The Empty Tomb!

I was surfing the internet the other day looking for craft ideas for Easter. I love decorating eggs and making flowers, but I wanted something that focused on the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.  Just as we don't dwell on Santa Claus at Christmas, Easter at our house is not about the Easter bunny and chocolate eggs. When I stumbled upon this picture on this blog, I knew this was a definite project for this year.


Last week we invited over some fellow home learners and had a fun time putting together these mini resurrection gardens.  It was an opportunity to reinforce why we celebrate Easter... the resurrection of Christ, the celebration of eternal life available to those who put their trust in our risen Savior! 

Now we are just waiting for Resurrection Day (... and the grass to grow :)  What are some ways you teach your kids about Resurrection Day?  I'd love to hear your ideas.

 

Winning Entries

Last weekend was the annual Ag Show (our version of a county fair) I always enjoy the Ag show and this year was no exception. The sights, the sounds, the smells! The kids loved looking at the animals, baked goods and other exhibits and most of all they loved the cotton candy and snow cones. Kai Kai sang with our church's children's choir... they did a good job and were well received.

We spent the beginning of last week preparing the exhibits the kids has chosen to enter. This was LiLi's first year exhibiting and he was really excited. He kept asking if he would win a ribbon like his big brother did last year...

He was not disappointed! The boys did really well... they each entered 3 exhibits and came home with 3 ribbons each... 3 first place for KaiKai and a first, second and 3rd place for LiLi.

Here are their entries...

wishing wells made with clothes pegs and filled with branches and flowers.

KaiKai's guitar playing robot made of recyclable items

LiLi's Teddy Bear Island cake decorated with Teddy grahams and goldfish...he had fun making this one.

and my favourite... the decorated Easter eggs... We planted rye grass seeds in eggshells and watched the "hair" grow on our "little people".

The kids have already started talking about what they want to make for next year!

I am linking this to Mama Jenn's Kiddos Create Blog carnival... if you want to see other creations with everyday items check it out here.

Got Rice??

Years ago I got the idea from somewhere of filling a sock with rice and using it as a heating pad for whenever I needed one. It works great.. I stick it in the microwave for about a minute and it stays warm for quite awhile... and it is safer than falling asleep with the electric heating pad on. Last Saturday we took the boys to the track to practice for a race they will be competing in (more to come on that topic) and a couple days later LiLi woke in the middle of the night complaining that his stomach was hurting... we soon realized it was muscle pain (he's never run so much in his life!!) I pulled out my trusty rice sock and it did the trick... he was soon back to sleep. He wanted it the next night as well and I could see where this was heading... I was sure that soon the other two would start coming up with ailments so they could take mommy's rice sock to bed with them. I must say it is quite soothing so I figured I would make them each one of their own. I found some unmatched socks (we seem to have quite a few of these floating around... if anyone can tell me where socks end up I'd love to know:) filled them with rice, stitched them shut and then took some felt and made a little cover for each. I let the kids choose the colours they wanted and appliqued a little motif on each which I created in Photoshop. It was a fun, quick project. Don't look too closely at the stitching though... I was watching The Mentalist while sewing and I think the TV was getting more attention! The kids were pleased with how they turned out and hopefully they will provide much comfort in the weeks, months and years to come. (and now I get my rice sock back all to myself!)


If you want to see other creations made by, for, or with kiddos using everyday items from around the home check out the Kiddos Create challenge hosted each week by Mama Jenn.

The Spoon Family

I have been wanting to participate in Kiddos Create... a challenge hosted each week by Mama Jenn on her awesome blog. The challenge is to "create something by, for, or with your kiddos using everyday items from around your home!! " I had picked up a set of wooden spoons at the grocery store a few weeks ago and was waiting to do something with them... something crafty that is! The kids were having a friend over for a play date this week so I thought it was the perfect time to use them. I got out the felt, googly eyes, pompoms, pipe cleaners, markers and glue gun and we got to work! I decided to use the glue gun so that we didn't have to wait for anything to dry but that limited how much the kids could do on their own but they had lots of fun picking out the items they wanted to use and then telling me exactly where they wanted them to go.


The end result was a happy family of spoons:


The kids then had fun putting on a little show and running around the house with their new puppets...


This is definitely one we will do again sometime... hey we could have a whole community of spoons! LOL!