Sunday, March 24, 2013

Easter Cookies---again

I posted this recipe a few years ago.  It has become one of our favorite family traditions.  We do this the night before Easter.  I thought it was worth re-posting.  :)

Ingredients:
1 c. whole pecans (or chocolate chips if you don't like nuts)
1 tsp. vinegar
3 egg whites
a pinch of salt
1 c. sugar
a zipper baggy
1 wooden spoon
scotch tape
Bible

**Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F.  This is very important to do before you make the cookies.  It will not work if you wait until you are half way done with the recipe.
1. Place the pecans in the zipper baggy.  Let the children beat them with the wooden spoon to break into small pieces.  Explain that after Jesus was arrested he was beaten by the Roman soldiers.  Read:  John 19: 1-3

2. Let each child smell the vinegar.  Put 1 tsp. vinegar into mixing bowl.  Explain that when Jesus was thirsty on the cross He was given vinegar to drink.  Read John 19:28-30

3. Add egg whites to vinegar.  Eggs represent life.  Explain that Jesus gave his life to give us life.  Read: John 10: 10-11

4. Sprinkle a little salt into each child's hand.  Let them taste it and brush the rest into the bowl.  Explain that this represents the salty tears shed by Jesus' followers, and the bitterness of our own sin.  Read Luke 23:27.

5. So far the ingredients are not very appetizing.  Add 1 cup sugar.  Explain that the sweetest part of the story is that Jesus died because he loves us.  He wants us to know and belong to Him.  Read Psalm 34:8 and John 3:16.

6. Beat with a mixer on high speed for 12-15 minutes until stiff peaks are formed.  Explain that the color white represents the purity in God's eyes of those whose sins have been cleansed by Jesus.  Read Isaiah 1:18 and John 3:1-3.

7.  Fold in broken nuts.  Drop by teaspoon onto waxed paper covered cookie sheet.  Explain that each mound represents the rocky tomb where Jesus' body was laid.  Read Matthew 27: 57-60.

8.  Put the cookie sheet in the oven, close the door and turn the oven OFF.

9.  Give each child a piece of tape and seal the oven door.  Explain that Jesus' tomb was sealed.  Read:  Matthew 27: 65-66

10.  Go to Bed!  Explain that they may feel sad to leave the cookies in the oven overnight.  Jesus' followers were in despair when the tomb was sealed.  Read John 16: 20-22

11.  On Easter morning, open the oven and give everyone a cookie.  Notice the cracked surface and take a bite.  The cookies are hollow!  On the first Easter, Jesus' followers were amazed to find the tomb open and empty.  Read Matthew 28:1-9


Saturday, March 23, 2013

Ella's Noah Complex and My Hairless Belly

Before you can fully appreciate the story I am about to tell you, I need to explain 2 things about Ella.

1.  You may already know that Ella is obsessed with animals.  She loves all animals.  What you may not know, is that Ella loves animals in pairs.  She never wants just one of an animal toy.  She has to have 2 of the same animal.  They have to have family.  Like Noah, she prefers her animals two by two, and really has a hard time if she only has one of a particular type of animal.

2.  Ella has always been somewhat of a daddy's girl.  You may remember this story from when she was younger.  She loves me for sure...it's me that she wants at bedtime or when she doesn't feel well...she loves to have "girl time."  But daddy...well, he's on a pedestal.  You're about to see why.  :)

Now for the story:

We were at the museum and Ella wanted to buy a dinosaur.  She had enough allowance to buy just one.  I carefully explained to her that if she spent all of her allowance on this one thing, she would not have any money for the rest of the month and wouldn't be able to buy anything else.  But, she really wanted it, so she bought it.  Almost immediately, she was upset that she couldn't buy two.  She pouted the rest of the time that we were at the museum, because her dinosaur was lonely and missed his friend.

The next morning, she woke up and immediately asked to go to the museum again to buy another dinosaur.  I reminded her that she was out of money and couldn't get the other dinosaur until next month.  She was very upset at this point, and this is the tirade she unleashed on me:

"You think you're so strong, but you're not.  You can't even drive the tractor and you don't have a furry belly.  You don't even have those hairs in your nose to keep you from getting germs!  Alls you can do is have babies and get snacks!"   (translation--you're not daddy!)

