Life in Pictures: Easter

Life in Pictures is a photographic journal of things we’ve been doing lately.

At the start of Easter week, I had no plan for how our family would celebrate, beyond hosting a lunch for some of our church family on Easter Sunday, and some new books about the Easter true story which I had bought a few weeks back and stashed away.

And I felt a little paralysed by not being prepared.

The true story of Easter is so weighty, so deep, so important – and I didn’t feel ready to tell it.

I thought I needed a fancy plan, bells and whistles, to bring the story to life in our home, and to counteract the pervasiveness of chocolate and bunnies.

Even though we know and trust in the truths of Easter all year round, it is a joy to join other Christians during Easter week to remember – specifically and purposefully – this true story.

Yet somehow, Easter seems more difficult to frame than Christmas. At Christmas, there is advent, the time of waiting, and it climaxes with a birth, God breaking into this world. Easter ends with another kind of birth, but there is a death to get through first. A death that can’t be overlooked because it’s the source of life.

I think part of my paralysis was not knowing how to approach the subject of Easter with my children, because the Christian story of Easter is so very far removed from the world’s version.

And also, I had taken the joy out of the celebration by thinking I needed to perform.

I scoured the internet for ideas, and I used some of them.

But I discovered, as the week went on, that all I really needed was a willingness to share with my children.

Whenever I read one of the gospel accounts of Jesus’ death and resurrection, I get a lump in my throat and, often, tears in my eyes. After the darkness, comes this light-filled, earth-shattering, everything-changing moment. And this joy, this breaking open of everything to show us the One who sets us free, was what I wanted them to grasp in their hearts. It is freedom, and joy, and light.

In the end, our Easter week involved reading lots of books, including making our way through the Easter story in our children’s Bible, making things, and enjoying God’s beautiful creation.

We made a Holy Week calendar (inspired by The Domestic Notebook). Each day, we took a small part of the Easter story and made a poster with a simple craft, starting with Palm Sunday and working through Jesus turning over tables in the temple, Jesus teaching in the temple, Jesus washing his disciples’ feet, the last supper, the cross, the tomb, and the resurrection. Sophie loved doing a daily craft; in fact, she wanted to dive right in and do all the days at once! I had to explain that we would take our time over the week to reflect on this true story of true stories.

On Thursday, we shared a last supper meal together. We made hot cross buns on Good Friday. I made a challah loaf on Easter Saturday and we shared it to remember that Jesus’s broken body was in the tomb.

There were plenty of outdoors adventures too. The bluebells at Leigh Woods were stunning.

There are more ideas and resources for celebrating the true Easter story with children on my Easter Pinterest page. I recommend Faith at Home for some lovely ideas about building Easter family traditions. 

Blaise Castle Estate

One of the best things about living in Bristol is that there are so many lovely places to visit entirely free. Blaise Castle is one such place and is one of our favourite spots to spend time at weekends. Sophie loves it there and often requests to go to ‘Blaise park’! It’s just a 10-minute drive from our home in north-west Bristol, is open every day, and is totally free to visit.

We love Blaise because it has loads of open space (650 acres to be more specific), lovely woodland walks (there are several different suggested circuits and a lot of them are pushchair-friendly, though we also like to take Matthew in the sling and do the more adventurous routes!), areas to run and play games, gorgeous trees, paths for scooting (though it can get really busy at weekends which makes scooting more perilous), a stream to paddle and wade in, two huge play areas for younger and older children, a castle (open on certain days of the year), a mansion house which is home to a museum, and, of utmost importance, a cafe which serves decent coffee.

In terms of facilities Blaise also scores highly, with free parking, toilets with baby changing area, and picnic areas. There are also activities and events on throughout the year. We once saw some kind of very high-energy group (I mean, about 500 people) exercise going on, and another time there was a cross-country run.

The only downsides we’ve noted are that it does get exceptionally busy at weekends on dry days, so it can be difficult getting a parking spot (although recently we’ve noticed that an overflow carpark on one of the fields has been operating), and the lunch food in the cafe is mainly or wholly of the junk variety. They do also serve ice-creams, though, and there is often an ice-cream van outside the play area too which I am sure makes an absolute fortune on summer weekends!

We think Blaise is absolutely brilliant.

Other wonderful, free places we have visited in and around Bristol include Leigh Woods, Ashton Court, Bristol Museum and Art Gallery, M Shed, Lawrence Weston Community Farm, and Kingsweston House. There are loads more ideas online (such as these on Visit Bristol).

The views expressed in this review post are entirely my own. I have not been sponsored or paid to write this review.

Bristol eateries

Other than the Suspension Bridge, Balloon Fiesta, and being a hub for the 19th-century slave trade, what is Bristol famous for? Food. Glorious food.

I love food, and I am truly happy to be living in a city renowned for it. However, since moving here a year ago with two small children and a husband with a busy-busy life as a junior academic, our opportunities for exploring Bristol’s food scene have been, sadly, somewhat limited.

We don’t eat out that often, as I mentioned in my post about tips for family life on a single income. Over the years I have also become increasingly fussy about eating out. As a student, a £5 deal in a noodle bar was perfectly acceptable; now, not so much. When I went to university I could barely cook at all, whereas now I’m pretty adventurous and adept in the kitchen. If I go out for a meal and leave thinking, ‘I could have made this at home’, I feel disappointed. (This doesn’t apply to quick dinners out with the kids in tow. In those circumstances, anything will do as long as it’s not overpriced, reasonably healthy, and no-one tuts at my children.)

The upshot of this is that chain restaurants are normally a no-go except when looking for a quick fix meal for us and the kids. For meals out with just me and Nick (this happens once in a blue moon, I might add), it has to be something a bit different, quirky, special, or just amazingly well cooked. So I’ve always got my ear to the ground for places we could explore and try out. And I’ve come up with a little shortlist.

The Eateries Shortlist

• Venue 35 – Local to us and rumoured to be kid-friendly and not overpriced.
• The White Lion – pub in Westbury-on-Trym, apparently does really good Sunday lunches.
• Bishopston Supper Club – Supper clubs have been springing up all over, which I think is lovely and really exciting. I would love to go and have dinner with a bunch of total strangers. I love meeting new people and hearing about their lives. Bishopston Supper Club meets monthly and at the earliest opportunity (i.e. babysitters in place, funds available, and children not in a screamy stage), we will go!
• Casa Mia – Westbury-on-Trym’s own Michelin-starred restaurant. Sadly one of the co-owners recently died after battling cancer, and there is an impending move to the city centre too, so I’m not sure whether this one will happen. Not to mention the cost. £££.
• Spitfire – basically it’s all about the meat. Husband will love this one.
• Prego / Manna – Sister restaurants serving pizza and tapas respectively.
• Nomu – Japanese food. Need I say more?
• The Cowshed – Again, loads of meat. Meat.
• The Ox – Meat. Meat. Meat.
• Wahaca – Mexican – the trouble is that we have been spoilt for Mexican by the cheap but delicious burritos at The Mission.
• The Lido – Husband has been there already. No fair.
• Rosemarino – Italian, maybe better than Zizzi’s?

I’m all ears for other suggestions!