Connor's Lego Party

 Connor loves any and all Legos. His favorites are Ninjago, Hero factory, Avengers and Chima. He wanted a party for each. Um, it wasnt happening. Ha! So we did a regular Lego party instead ;)

**Links at the bottom of the post...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Free printables-
 masks
color your own lego man
favor boxes

Pin the shark on the lego scene- Party City

Mother's Day Handprint Placemat

 Just a quick post to show you what i made for my mother-in-law for Mother's Day, from the kiddies.

 

My mother and father-in-law have a permanent campsite that they stay at every weekend in the summer. So i thought it would be cute if the two of them each had a placemat to use while they are there eating on their own :)

I bought two white placemats that were on clearance at walmart for only a dollar each! I had fabric paint from back when i made the handprint kitchen towels. (the fabric paint was bought at joanns). I also used fabric markers that i already had from that same towel craft. The paint was the handprints and the markers were used for the green stems/leaves and the middle of the flowers. I waited until the paint was dry before the kids drew the rest on with the markers.

 I know my mother-in-law will love them :)

Felt Sticker Collage

Oh look, another idea copied from Pinterest ;) Yes, i am in love with Pinterest. And i dont care who knows it! Haha. This idea was from The Imagination Tree. And if you have read my blog recently you will notice i may also be in love with that blog. Lots of love going on here.

 This is a fun idea for toddlers. You buy a piece of felt (its super cheap to just buy one individual piece) and some foam stickers. I took the wrappers off the back and handed them to Makenna and she stuck them to the felt. The neat part about this activity is that because you are using felt, the stickers can easily come off and be moved around. She loved this aspect to it. Taking them off, putting them on.

 

 A simple activity to help with small motor skills. And keeping a toddler busy for a bit is always a great thing :)

Spring Fun: Bringing Indoor Toys Outside

Over at Sun Hats & Wellie Boots there is a great list of 50 outdoor activities for kids to do this spring. One of them was to take indoor toys, out! We did this today and the kids enjoyed it. We will definitely be doing this again :)

 Connor played with his Lego's on the patio-

 Brianna and Makenna both enjoyed playing with wooden blocks in the swingset-

 

 And Makenna danced on her dance mat-

 We love spring!

Silly Straw Sculptures

Here is a fun, simple activity to keep the kids busy!

This idea is from Life With Moore Babies. I bought a package of silly straws (i got mine at Party City) and broke them in two. I had to twist them until they broke apart.

Then i let the kids make 'sculptures' with playdoh and the straw pieces.

Even Makenna joined in. And she loved it!

Let me know if you give this a try!

FIAR~ The Bee Tree

 This was such a fun book to row! And it got me so excited for summer haha. I love the illustration at the end that ties the entire book together :)

 

When Mary Ellen gets bored with her reading, Grandpa knows a hunt for a bee tree is just what she needs. Half the town joins the exciting chase, but it's not until everyone returns home that Mary Ellen makes a discovery of her own: Sometimes, even the sweetest of things must be worked for. 

Language:

Catching the clues- I asked Brianna what 'clues' there were to show grandpa and Mary Ellen were about to start on an adventure. She wasn't really sure of the answer so i explained that grandpa saying they dont have honey like this (after Mary Ellen says they already have honey) followed by grandpa giving her a wink shows that means he was up to something.

Art:

Brianna made a map of the different places they chased the bee.

(they started at the house, went to the corn field, the river, street, herd of goats, hill, to the bee tree and back home)

Science:

We ate honey on biscuits just like in the book :)

We read these books...

and got this DVD. (all were from our local library) But it was skipping and we didnt get to watch much of it :(

Social Studies:

We talked about how grandpa was kind to the bees because he was careful when putting them in the jar and we discussed ways she could be kind to animals. 

Bible:

She memorized Psalm 119:103 in her sunday school class not long ago so we talked about that.

Math:

I showed her what a hexagon was and we counted the sides.

Don't know what Five In a Row is? I didn't until recently either :) Go here to find out!

Easter Egg Lunch and Resurrection Rolls (Playing With Pinterest)

 I copied two Pinterest ideas for today, both to help celebrate Easter.

 First i made the kids lunches using plastic Easter eggs, an empty egg carton and of course food!

 

I even made a little bowl for Makenna :)

 (idea from here)

Later after dinner, we made Resurrection Rolls!

This was our first time making them. I have no idea where the original idea is from but here is the one i copied from. I copied her instructions about everything except reading the Bible story first. I did ours after. 

Here are HER instructions:

Ingredients:

One can of crescent roll dough

8 large marshmallows (or one for each roll you’ll be making)

Melted butter

Cinnamon sugar

Bible or Easter storybook

Assemble rolls and read the story:

1. Read John 19 while the oven is pre-heating according to the package directions. If you’re really on top of things, spend the week before reading John 12-18 with your kids.
(again, we read from our Children's Bible later)
2. Unroll the crescent rolls. Explain that this is like the cloth they wrapped Jesus in.
3. Give your child a marshmallow and explain that it represents Jesus… all white and pure because He was without sin.
4. Roll the marshmallows in the melted butter. This symbolizes the embalming oils.
5. Roll the marshmallows in the cinnamon sugar. This is like the spices used to prepare his body for burial.
6. Wrap the marshmallow in the crescent roll cloth, pinching the dough together securely. Don’t worry about the shape so much, they’ll taste the same no matter how you roll or bundle them. This represents how they would have wrapped Jesus’ body. I like to brush them with more melted butter, but it’s not necessary.
7. Put the rolls in the oven (symbolizing the tomb) and bake for the amount of time specified on the package.
8. While the rolls are baking, read John 20:1-18.
9. Open the tomb and remove the rolls. When they’re cool enough to handle, break one open and discover what happened to the marshmallow. Jesus is risen! At this point, I also read 1 Thessalonians 4:16-18. Jesus is coming again!

And here are MY pictures:

(Rolling the marshmallows in the melted butter)

 (Then in the cinnamon/sugar mixture)

 (Wrapping the marshmallows in crescent rolls)

 (I was thankful she said hers were very misshapen because mine looked like homemade perogies. But you have to seal those ends! Haha)

 A couple of mine did open and the marshmallow got all on the pan form those ones, but thankfully the others were fine. When i handed them to the kids i told them to open their tombs and find Jesus (the marshmallow). Here are their confused looks as they opened them-

I asked where he was and here Connor is saying "He's out!"-

Amen, He most definitely is! And i am so thankful.