Seriously?  I had to walk away.  Quickly.  So she didn't see me laugh.  I have never had a harder time trying to discipline a child for being rude while desperately trying not to crack up.  Where does she get this stuff?  When Mark got home from work that day, he was very sure to point out how thankful we should all be that I do NOT have a furry belly.  On the bright side, I can get snacks like nobody's business.  :)

Sunday, March 17, 2013

Ella's Rainbow-Unicorn, I mean Ocean, I mean Sea Horse Party

This year, Ella wanted a rainbows and unicorn party for her birthday.  She talked about it for months.  I tirelessly scanned Pinterest for ideas, and pinned many of them.  (You should check out my party ideas board--lots of unicorns and rainbows).  I had all of my ideas ready, and was preparing to make the invitations, when Ella informed me that she no longer wanted a unicorn/rainbow party.  She wanted a seahorse party--not an ocean party, a seahorse party.  (She's nothing if not specific).

So, I switched gears...revisited Pinterest and threw together a ocean seahorse party.  Here are some pictures:

The invite:  for the invitation, I bought plain white cards, glued a little white sand to the bottom and a cut out sea horse that I made using my mom's silhouette cutter.  I also glued on a couple of seashells.  I wrote the info by hand.  I would have loved to have had it printed nicely, but we decided on this sea horse theme only 2 weeks before her birthday---so I was working on a time crunch.


The cake.  This cake was actually pretty easy.

I made 2 9" chocolate cakes for the bottom, and 2 7" white cakes for the top.  (I didn't have a 7" cake pan, so I made 9" and used a small plate to cut around).  I made a buttercream frosting and dyed it light blue and spread this over the whole cake.  Then I used the slanted frosting tip to put the waves all around the cake.  I kept adding more food coloring to make a darker blue as I got lower on the cake.  I sprinkled brown sugar on top for sand and topped it with candy shells.  I made the shells using a candy mold that I bought at Michael's.

I wish I was better at taking food pictures.  :(

I have discovered that kids really love to eat food on a stick.  So this blow fish made out of a cantaloupe and fruit kabobs was a must.  One of Ella's friends called it a "fish"kabob.  :)
So, maybe he's a little scary.  :)


For decorations, I used a blue table cloth.  Scattered starfish that I found at Hobby Lobby on the table and made tissue paper pom-poms to hang above the table.  I loved making the pom-poms.  They were so easy and fun.  

I also served gold fish and peanut butter and "jellyfish" sandwiches.

I searched the whole town for jelly fish cookie cutters to cut the sandwiches...but with our short notice, triangle shaped sandwiches had to do.



Because I'm cheap, and did not feel like spending a fortune on little pieces of junk and candy to send home in goody bags, we made oceans in a bottle instead.  A craft, and a party favor to take home.  2 birds, 1 stone.  
I didn't get many pictures of this, because I was trying to supervise kids with sand AND water, funnels and tiny bottles around my kitchen table.  Basically, I found little plastic bottles in the sand art section of Hobby Lobby.  I also found sand there (imagine that).  I bought the bottles, white sand and tiny sea shells.  The kids used funnels to pour in the sand.  Picked out the sea shells they wanted, and topped it off with a little salt water that I tinted blue.  It was fun and cute.  




Ella and friends with their finished oceans.  They shook them up, which is why they look cloudy.

Pouring in the ocean water

And, that's all I did. Simple, right?  I could have gone crazy, planning more stuff...spending more money.  But, at the end of the day, Ella just wanted to play with her friends and open presents.  She loved it and had a great time, and I got to visit with our friends and family instead of running around leading birthday games.

It looks like Anna will be having a rainbows/unicorns party this year.  :)






Friday, March 15, 2013

Ella is Five

Ella turned 5 last week.  Wow.

This is her 5 years ago...


My beautiful first daughter.  She won our hearts and wrapped us around her dainty little fingers right from the beginning.

