Empty Tomb Biscuits

This is a fun Easter Activity for the kids to help with and enjoy, originally from the "The Good Book Cookbook" You can read the Easter Story from Luke 24:1-11 and 36-49.
Ingredients:
1 can of refrigerator biscuits
1 c. butter
2. tsp cinnamon
1/4 c sugar
large marshmallows

Open the can of biscuits and separate. Working on waxed paper, use hands to flatten the biscuits. In a glass bowl, melt the butter in the microwave. In a small bowl, mix cinnamon and sugar. Dip a marshmallow (which represents the body of Christ - white and pure of sin) into the butter and then roll in the cinnamon and sugar (represents the oils and spices the body was anointed with before burial) Place a marshmallow on the dough and carefully wrap the dough around the marshmallow. Make sure seams are pinched together so that the marshmallow will not ooze out. Dip in butter and roll in cinnamon and sugar. Bake according to the package directions. When cool, break open and see what is inside.

This is a great activity that helps show the kids the risen Savior's empty tomb. Plus they are tastey too.

Egg Stuffer ideas

It seems in our house that at Easter we end up with a lot of candy, which we really do not need. So in the last couple of years, I have tried a few other ideas for things inside of the Easter Eggs. I'm sure that you all have ideas too, but here are a few that the boys really enjoy.
1. money
2. matchbox cars (they fit in the larger eggs)
3. trailmix
4. stickers (cut a few from the page to put in each egg)
5. (This was one I thought was cool but haven't tried) puzzle pieces and they have to find all the eggs to find all of their pieces.
6. gift certificates for an ice cream trip

Just thought I would share some things that I have done and I know they aren't very girl friendly, sorry I don't have girls but I'm sure hair clips fit in eggs and so does jewelry

Wish Book

Gary & I have found that it is sometimes hard to get each other a gift that we would know for sure that the other really wants. So we have started a "Wish Book." This is a book that when we find something that we would like to have but not really need right now, we add the item to the wish book. This way when someone asks "What does Gary/Robin need or want for his birthday, Christmas, etc" I can look in the wish book an give them a couple of ideas. This is also where if we have a large purchase that we jointly are saving for, we write it down just so we don't forget what we are saving for. This has made holidays and birthdays a lot easier and takes a little bit of the guess work out of gift giving.

Canning Clinic

The Penn State Cooperative Extension Service will be offering a Canning Clinic at the Salem Community Building Kitchen on Tuesday April 6, 2010 from 6-9pm. The registrations are due by April 2, 2010 at the Forest County Cooperative Extension Office. There is a $25.00 registration fee but you will receive a canning class and a book "So Easy To Preserve" which includes recipes. I have registration forms if anyone is interested. This is a great way to make a few adjustments to your food budget and have produce available when it is NOT in season.

Woman's website with devotions

For anyone who might be interested there is a cool website that a friend directed me to. www.girlfriendsinGod.com This is a very nice website that has devtions and other things to keep us on the path that God wants us on. Enjoy!

Last Week

Okay Garrett made it back from Mass. and visiting Aunt Caren early Wednesday morning. But it seems that the rest of the week got lost somewhere. I watched my cousin Emily's little girl, Elise, on Monday. Then on Thursday I had the chance to go to The Sewing & Quilt Expo in Cleveland. Oh what a fun time and the cool ideas and fabrics. So last week just kind of disappeared. We finished indoor soccer season so now the schedule will change again.

Beauty & The Beast

WOW! boy did the kids at Keystone do a fabulous job with the class play. I hope you had a chance to go see it, the boys really enjoyed it even though it was long. IT will be a tough act to follow next year. Congrats Keystone cast & crew!

Grapevine pruning

I spent part of last week pruning the grapevines in our backyard. If I get a chance, I'm working on making a few grapevine wreaths. If anyone is interested in wreaths to decorate, let me know as I should have a few once I get them made. (Which isn't hard, if you have your own grapevines give it a try)

Garrett on the Road

Okay, Garrett is out traveling with my mom to Massuchuettes to visit my sister, Caren. Yes Caren lives in GA, but Valdosta guys Basketball team has made it to play-offs and they are playing up there this week. So Mom & Garrett are on the road. Much to Robert's dismay, he did not get to get out of school to go. Now he is deciding that he misses Garrett already. As for me, I'm a worrier and Garrett & Mom haven't always seen eye to eye. I hope that it will be a fun trip for all. If nothing else Garrett will be a surprise to Aunt Caren because she doesn't know that he is coming. This probably explains the verse of the week, huh?

