosted our annual easter egg hunt – this year it was in our front and back yards with neighbourhood kids instead of in a private garden on hyde park in london. ian made an excellent easter bunny and even though it was a super cold day all the kids had a blast.

on easter morning, we belted out our song and then the kids followed their yarn to find their easter baskets (always hard to capture the yarn maze in a picture, but i love this tradition!). everyone was delighted with their spoils, including the twins with their very first easter baskets!

i made this ridiculous creepy-looking pancake bunny … i triiiiied to pull off a cute breakfast haha. we did our traditional symbols-of-christ easter egg hunt in the back yard (ahhh i cannot stop myself from crying every single year when we open. thelast egg and it is empty, like the tomb) and then we went to church!

after attempts at an easter picture of all the kids, of course…! here’s some outtakes – the one at the top of this post was the best we could do!

we went up to my parents’ house in park city for an easter feast with my sisters and their families (my parents were out of town), which was so fun. still so novel to us to be with family on holidays! somehow the only photos i have of that lovely evening celebrating and worshipping together are my attempts at capturing always-on-the-move evie in her easter dress and one my sister saren sent me of sisters/daughters/nieces.

it was a chaotic easter, because every day is chaotic with these four little kids, but a happy easter too. i really believe that he is risen!