Earth Day Goodness

I have a friend who has been thinning out the flower beds at her grandparent's house. Over the past few weeks she has given us many day lilies, irises, cannas, nandina, etc. It kinda forced us into "straighten up the yard" mode - for which we are grateful :) The new plants have brought such life and energy to our yard.

With the new attitude, we decided to add two more trees to our lawn. On Good Friday we planted a magnolia and a red oak. We can't wait (really, we're just hoping) for these trees to grow and provide even more privacy and shade for our house!

I mention Good Friday because turns out, Good Friday was also Earth Day! Kris remarked we were being hippies by planting trees on Earth Day...but it turned out the earthy goodness didn't stop with new trees! HA!

We also managed to see this snake


and this turtle in our yard!


The Easter Bunny found these cute Mini Greenhouses by Miracle-Gro.


So the kids got in on the earthy goodness! Wes planted sunflowers, Ann Elise planted zinnias, and Bankston Hays planted marigolds.


They have now sprouted and hopefully we'll even see a beautiful bloom!


And last but not least of all the earthy goodness...Ann Elise is carefully attending her caterpillars (also from the Easter Bunny).


We are anxiously awaiting them turning into butterfiles! They have all formed their chrysalis so we are making progress :)

Resurrection Rolls

A few years ago a good friend recommended trying this recipe with the kids on Easter weekend. It is a neat recipe because you read the Resurrection story along with the preparation/cooking steps.

Resurrection Rolls
1 can Crescent Rolls
8 large Marshmallows
1 stick Butter (melted)
Cinnamon Sugar


Read John 19 while the oven is pre-heating to 350 degrees.

Explain the symbolism of the ingredients:
Marshmallow - represents Jesus, all white and pure because He was without sin
Melted Butter - represents the embalming oils
Cinnamon Sugar - represents the spices used to prepare Jesus' body
Crescent Roll - represents the cloth used to wrap Jesus


Each child took turns making their way down our assembly line.

Take a marshmallow and roll it around in the melted butter.


Take butter-coated marshmallow and roll it around in the cinnamon sugar.


Wrap the butter and cinnamon sugar coasted marshmallow with a crescent roll (making sure to pinch the dough, sealing it together securely).


Explain that the oven symbolizes the tomb. Place the Resurrection Rolls in the oven and bake for 10-12 minutes.

While the rolls are baking read John 20:1-18.

Open the tomb and remove the Resurrection Rolls. After they've cooled break one open and find that the marshmallow is no longer there.

Jesus is alive!

Christmas Break = Blog break

I didn't mean to take a blog break, it just kinda happened. So, to get back into the swing I'm gonna recap our break. We spent the first part doing as much as possible as a family in preparation for Kris to travel the world.

• Kris and the kids took a walk around our neighborhood. He took this fun picture of the kids playing in a pile of leaves.

• We also went bowling.

• The boys increased their proficiency in Donkey Kong Country Returns and Madden NFL 2011 on the Wii.

• We made edible Christmas trees. I had seen Kelly's blog post when she did these with her class and thought they would be a great substitution to the traditional ginger bread house. They were a hit!

• Kris and I went on a date to Olive Garden, YUM-O! It was a night of great, uninterrupted conversation.
  

• We watched The Nativity Story as a family and really enjoyed it.

I'll be posting about our Christmas soon :)

Handprint Christmas Canvas

A few weeks into school I received the dreaded call..."Will you be a kindergarten homeroom mom?" It was dreaded because I just have not felt like I could give so much time at this point in my life - I still have a toddler at home with me all the time. I figured I would serve in this capacity at some point, but not yet. After a little bit of chatter and her convincing me that the teachers understand little ones tagging along, I agreed to the duties.

So far it has really not been bad. The things I have participated with have been right up my alley and having Bankston Hays with me has not been too much of a problem (except maybe the minute he refused to leave the Discovery Lab and threw a train across the room in his frustration with the fact that it was time for us to go home). My biggest responsibility to date, and possibly for the whole year, was to provide a class project for the Fall Festival's silent auction. I gathered the facts, what they expected of me and of the class, and came up with a plan. We would paint a Handprint Christmas Canvas!

I can be creative and have participated in various crafts over my life, but I had never painted a canvas. I knew what I wanted, but was not confident on how I could achieve it. So, Kris recruited me a creative college student and with her helping me brainstorm we made a plan!

The first set of supplies, plus a 20X24 canvas, and a paintbrush to start the project:

I used painter's tape to line off some "candy cane" stripes.

I painted the stripes red. It took about three coats to get a good covering.

Brandi, the creative college student, and I loaded up some supplies and visited Ann Elise's class one morning. She helped the students do their handprints on the canvas while I herded them to the bathroom to wash up!

The sweet Kindergartners showing off their project :)

The second set of supplies, plus a hot glue gun, some grosgrain ribbon, and a staple gun allowing us to finish the project:

After giving the handprints several days to dry, I gave the sides a couple of coats of red. Then I used the different size circle sponges to paint polka dots around the sides.

Next, I used gold glitter glue to jazz it up and added the tree trunk (by using three fingers).

The wooden discs got painted with bright colors to make ornaments. Then they and the star were attached with hot glue.

Added some polka dot grosgrain ribbon and waaaalaaa....the project was finished!

Not bad for a first canvas...but certainly not making a career out of it :)