Gingerbread Houses

We love doing gingerbread houses around here. I love the candy and frosting the most. The only thing is those darn store bought ones are not very good and you have to put them together in a specific way. This year we decided to do graham cracker houses instead. Now everybody gets their own to build.

Getting Ready...

 L and Daddy got to work together.

Daddy didn't mind doing the hard part of shaping the roof.

This is serious work in our house.

Some ends up on the face instead of the house, but that's ok if its the good stuff.

Here are our 3 houses, Mommy's, C's and L and Daddy's. What is your vote?

Of course we have to display them till Christmas. L already snuck and ate some of her's a couple days after they were displayed, so now many the little gum drop lights at the bottom are missing.

Halloween - Last Minute Costumes

Since I wasn't into Halloween and because I think the reason was that we just don't dress up anymore, I decided yesterday, yes, on Halloween that we were going to dress up! Mr. C always calls us closet hippies. How appropriate, I thought to be hippies for Halloween.

I had this fabric, so I thought I'd start from here.

I bought it FOREVER ago thinking it would make a cute bag. Well, I needed a little hippie sac to go with my outfit.

I used muslin for the lining and it turned out perfect. It holds my keys and phone in it and there is still lots of room. I was able to sneak a little candy in there too.

So here we are in this terrible picture. It was dark and the person taking the picture couldn't see through the camera. You can kind of see my little bell bottoms. I made those to go over my pants and got a couple of shirts at Party City for Mr. C and I. I didn't think I would have enough time to make our shirts considering I started sewing at 2:00 pm.

Here are the children trick-or-treaters.

I just love watching them do things as a team, it's so precious.

Now candy sorting time.

Don't you just love how they sorted their candy? Today C made a list of all the candy he has. Such a kindergartner.

Kristen

My little Pirate

I was so not into Halloween until today this year. I just don't know why. Maybe because Mr. C doesn't ever want to dress up and if I'm not dressing up, what fun is that. But, today was C's class party. He choose to be a pirate, I didn't want to spend a lot of money, so I got some pants from the Goodwill and cut them, cut an old t-shirt, got a little fabric and pirate accessories.

This is what we came up with between, little C, Mr. C and I.

Doesn't he look so mean? He's trying.

Here is our Witches Brew. One of the other room mom's does this every year. I just loved it. It's just a chunk of dry ice and hot water. You have to keep adding to it, I think 10 lbs last about an hour.

Here is my pirate in plain clothes. He needs to shave still.

Kristen

4th of July Dress

Last year, I made L a little dress for the 4th. I made it a little long so she could wear it again this year. Holiday stuff just doesn't get worn enough. So, I pulled it out yesterday and it fit perfect. My little girl has gotten taller, but hasn't gained much weight. She's just a little peanut.

I just did a very basic dress, cut 3 pieces for the front, 2 for the bodice and 1 for the skirt. Then for the back I cut one piece and smocked the top part of it so it fits nice and snug and pulls over easy.

I used ribbon for the bow and the straps. I had some ribbon hanging down from the bow too, but that frayed since I didn't use any fray block, so I had to remove that.

It's hard to take a picture of one without the other sneaking in.

Very simple, just my style.

Kristen
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Father's Day

I know, I know, it's way past Father's Day. But we were on vacation so we didn't do my husband's present until this week. Two years ago we started a little tradition for Father's Day. I got my husband those little stones that you can make and put hand prints in them. He loved them and I told him we can make the stones every year and eventually have stepping stones throughout our garden with the kids hand prints as they grow. At the time we didn't have a garden, but he loved the idea.

Here is the first one, yes I know, it's a horrible picture...

Here is our second one...

Now we are ready to do this years.

The kids love doing these. They were so excited.

It's so cool, each year we can see how much bigger C and L's little hands are. I love little baby/kid hands. They are so cute. I wish I can keep them little forever. At least I get to see how little they were each year as they grow.

What little artists I have.

Yes, my husband gets something special from me too. But this is something we look forward to every year.

Resurrection Eggs

I have not been doing any Easter crafts yet this year. Then today when I realized Spring Break is next week for C's preschool and Easter is in a little over a week, I decided I had to get the kids prepared for Easter. So, tonight when my meatloaf was in the oven, I had some time to kill. That's when I decided to make Resurrection Eggs with the kids.

This is C's cover to our eggs. He is learning to sound things out and writing his letters. The first letter is a backwards J. The top of the J is folder over so you can't see it.

Resurrection Eggs are basically plastic eggs filled with items to remind you of the story of Easter. You can open the eggs in order and tell the story of Jesus' death and resurrection. We had a list of items we needed to collect for our eggs so I sent the kids around the house and outside looking for those items.

Here is our list:

1. Bread (we used a real piece of bread) - Jesus had the passover meal with his disciples. He took a piece of bread, gave a prayer of thanks to God and shared the bread with his disciples saying, "This is my body which is given for you. Do this in memory of Me."

2. Coin - One of the disciples, Judas Iscariot betrayed Jesus by telling the chief of priests where he was in exchange for 30 silver coins.

3. Purple Cloth (I cut a piece from my fabric stash) - Pilate handed Jesus over to be crucified. They dressed him in purple.

4. Thorns (we broke a piece of the roses) - They made a crown of thorns and put it on his head mocking him.

5. Rope, leather strip or twine (all we had was pink rope) - Then they whipped him.

6. Cross (we got a little stick broke it and used thread to hold it together) - the soldiers gave him his cross to carry up the hill.

7. Nails: The soldiers nailed him to the cross to die. (C is looking for a nail in his work bench.)

8. Sign - (we wrote a little sign and put tape over it to kind-of laminate it): Then they mocked him by putting up a sign that said, "THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS"

9. Sponge - (I only have dobies, no sponge in the entire house. So, I sewed a square of white terry cloth): One of them soaked a sponge in vinegar and tried to make him drink it.

10. Spear - (C drew one, but I think I'm going to have to get Mr. C to carve one out of a stick with his knife): One of the soldiers stuck his spear into Jesus' side and just then blood and water poured out.

11. Rock: After Jesus died, Joseph took his body, wrapped it in new linen sheet and placed it in his own new tomb he dug out of solid rock. Then he rolled a large stone across the entrance to the tomb and went away.

12. Nothing: This is the best part! Jesus isn't there anymore. He is risen! Now we are saved, we are forgiven.

I have been wanting to make one of these each year and just never got to it. I am so glad we did it tonight. I hope it will hold up and last for years to come. 

My little tradition I do every Easter is buy the kids a new bible if they have outgrown the one they have if not, a book about God. We didn't buy a new bible last year, so I'm going to look for one with more detail then what we have this year. I do love the one we have though, it's, "The Lion Read & Know Bible." The stories have much more detail then the smaller ones like "The Beginners Bible." There are also more stories in it.

What are some of your traditions for Easter? How do you share the story with your children?

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