4th of juluy

Just pretend it's still July.  Happy 4th.  It's been a busy summer.  A house for sale.  A house sold.  Serahing for a new house.  Packing.  Moving.  Baseball.  

What are the boys up too?  Just boy stuff.  Blowing things up.  You know.  

We usually end up at a friends house for the 4th and took our little man for some more fun.  Here was his final ride.  The neighbor kids thought it was pretty great too. 

valentines

We couldn't wait until February this year to get the Valentine decorations out.  We got things out a little early, but our favorite things to hang up were last year's love notes.  

Here's one from Bee to Lou last year.  He is "speshale."

Bee had a whole series of these birds last year.

Last year, Lou 'wrote' his own and then had me write the words below. 

This year, he's on his own.

The love notes for this year are already filling our boxes. 

Christmas Advent pieces

Yesterday I shared that I used some advent pieces in a Christmas lesson at preschool. Here are all the pieces in the activity. This is totally based off an activity I saw on pinterest from How Sweet it is.   She has hers broken down into 25 boxes so that she can use it with her kids as an advent calendar each day in December until Christmas.  I was thinking more about having it work in the classroom and each child getting one bag.  I made our set have 18.

You could easily alter it too with the pieces you have available at home.  I only had to buy one piece and everything else I had on hand.  Granted, most people aren't the.... uhhh... collectors of things.... that I am.   I have $1 in this project.  It could easily be condensed to 12-15 as well.  Here they are:  The scriptures to go with each are listed at the end of the post.

#1 Mary and an angel

#2  Music note 

#3  Joseph

#4  Cross

#5  numbers

#6 donkey

#7  animals

#8  baby Jesus

#9  soft blanket

#10  peace sign

#11 shepard and sheep

#12  Stable and baby Jesus

#13  Mary and Joseph

#14 heart

 

#15 three kings

#16 crown

#17  star

#18 three gifts

I printed and laminated the scriptures and bound them on a binder ring so they would all stay nicely with the pieces in a bigger drawstring bag. 

All of the pieces went in little drawstring bags that I made up using muslin on hand and the leftover string from Lou's birthday. 

Here are the scriptures:

1.    Angel and Mary
Luke 1:26-28, 31 
“In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. The angel went to her and said, ‘Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you… You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus.’”

2.  Music notes
Luke 1:46-55 
“And Mary said:
     ‘My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior…

3.   Joseph

Matthew 1:20 
“…an angel of the Lord appeared to [Joseph] in a dream and said, ‘Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.’

4.   Cross (Salvation through Jesus’ sacrifice)
Matthew 1:21 
“‘[Mary] will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.’”

5.   Numbers (Joseph’s lineage)
Luke 2:4 
“So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to house and line of David.”

6.   Donkey or horse (Journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem)  
Luke 2:5 
“[Joseph] went [to Bethlehem] to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child.”

7.  Cow

Luke 2:7

…There was no room for them in the inn…

8.  Baby (Baby Jesus)  
Luke 2:6-7 
“While they were [in Bethlehem], the time came for the baby to be born, and [Mary] gave birth to her firstborn, a son…”

9.   Piece of soft cloth (Swaddling blanket)
Luke 2:7 
“…[Mary] wrapped [Jesus] in cloths and placed him in a manger…”

10.  Peace sign (Jesus is Prince of Peace)
Isaiah 9:6 
“For to us a child is born,  to us a son is given,
     and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called
     Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,   Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”

11.   Sheep and shepherds
Luke 2:8-11 
“And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, ‘Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.’”

12. Jesus and the stable

Luke 2:12 
“‘This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.’”

13.  Mary and Joseph (to add to the stable with Jesus)

Luke 2:15-18 
“When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, ‘Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.’ So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them.”

14.  Heart (The emotions of Mary as Jesus' earthly mother)  
Luke 2:19-20, 33-35 
“But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart… “The child’s father and mother marveled at what was said about [Jesus].

15.  3 kings

Matthew 2:1 
“After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem.”

16.  Crown (Jesus is King of Kings)  
Matthew 2:1-2 
“…(they) asked, ‘Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him.’”

17.  Star (Star that the Magi followed)  
Matthew 2:9-10 
“After [the Magi] had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen in the east went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they were overjoyed.”

18.  Three gift boxes (Gifts from the Magi to Jesus)  
Matthew 2:11 
“On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold and of incense and of myrrh.”

Thanksgiving Story

This is a little 'old news' now, but at least it will be ready for next year. Two years ago, I had my kiddos work on Christmas story book while we were traveling for Thanksgiving. This year, I thought we make one for the Thanksgiving story. 

