Easter Tradition - He Took Our Sins

I'm giddy when I find a simple, but meaningful way to teach the girls about the love of Christ, so when I saw this He Took Our Sins - Carnation Experiment I was thrilled.

To create your own all you need is:

White Carnations (Jesus the pure sacrifice)

Red food dye (our sin) About 20 drops

water and a vase.

Sitting around the table after dinner we each took turns adding drops (about 20 total) of red dye into the water and talking about ways that we sin and how none of us are perfect. Then we each trimmed our own white carnation, placing it into the vase. We added three more white carnations each day so that we had varying shades of pink. We placed the first few flowers in on Monday and by Saturday, they were tipped beautifully with red.

This simple activity lead to a meaningful discussion about the beauty of Easter and the sacrifice Jesus made because of LOVE. It's important to me that the girls know that our faith is based in scripture, so I shared these scriptures with them: 1 Peter 2:24, Isaiah 53:5 and

2 Corinthians 5:21

"God made him who had no sin to be sin for us,

so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." 

Thanks be to God! Happy Easter!

Acts of Kindness {A New Christmas Tradition}

We are trying something new this Christmas season. A kindness project that I hope will develop into a meaningful tradition. Inspired by the book The Last Straw by Paula Palangi, I've challenged my little family to show secret acts of kindness to another family member each week leading up to Christmas.

Monday evening we drew names and for the coming week we'll each show acts of kindness. When we do, we get to place a piece of straw into baby Jesus' cradle. The goal is to create a soft bed for baby Jesus to sleep on Christmas eve.

The idea was met with enthusiasm and everyone has already shown loving acts of kindness. I'm excited to cultivate more love in our family with this simple tradition.

Simple Pumpkin Tic-Tac-Toe

This simple activity was a BIG hit at our annual Pumpkin Carving Party and best of all it was very simple to put together. All you need is 10 miniature pumpkins (5 white and 5 orange) and orange duck tape. This is sure to become a family tradition. 

Easter Tradition - Family Foot Washing

We began a new Easter tradition this year: A Family Foot Washing.

As the girls get older the more I realize the importance of sharing with them the beauty of Easter that lies beyond the eggs and bunnies. I want them to see the beauty of God's love for them in Jesus. What better than the story of Jesus washing his disciples feet the night he was betrayed?

We began the evening by reading "The Servant King" from the Jesus Storybook Bible.

"One by one, Jesus washed everyone's feet. 'I am doing this because I love you.' Jesus explained.

'Do this for each other.'"

So we did.

To help things go smoothly I took two cups. On one I wrote "Dirty Feet" and on the other I wrote "Washer." I placed a piece of paper with each of our names into both cups. Then we drew one name from each cup and each person had the chance to wash and be washed. It was a simple foot tub with warm water and essential oils with a towel nearby for drying.

As we washed each others feet we said these words:

"Like Jesus, we will offer humble, joyful, loving service."

There was such a beautiful and tender intimacy between all of us. I guess it was due to the focused attention to the person being served and the nature of lovingly washing someones' feet.

The girls LOVED it. 

We closed with this prayer:

O Jesus, in this Holy Week you prayed

that we would love one another

as you have loved us.

Tonight we have tried to practice what you have taught us!

Let the love, joy and humility

we have known here with our family

continue to bless us,

and let us share that blessing with world

you love and gave your life for.

May the peace we feel together in this place

Point us toward the hope of Easter.

Resurrection Garden

Spring! New life. Fresh beginnings.

We created a Resurrection Garden as a reminder of these gifts.

Waiting for Easter and waiting for this to sprout. 

Reverse Easter Egg Hunting

Today we tried Reverse Easter Egg Hunting. The idea is that instead of searching for treat filled eggs, you send the kids out to search to goodies to fill their eggs with. I chose colors as our theme today and added a slip of paper to each egg with instructions to "Fill with something (insert color name here)." I gave each girl five eggs.

