Easter Ideas

Like most moms the weeks leading up to a holiday I like to have lots of relevant activities.  For Easter we have been doing the Resurrection Eggs.  I am doing it in 6 days so each kid can open one egg.  My 4 year old loves hearing the story of Jesus sacrifice for us!  I re-cap each day of what we have learned already and they always want to know what is going to happen next!

Another thing we did last night for dessert is yummy Resurrection rolls.  They were so delicious but what was fun was to have the kids help make them. 

{You take 8 large marshmallows (Jesus)

Dip them in melted butter (the oils)

roll them in cinnamon sugar (the spices)

wrap them in a crescent roll (the burial clothes or the tomb)

****make sure to seal them VERY well because I thought I did and the marshmallow still came out of most of them!

You dip the top of the roll in the butter and the cinnamon sugar

and then place on a baking sheet and cook at 350 for about 10 min.

When you take them out Jesus is gone!

(You can use the oven as the tomb symbolism but my kids didn't seem to understand that) }

This last thing is fun for your kids Easter baskets....Play dough carrots!

I used my favorite play dough recipe for these and I just doubled it.  It made 5 carrots.  I put the dough in sandwich bags and tied with some green ribbon!  These will be great fun for my nieces and nephews (and my kids too!)

{Just in case you want the recipe for the dough here it is:

1 cup flour

1 cup water

2 tsp cream of tarter

1/4 salt

1 TBS oil

food coloring

Mix everything together in a pan and then cook over medium heat until it forms a solid (it takes a while...keep stirring so it doesn't burn!)

When it is done take it out...kneed a little and let cool.  You end up with a nice soft dough that is oh so fun to play with!!!}

Ingredients mixed together

It starts to get lumpy

Final product!



My Easter Cuties

I am a BIT biased but I think these little ones are the CUTEST around!  Here they are showing off their Easter outfits. 

I made Madelyn's dress (first time making one!)  I did not use a pattern so I don't have one to share but I did base it off of a simple pillowcase dress like this ONE.

For the boys I decided to make it simple and just make bow ties!  These are SO easy to make.  I used some of the same fabric that I had in the dress (white and yellow stripe).  

{I cut two rectangles the size that I wanted the tie to be.  I put the right sides together and sewed them leaving an opening to turn it inside out.  After turning it right side out I sewed up that opening.  For the middle part I folded a piece of fabric to be the width I wanted  and made it about 3 inches long.  Then after sewing the edge I turned that right side out.  I folded it over with the seem on the on the outside.  What you are doing here is making the small loop to slide the tie through.  So sew across and trim any excess.  After truing it right side out slide it on and there you have your bow tie!  You could put a strap on it or you can do what I did and use a safety pin!} 

So these are not the best instructions but here is the one I used from Prudent Baby!



stained glass crosses

It's Thursday!!!!  Yeah for Thursdays with Janell! 

Today we did an Easter project with the kids.  Here is what we did:

I cut crosses out of construction paper (you can use any kind).  I cut up a bunch of tissue paper and then put the crosses onto clear contact paper that I got at Target.  The kids went to work placing the tissue paper onto the sticky side of the contact paper!

After that was done I put another piece of contact paper on top and then we hung them in the window!  We also did eggs!

Now most of you would probably want to cut around the cross but my kiddos put the tissue paper all over and did not want any cut off!

This is a great project for kids of all ages.  The older ones can cut their own tissue paper and make designs.  It has NO GLUE so is pretty much mess free! Good fine moter and creativity!

Now don't forget to talk about the importance of the cross with your kids while doing the project!  Always a time to share the gospel!

Vintage metal letters....made from cardboard and tin foil

I have seen a few different versions of this floating around pinterest and wanted to do it.  I didn't want to spend money on 3D letters (I'm that cheap) so while I love the look of THESE I wanted to use stuff I already had around the house.  Then I saw this PIN and thought...I can do that!

So here is what we did:

Cardboard (got it from Sam's club...used from all the boxes that my kids played in)
Tin foil (heavy duty)
I used Spray paint

I printed my letters out on the computer and then traced onto the cardboard to get....