She is feisty.  She ALWAYS has something to say.  She makes us laugh. all. the. time.  She is opinionated and always knows exactly what she wants.  She is a force to be reckoned with.

But, she is also sensitive.  She hates to disappoint.  She cares deeply about her family and always wants to be surrounded by them.  

She loves animals.  Really loves animals.  It's all she talks about.  Most of the time, she is pretending to BE an animal.  It is always a hybrid of some sort.  Her favorites are the chipmunk-squirrel, the chicken-duck, the flamingo-penguin, and the horse-unicorn.  

She is a scrappy wrestler.  She fights like a little spider monkey.  If Mark and Aidan are wrestling, she will fling herself at them from across the room and tackle them with arms and legs flailing wildly.  

She is a great little sister.  She adores Aidan and wants to be with him all the time.  She takes an interest in what interests him.

She is also a great 2nd mommy big sister to Anna.  She watches out for her, teaches her things, helps take care of her and plays with her constantly.  

She is beautiful.  With wild blonde hair and big blue eyes, she has taken our breath away right from the beginning.  And with a big personality, and an even bigger heart, we could not be prouder of our first born daughter.  I can't believe she is already five years old. 

My Ella:
My precious 5 year old.


She is such a ham

Ella on her 5th birthday


Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Because I Just Realized...

...I haven't updated my blog in over a month.

Oops.

So, since life is crazy, I thought I'd share a quick list of what is going on with us.

1.  Anna is 15 months old.  She is not walking yet.  She is standing, cruising, climbing onto the couch, pushing furniture all around the room, but not walking on her own.  Aidan is convinced she is going to crawl down the aisle at her own wedding.  Has anyone else had a late walker?  I'm curious to know if this is all that unusual.

2.  She is, however, bossing everyone around already.  If you pick her up, she will point where she wants to go and say, "One, two, three, GO!"  She also loves to tell her brother and sister and the cat "No!"

3.  Ella is going to turn 5 on Saturday.  I still don't know how this is possible.  This was not cleared with me. She is alternating between excited and sad about her birthday.  She cried last night at bedtime because she does not want to turn 5.  In fact, at one point, she was sobbing, "Dear God,  Why are you making me have a birthday?!?  How can I stop it?"  She doesn't want to grow up, and she doesn't want to leave me.  She will, however, take the presents she would normally receive for having a birthday.

4. Have you seen the news about the kid that got suspended over a gun shaped pop tart?  Is that just beyond ridiculous or what?  Come on people.  Gun shaped pop tarts don't kill people.  People kill people.  (On a side note...have you ever noticed how many calories are in a pop tart??  It's crazy...so in a way, maybe pop tarts DO kill people.)

5.  Aidan and I discovered a really cool website today.  We have been studying continents in geography.  We are using Ann Voskamp's book, Explore his Earth, A Child's Geography.  At the end of every chapter, she has some outreach ideas to allow you to "reach out to his world."  Today's was a website that tells you about a different country every day and tells you how to pray for that country.  Check it out:  http://www.operationworld.org/today2

6. We are really getting into a groove with the home school thing.  At first, it was really stressful, but this semester, we have really started to figure out how to make it work best for our family.  I am so thankful that I am able to do this.  I am so excited about the education Aidan is getting, the experiences he is having and the memories we are making.

7.  I have been in a serious cleaning/remodeling/reorganizing phase lately.  I have redone our laundry room, reorganized our closet and taken a ton of stuff to goodwill.  Is it weird that I get an extreme amount of satisfaction from taking car loads of junk out of this house?  It makes me happy.  I am officially a nerd.

8. Since I started writing this post, Ella has asked me 367 questions and told me 114 facts about various animals.

9. Aidan has been working on a new art curriculum.  He LOVES it, and he's good at it.  It is such a fun thing to see.  He gets so much joy out of being creative.  I hope he chooses a job some day that will allow him to be creative.

10.  That is all I have for now.  :)  Which doesn't really deserve a place as #10 on the list...but you can't have a list of 9 things.  You just can't.