Logistically it was better to have the eggs inside the house in a bowl marked with their initials. They chose one egg at a time and went out to fill it. Once complete, they came in for another egg until they had a bucket filled with eggs containing colorful pieces of nature.

This was a great activity for Marin and Adalyn. Coralee wasn't interested in specific instructions, but had a great time opening and closing her eggs and following her sisters around attempting to fill her eggs with treasures from our yard.

This is something we'll do again. I think I'll try other attributes too! "Fill with something heavy," or "fill with something cold." Even "fill with live bugs" could be fun! Watch out rolly pollies.

Toilet Paper Roll Bunnies

This girl house can churn out empty toilet paper rolls, so I'm always on the look out for ways to turn them into fun activities. These bunnies were a big hit and simple to create.

What you need to make one bunny:

1 and 1/2 toilet paper rolls

A pair of googly eyes

Paint

Black marker

Hot glue gun

A cotton ball

I started by letting the girls paint their rolls. You'll need one single roll for the body, and then we cut another roll into fourths to create the ears for two bunnies.

Once the paint has dried. Attach the eyes and cotton ball tail using hot glue. You'll fold the other half roll in half and cut into two pieces to create the ears. We hot glued these into place and then reenacted Beatrix Potters' "The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies" but any good bunny story will do.

Happy Spring!

Pumpkin Carving Party 2013 {The Invitation}

We are celebrating 10 years of pumpkin carving this year. Above is the invitation design. The painting was done by my brother-in-law Kevin. I love the painting because it reminds me of the very first year when we had a pumpkin pinata. The colors in the sky are so inviting with the contrasting, spooky black silhouette in the foreground.

In honor of celebrating 10 years we wanted to do something different, so we asked guests to help us GIVE to friends of ours who are adopting a baby. This year instead of asking guests to bring their pumpkins we bought 50 pumpkins (at wholesale) and asked guests to buy them from us for $10 each. We called it Pumpkins with Purpose and it was a big hit. By doing this we were able to give more and were able to bless our friends with a generous financial blessing. That made celebrating 10 years so much sweeter.

Pumpkins With Purpose

Psalm 68:5–6

“Father to the fatherless, defender of widows—this is God,

whose dwelling is holy. God places the lonely in families;

he sets the prisoners free and gives them joy.”

Easter 2013

 Maintained our Easter tradition of coloring eggs with Hannah.

As a gift for Easter I made the girls these stick horses. I purchased the pattern from Rustic Horseshoe on Etsy. The shop owner was so very helpful and also provided a kit complete with everything I need to make the horses. 

 Easter morning. Checking out their goodies.

 Egg hunt at Granny's house.

 Little A wasn't interested in smiling for the camera.

 Celebrated Bunny's birthday. Another Easter tradition.

Valentines Day 2013

See these two? What a pair! The best of friends and sometimes the worst of enemies. It really is my hope that they'll be close for the rest of their lives. Maybe not always friends, but comfortable and loving toward each other. There is nothing sweeter than the love and support of a sister. 

Above are the heart puppets we made the week leading up to Valentine's Day. Below is what our table looks like OFTEN. Always covered in paper and stickers. My girls love nothing more than to create and Valentine's Day is the perfect holiday for fun paper crafts.

Below is a quick snap shot of the breakfast room set up their Daddy created for his girls. He's loving and thoughtful, everyday, but especially on Valentine's Day. His love for them, makes me love him even more.

Children's Christmas Books

I was so excited to start a new Christmas tradition with the girls! Reading one Christmas story every night leading up to Christmas. Here is a sampling of those we read and enjoyed. 

A Firefighter's Night Before Christmas by Kimbra Cutlip
My girls love this book because it says "firefighter." They love all things firefighter, especially Daddy. Any firefighter family would enjoy the humor and holiday spin of this story.

Room for a Little One by Martin Waddell
Beautiful illustrations. Sweet captivating story of hospitality and love. Held Adalyn's (2 yrs old) attention.