....this, not too bad!

Then I started to put the tin foil on.  With my smaller letters I first put it around the edges and then the front.  In the tutorial it says to mod podge....not sure why....but I did it anyway.  I think I would put it on the bottom and top to keep tin foil in place if I do it again.



Here is the letters after they are covered

Then after the mod podge dried I spray painted with the same metallic paint that I had used on Making the old new.  This paint dries REALLY fast!  Right away I took an old rag and started to rub some of the paint off so the tin foil showed through.  It looked especially cool with the wrinkles. 

So here is the finished product.  I had a few problems along the way....like the tinfoil not staying down; but that is why I recommend securing it down before you paint!  The pictures are not the best but I will try to get some better ones up and Janelle will post a picture of how hers turned out too!!

Oh and I am going to put these on a wall with 3 pictures of my kids because there is much JOY in doing His will for my life!!

Thanks for reading and have fun trying it out yourself!

The Easter Story

I found this GREAT idea from The Frugal Girls on how to talk to your kids about Easter....no NOT about bunnies and candy and eggs   BUT about JESUS!   Take an empty egg carton and 12 plastic eggs.  


Here’s what you’ll put inside each egg:

• {Egg #1} Put a picture of the world, a cross, and a heart in this egg and the following….on a piece of paper, write or type: World and heart ~ For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son… {John 3:16} God loved us so much that He sent His one and only son to die for our sins.

• {Egg #2} Put a small leaf or branch in this egg and the following….on a piece of paper, write or type: Palm Leaf ~ On Palm Sunday, they put palm branches and coats on the ground and waved palm branches at Jesus, shouting “Hosanna!”

• {Egg #3} Put half of a ritz cracker or other small broken cracker piece in this egg and the following… on a piece of paper, write or type: Bread ~ Jesus was having Passover, and it was called the Last Supper. He said, This is my body that was broken for you.

• {Egg #4} Put one hershey’s kiss in this egg and the following… on a piece of paper, write or type: Kiss ~ Judas told the soldiers who Jesus was by giving Jesus a kiss.

• {Egg #5} Put one nickel in this egg and the following… on a piece of paper, write or type: Judas got paid 30 pieces of silver for being bad and betraying Jesus.

• {Egg #6} Put one toothpick in this egg and the following… on a piece of paper, write or type: Thorns ~ They put a crown made out of thorns on Jesus’s head.

• {Egg #7} Put one nail in this egg and the following… on a piece of paper, write or type: Nail ~ They nailed Jesus to the cross.

• {Egg #8} Cut a small piece off of a sponge and put it in this egg with the following… on a piece of paper, write or type: Sponge ~ They gave Jesus “pickle juice” {vinegar} to drink in a sponge.

• {Egg #9} Cut a small piece of tissue, toilet paper or paper towel and put it in this egg with the following… on a piece of paper, write or type: Wrapping ~ They wrapped Jesus up in cloth and buried him. When he came back alive, the wrapping was left behind.

• {Egg #10} Put a small rock in this egg and the following… on a piece of paper, write or type: Rock ~ The stone was rolled away on Easter morning because Jesus rose from the dead.

• {Egg #11} All that goes in this egg is the following… on a piece of paper, write or type: Empty ~ He is not here. He has risen!

• {Egg #12} Put a penny or a gold dollar {if you have one} in this egg and the following… on a piece of paper, write or type: Gold Coin ~ Because of what Jesus did on the cross, if we believe in him, ask him to forgive us of our sins, and ask him into our hearts, we get to be with Him in heaven some day! Heaven will be so fun, and will even have streets made of gold!!

Once you’re done… every day leading up to Easter, open 1 egg and read that part of the story!

Dollar Store Craft~Apothecary Jars/Candy Dish

We have SPRING FEVER here today, and since our Thursday afternoon happened to fall on March 1st, we decided to do a spring theme.

For the kids we picked up some stickers and foam shapes from the dollar store: Butterflies, flowers and eggs. 

                           

We started with this, all from the dollar store: Candlestick holders, bowls, and candy eggs:

We ended with this:

Very easy and VERY cheap, but pretty and springy!  We found the idea HERE.