Kid Made shirts

Garrett just outgrew a shirt that had dinosaurs on it and he was very upset about it. A fun way to keep clothing cheap and creative is to let you children make their own. Yesterday Garrett colored a dinosaur picture and I colored the other one. I then scanned his colored picture into the computer and then printed it out on t-shirt transfer iron-on. (Iron-ons can be purchased at Staples, Wal-mart, etc check the office section) In just under an hour Garrett had a one of a kind t-shirt that was just what he wanted and is a great way to show-off the kid's art work.

For cheap plain t-shirts, that are quality and name brands check out www.jiffyshirt.com I usually stock up on plain shirt at the beginning of summer. You can order mixed sizes and colors and styles. You can also find plain sweatshirts which are hard to find sometimes as alot of stores insist on having pictures already on their clothing.

So have fun creating one of a kind shirts - the kids will love them and you can save a few bucks!

Beauty & The Beast

For those who are not in the Keystone School District or those who do not have kids in school, I thought you might want to know that Keystone High School is presenting the musical Beauty & The Beast this Thursday, Friday, Saturday at 7pm and Sunday at 3pm in the afternoon. The cost is $5.00. Tickets are available for advance sales Tuesday at the high school from 7:30-8:30am and at the Elementary from 8:30-9:30am. Personally, the afternoon show on Sunday would be a great family afternoon out especially if you don't want the little ones up too late. IF you get the chance to go, I hope that you enjoy it!

Knox United Methodist Church VBS

As one of the directors of Vacation Bible School at the Knox United Methodist Church, I wanted to invite any of the kids who's parents are reading this blog. Our VBS will be June 14-19 from usually 8:30am - noon for kids age 3 through going into 6th grade. This year we will be doing a fun program "Backstage with the BIBLE" This is a VBS put out by the music group "Go Fish" and I'm pretty sure that the kids will love the music as my kids really, really like the "Go Fish Guys." So mark your calendars!!!

St. Patrick's Day Placemat

Garrett has been working on his colors and he has them mastered finally. He was getting a few of them mixed up so we had been looking for certain colors in magazines and cutting and glueing them onto construction paper. Well the other day I had him a piece of freezer paper about 11x17ish and I started with an arch of red and had him fill it in and then he asked what color came next and we went through the rainbow. Once he had his rainbow colored, we added a black pot and circles that look like money for the pot of gold. I was going to hang it on the refrigerator, but Garrett decided that it was his new placemat at his spot at the table. Isn't it neat how kids can change the direction that we are going with projects.

Progressive Lunch with the kids

Okay so on this wet, rainy Sunday, we decided to have a little bit of fun and take the boys out to lunch, but we needed it to be quick and we knew that they both wanted Shamrock Shakes from McDonald's before they are gone for another year. (Robert found out last year that sometimes on St. Patrick's day McD's has run out of green shakes and he was quite disappointed.) Anyhow we took the boys on a Progressive Lunch through Clarion. We started at McDonald's and got shakes. Then out around the corner and across the street to Wendy's where we ordered fries. Then we went out towards the mall and went to Arby's and got Roast Beef sandwiches. The boys thought this was cool especially since mom tells them they have to agree on the restuarant when we go out. Plus they had no choice in what they got to eat this time. Gary & I made all the ordering decisions. If it hadn't been for the shakes (which keep going up in price) it wouldn't have been any more expensive than eating at one of those restuarants. And if Gary and I had planned this before leaving for church, I had coupons for a couple of the restuarants here at the house. But if nothing else everyone got to eat at one of the favorite places or at least we got to mix it up a little bit. THank goodness for $1 menus!

Drive - in Movie night

This has been a busy weekend, Robert had soccer on Saturday and today in addition to church he was scheduled to have the Father/Son Cub Scout Bake-off and Drive-in Movie night at our church with the Kids Klub (younger youth group for those who don't know). Unfortunately, due to a change in times for the bake-off he then had to choose which to attend. Robert has choosen to attend the Drive-in Movie night. This is a great event that the Kids Klub leader, Peggy, found for the kids. Each child is to make a car or vehicle of some type out of a cardboard box (or 2 or 3). Well to make it a bit easier, our house actually made 2 cars for this drive-in, even though Garrett isn't old enough yet to attend the movie, he can watch one here at home. The leaders of Kids Klub then mark out parking spots with tape on the floor of the church basement and with snacks and cars in place the kids get to watch a movie in their cars.