The Story of Holly & Ivy by Rumer Godden
This sweet story was a tad too long for one evening, so we broke it up into two readings. Marin enjoyed this magical story about making wishes. It did NOT hold Adalyn's attention. Lovely illustrations.

The Wild Christmas Reindeer by Jan Brett
A story that causes self examination. Good lesson in kindness.

The First Night by B.G. Hennessy
This simple book held Coralee's (11 month old) attention. Smooth words, paired with pleasant illustrations. 

Hand Print Tree Christmas Cards

This was our Christmas card for 2012 and what FUN we had creating it! One afternoon we skipped naps to make hand print Christmas trees and another afternoon we splattered a canvas in red and green paint taking pictures with reindeer antlers. That canvas hung on the wall of our family room for a week afterward (ha), but it was worth the effort.

Getting a shot of all three girls at once is an almost impossible feat, so we opted for individual shots of them displaying their age in paint covered fingers. Baby Coralee often holds out her pointer finger as a greeting. We call it her "ET Phone Home" and I was really hoping that she would cooperate, but I ended up having to just chose a photo showing just how beautiful she is (grin).

We did have ONE almost winner photo with all three girls. What's even more funny is to imagine the crazy, silly, chaos happening behind the camera to get these beautiful smiles.

Painting or Naps?

I posted this photo on Facebook with the caption "We skipped naps today to paint. I hope I don't regret this decision!" And I can positively say that I don't regret it at all because the adorable tree below was the result of that decision and became the theme for our family Christmas Card. I love the photo above because it captures (beautifully) an average day during the holidays. The girls busy with an activity surrounded by the sparkling glow of Christmas lights. Even Coralee is joining in the fun from her post under the table.

I really dislike nap time as I often feel like a prisoner to the routine. Don't get me wrong, I love the quite time that comes with resting children, but most days the work involved in getting them to nap and the lure of the outside world makes me dread the deed. So, some days we skip. Wish I could say that it always results in inspirational Christmas art, but that's just not reality.

Felt Christmas Tree

I saw a felt Christmas tree on Pinterest and knew I had to create one for Adalyn. I decided to make it reversible because everything in a house full of girls must be PINK, but I also wanted the option of a traditional green tree. I also designed it to hang on a ribbon that I slipped over a door top wreath hanger, so that it could be moved from room to room. I used brown packing paper to create a template for the tree design. Working with the paper to get a shape I liked before cutting the tree from 72" wide green (and pink) felt. 

All three of the girls enjoy the tree, even baby Coralee. Below, is a free template I created so that you can make your own felt Christmas tree ornaments. The ornaments were embellished using the Martha Stewart craft rick rack sticker borders. Happy felting!

Thanksgiving 2012

I snapped this photo of Coralee and Grandma Posey on Thanksgiving day. It embodies the happiness in our family and the blessing of love we all share with each other.

We took the week off from homeschooling and I focused my attention on doing crafts, stories and activities focused around the Thanksgiving holiday with the girls. I wanted to use the time to teach Marin about the first Thanksgiving and so we spent the week working on projects like these.

Thank you Lord for...Pumpkin Pocket courtesy of Christian Preschool Printables. The three items in the foreground made me smile. She wrote "LaLaloopsy" first, then "Bunny" and "me" came later in the lineup, but I found it humorous that she thanked God for herself. These foam activities I picked up at Michael's.

Other activities we enjoyed were:
Turkey Skittles Sorting Mat - Making Learning Fun
How To Draw A Turkey and a Color By Number Turkey - I can read. I will succeed.
Thanksgiving Dominoes Game - DLTK
Made Paper Pilgrim Hats - Martha Stewart
I read aloud a Magic Tree House book "Thanksgiving on Thursday" by Mary Pope Osborne and
"The Story of The First Thanksgiving" by Elaine Raphael and Don Bolognese. And of course we watched Charlie Brown Thanksgiving.