After checking out some other blogs all devoted to dollar store crafts, and after browsing my local dollar store this morning, I'm excited to try a few more things in the weeks ahead!  Stay tuned :)

Making old new

These are two things that I picked up at a thrift store.  The lamp was only $5 and the tray I believe was 50 cents.  The lamp I thought was cool because it reminded me of something in my grandmothers home but I really don't like gold so I bought a metalic spray paint.  I loved the way it turned out so I also did it to the tray but was unsure of what I wanted to do with it.  After a little thought I decided to hang it above my stove with some magnets (which are just round magnets with scrapbook paper) and use it to put recipies on it so I can easily see them!  I just hung it with command strips right now.  It hasn't fallen!  The lamp is in my entryway.

Update Your Old Flour and Sugar Canisters

I am a little bit obsessed with chalkboard paint these days!  I used to throw away EVERYTHING...In fact, I am the opposite of a pack rat, I throw away too much stuff.  But since I discovered Pinterest, and all the uses for spray paint and chalkboard paint, suddenly I am seeing the potential in everything from an old Folgers container to my Snapple bottle :)  It seems everything can be re-made using either spray paint and/or chalkboard paint!
Anyway, I was getting a little tired of my old, plain IKEA flour and sugar canisters, so I tried this idea:  Tape off a square, paint with chalkboard paint.  Let dry.  Apply another coat.  Remove tape, and you have this:
BEFORE:

 AFTER:

Update on DIY decorative balls

I just thought I would quick post a couple of pictures of the finished DIY decorative balls that we did.  I decided to leave mine natural right now because they are in a white basket and I did not have the color of spray paint that I wanted to use. 

I can't wait to do another project this week....We are home from vacation too so we should have some more kids activities to post soon!!

DIY Pretty Tea Light Holders

Okay, Abby is on vacation right now, and she has all the before and after pictures on her camera, so I am going to just start this post and she can finish it when she gets back (thanks Abby :)).  This was our first real Thursday project.  We hit some thrift stores in the morning and found some various jars and bottles for about a quarter each.  We then brought them home, and wrapped them in yarn and spray-painted white.  Then you take off the yarn, and this is what you have:

Abby's turned out better than mine I think, so watch for her pictures to come.  Oh, and this idea came from Pinterest and now I need to figure out how to add the link.  If I don't get that up today maybe Abby can do that too??? :)


Thanks Janell for getting this going!!  It was one of those posts I kept meaning to do but needed to get the pictures downloaded.  Well, here are the step by step pictures of what we did and what mine look like!

Step 1:  We put tape around the inside so the spray paint would not get in there and to anchor the yarn

Step 2  Wrap the sting around tightly so it stays in place

Step 3 Spray paint and wait to dray (buy the fast drying stuff because if you are like us we can't wait to see what it looks like!!)

Finished product...I used all the same style glasses


Hope you enjoy and try this out sometime...it is SO CHEAP to do and adds a nice touch to a table or mantle!

Here is the PIN for the idea!!

Thursday Project: DIY decorative balls

Well we got together this morning to do one of those things that you say 'why didn't I think of this?'  We took Styrofoam balls, a hemp or twine like rope and a glue gun.  Simple right?  The idea came from this PIN.  Basically you start wrapping the rope around the ball and glue as you go.  Here are a few photos!

So I would like to say we had time to get them all made and even spray painted, but that is not the case.  Kids painting,  potty training and a baby pretty much kept one of us busy the whole time so we took turns actually doing the project.  But from the pictures you get the idea of what we were doing.  I  (Abby) might leave mine natural looking or spray paint with a cream or bluish color. 

So that is it!  Simple this week but better then going out and spending up to $20 on decorative balls at Target.  Check out Kid Activities  to see the painting with condensed milk that our kiddos did today!

Valentines day Fun!

This Valentines day we had fun making lots of homemade cards for family and friends.  There are so many ideas out there to do with paints (hands forming a heart, heart tree, hand and foot print flowers)
Here are just a few of the things we did.  Enjoy!

My baby boys hands to form a heart (His chubby little hands didn't work as well)