Getting kids to practice

We have been having problems getting Robert to practice his piano on a regular basis. But money talks to him. We took the price of his lessons and divided it throughout the days between his lessons. We pay $6 for a lesson once every 2 weeks. We also planned 2 days off incase we get really busy or if he has a lot of homework. Then we offered him money for each time that he practices to pay for his lesson. There is a container on the piano for the money that each time he practices money goes into. On the day of his lesson, he counts the money and if he has enough for his lesson he is good, but if he comes up short he has to make up the difference. Boy have we heard a difference in how often he practices.

March is Music Month

March is the National Music month and here are a few ideas for our little music makers and let them have a band.
-Take a coffee can with a lid and wrap the can with fabric or paper and give them wooden spoons for drum sticks. You can put on music and see if your kids can keep a steady beat.
-Take toilet paper rolls and put put a hand full of beans in them. Up a piece of wax paper or construction paper over the end with a rubberband to hold it in place. You now have a a maraca.
- Find a few jingle bells and put them on a string and then the kids can shake the bells for music.

Music is such an important part of our lives, start early!

Maple Syrup Season!

Okay spring isn't here, but it is certainly getting closer as it is Maple Syrup Season at our house and in the area. We spent this evening getting our buckets ready and the taps and the tubing. Then we had time to tap the first 6 trees. We are very fortunate that Ron & Marlys allow us to use their trees down in the woods and in their front and back yards. Last year we didn't make syrup, so Garrett doesn't seem to remember doing this before, but he caught on rather quickly and we have quiet the tapping team. Robert felt that he was big enough to move up on the ranks of jobs and he did part of the drilling this year, while Garrett operated the hammer. Now we will see how long the weather cooperates for our sap run this year. (Check out the picture of Garrett - his tongue is out just a bit, must have been concentrating)

Our Dr. Seuss Day

On Tuesday, I had the opportunity to go to Keystone and read to 3 of the 3rd grade classes for Dr. Seuss DAy. I read "Oh the Places You Will Go." Following the story, I had extra time so I asked the kids to think of where they might want to go or what they wanted to do when they grow up. It went over very well and the kids have some great goals. I can't wait to see it when they reach their goals. That evening we had green eggs & bacon (okay we didn't have slices of ham, just 2 big hams in the freezer. I made 2 different kinds of eggs, Robert had scrambled and Garrett had fried, but each had green eggs thanks to the food coloring. Robert read to us before supper "Green Eggs & Ham" which was a nice treat. Both of the boys enjoyed the day and the fun that we can have with books.

Gak, Obleek or Gooey Gunk

Here is the recipe that I use for whatever you want to call this mixture. It is called "Gooey Creation Gunk " from the book titled "Kid Concoctions of Biblical Proportions" If you happened to be at the Salem Twp. Halloween Party, the kids made it there just for fun. I use this for the Dr. Seuss Obleek as it does stick together a little bit and doesn't make quite the mess that slime or other recipes similair to that do.

Solution A: 1 cup water, 1 cup white glue, 2 Tbs poster paint or 7-10 drops food coloring (I use food coloring)

Solution B: 1 1/3 cups warm water, 4 tsp. Borax laundry booster
Directions:
Mix ingredients together for solution A in a bowl.
Mix solution B together in a bowl until the Borax is dissolved
Now slowly pour solution A into solution B. They will not mix together but rather A will glump together
Lift the glump of solution a out of the bowl and knead it for 2 -3 minutes and let the excess water drip off.
Now play with you gooey gunk or for this occassion Obleek. Gunk can be stored in a sealed container or ziplock baggie.

Dr. Seuss Day - tomorrow!

Just some ideas of what might happen tomorrow at my house, I haven't completely decided but we usually celebrate Dr. Seuss's birthday. Here are some fun things that we have done in the past.
1. Green eggs and Ham (or bacon) for breakfast or dinner which ever works best for your schedule. I just scramble the eggs and add a couple drops of food coloring before cooking the eggs. I have also made green fried eggs, by leaving the yolk alone and making the white green by carefully swirling green food coloring into the white with a knife while it was cooking.
2. Read as many Dr. Seuss books that day as you own!
3. Make a tall red and white striped hat from construction paper and a stapler.
4. Make gak or obleeck. I'll post my recipe later today!
5. Have the kids try to talk in rhymes or to write a crazy poem with nonsense words included!
6. Try to memorize a Dr. Seuss book and watch in amazement when you start the story in the store or in the car and your kids are like -"Where is the book" How do you know that story?"

Have fun and enjoy reading with Dr. Seuss!