Here are Bee and Lou's books.  I printed each one of them up a book and had them bound at Office Max.  It cost more there than it has in the past at Staples.  But it was under $5 for both.   Here are what the pages read; feel free to use my text in a book for your little ones. (not in your for-purchase downloads though).  I don't use sell-able or share-able clipart, so I can't even really share the files, but if you want, I'd be happy to e-mail you it, so you can 'see it better.'

The Pilgrims wanted to worship God in the way they thought the Bible told them to, not the way the law made them.  (Kids color and write their favorite bible verse on the pages)  Hannah's favorite is 1 John 4:6.  Lou's favorite is Psalm 118:1.

102 set sail on the Mayflower with 32 crewmen.  It was cold and cramped for the Pilgrims below the deck.  Many were sick from the rocking waves. (we painted with watercolor paints, the rocking waves.)

They continued to pray and thank God for their safety.  ( I traced their hands 2 times on peachish paper and we glued them on like praying hands.)

They landed at Plymouth Rock in 1620.  It was winter and there were no houses.  They lived aboard the ship while some men built a few homes.  (They glued cut pieces of brown paper and thinner pieces of cut tan for the logs and thatching.  They also added some black squares from another page for the chimney.)

The first winter was rough on the Pilgrims.  Many were sick and half of them died.  (They cut out paper snowflakes -with glitter- and taped them in place.) 

An Indian named Squanto came to stay with the Pilgrims.  He taught them about local plants and animals.  (They colored a coloring sheet page here... Bee passed, Lou protested by painting a mess.)

He taught them about growing corn.  The Indians placed a fish in the hole with the corn seeds.  The corn grew tall and healthy. (the kids glued on paper fish and paper corn seeds in the first box.  In the second box, they colored and added big yellow corns to the healthy plants.)

The Pilgrims grew a hearty garden and had more than enough food for the next winter.  (they stamped circles using our paint lid for the orange pumpkins and used a marker lid to make yellow squash.  The squash plants were tomatoes, but them I remembers that they weren't eating tomatoes at the time.... so we have staked squash on our pages. )

In 1621 the remaining Pilgrims, half of them children, planned a harvest feast.  About 90 Indians joined them in the feast.  They played games, shared music, and shared food.  They ate deer, turkey, pheasant, fish, lobster, squash, onions, pumpkins, and corn.   There was no pie or potatoes. (I thought the kids would draw Pilgrim food on the plates, but they wanted to draw their own favorite foods.)

In 1863 Abe Lincoln declared Thanksgiving a holiday.  (The kids glued black paper squares mosaic style on an outline of abe's hat.)

 Today, we celebrate by getting to together with family, eating delicious food, and giving thanks to God for all of our blessings.  (Lou only has one family member in the portrait too.)

I think this would make a fun project for a class to work on in those random spare minutes during the day but was also a fun activity to pull out here and there when the kids needed to settle themselves... or the aunts and uncles needed a break from playing 'horse' with the kids.  Their poor backs. 

thanksgiving.

It was a happy Thanksgiving for us. This pile of shoes make me happy-  full house, lots of family together.  That's enough to be Thankful for this year.  Family, new and old.

 

On a slightly crafty note, the kids made some some turkey place marker cookies with Gramma. Vegetarian and gluten free- equal opportunity. Not for the diabetics though, I've got nothing for ya.

 

Gluten free chocolate chip cookies (from a packet) with some chocolate icing, pretzel bits (gf for those that needed it), almond slivers, candy corn, mini chocolate chips on upside down white chocolate chip eyes.

Looking forward to Christmas.  More family, and not just one side.  More family... more treats!  Getting a little hungry thinking about my moms fudge and lemon squares!

haste does make waste

I guess it's true, haste does make waste.  I have been collecting wishbones from our chickens all year.  Seriously, last November, I got an idea to make our Thanksgiving place cards using wishbones.  I only had one, so I knew I'd try to collect them all year and have enough next Thanksgiving.   So all year, I've been saving them in a baggie in my craft room.

This evening, I went down to sew and found these scattered remains on the floor.  There were at least 12, this is what is left.

The baggie was torn open. Looks like raccoons.... again. 

In haste, Friday I made a last minute fix on Bee's steamer trunk for her book character costume.  I left the drawer where the glue gun goes open.  Also being stored in that drawer were the wish bones.  I knew the cat liked them and would go for them whenever the drawer was open, but I didn't think about it Friday, in haste.  By Saturday, only three sort of undamaged one remained as well as a handful of scraps. Waste. There are still missing parts, hopefully not in the kitty's tummy.  She couldn't even leave the baggie alone long enough for me to take it's picture. 

Guess we'll try again next year, unless you want to cook a whole turkey or chicken this week and send me your wish bones.