Easter Cookie Day

Happy Easter! We had a very uneventful Easter day, which was just what we needed! A few days before Easter though, I had the most wonderful afternoon with a few teenage girls from the neighborhood. These twins live a few houses down from us and come from a very broken home. It is such a joy to have them over the house, spend time with them, and pour into their lives. And...the best part...
Another teenage girl moved in across the street from them! I invited her over too and the twins brought their little brother.

We've baked lots of different things together, but not cut out cookies (mostly because now I didn't have a good recipe until now! :) Since cookies aren't part of Brazilian culture, they had never done this before but I knew they would love it! We mostly used Easter shapes...but why not gingerbread men and women too? They kept thinking of Shrek, since that was the only context they had ever seen a cut out cookie man before!

Lots of fun...and LOTS of mess! Focusing on being with the girls and ignoring the tidal wave of icing around the kitchen :)

It has been so much fun to build a friendship with these girls

and my favorite part of the day was getting to very clearly share the Easter story with them. I asked them if they knew what Easter was really about, and since they didn't know, I told them using a little wooden Easter story telling set that Jeyson's uncle makes. At the end you put Jesus in the tomb and cover the hole. Then, there are magnets on the back of the "rock" piece and magnets of Jesus's nails so when you pick up the lid to the tomb, Jesus seems to disappear! So creative and the story really held their attention. The best part was talking about WHY Jesus had to die and the opportunity it give us.

I was so thankful for the opportunity and pray I'll have many more!

PS - Everything is much smaller around here...notice the size of our stove behind us. What you see is the whole width of it!