Drive-in movie night

Over the last week, my house was busy with painting and cutting and creating Garrett's "Drive-in Movie Vehicle." Each year the Kids Klub at our church (youth group 1st-5th grades) have an evening where everyone brings in a vehicle made from cardboard and they sit in their vehicles and watch a movie. popcorn and drinks are included. Well, this was Garrett's first year to actually get to make his vehicle and take it to the church. In the past Robert was involved with this and Garrett would get to make something and watch a movie at home. So this year was really big to him and so was his plans for his creation. He wanted a loader that articulated and actually worked! Wow what a way to start!
After hours of painting and discussing, taping and bending he was finally happy with what he and I had built. It included a chrome smoke stack, a bend in the middle and front blade instead of a bucket that really moved!  The kids had a great night and once again their creativity was used and they were able to show off their vehicles. 


Garrett showing his friends that the blade lifts

Thanks to Peggy and all that make this a great, fun event for the kids!!!

The only way I knew how to make it articulate

Driver all ready to go!

 

Camper Sunday - Children's Sermon

This past Sunday was "Camper Sunday" at our church as we had a speaker in from Wesley Woods Church Camp (where most of our youth go). Well I had the children's sermon. Before I left home I grabbed Robert's tent in it's bag, a ball and a tube of glow sticks.

When it was time for children's sermon, I "drug" the tent to the front and told the woman who heads camping at our church "I'm ready, Karen! I'm ready for Camper Sunday! But I'm confused? When I came in I didn't see any RV's that I know we have in the congregation and no tow-behind campers and the yard wasn't full of tents. What kind of "camper" Sunday was this anyway? Wait he's from Wesley Woods! This isn't camper Sunday it's CAMP Sunday!!!!  Well I get it and boy can I tell you things about camp!  I never went to Wesley Woods, but I did go to church camp and scout camp and 4-H camp. Well to be honest, I spent most of my summers packing and unpacking from camps when I was home. But one of the most important things that I learned while at church camp was a song called "Pass It On" What do you think that means?  Here (and I pulled out my ball) and passed it around. Now make sure everyone gets to pass it. Wasn't that great? We passed the ball along. Is that what it's all about? UMMM no that isn't what this song is about. Let me share the words...

 It only take a spark to get a fire going. And soon all those around can warm up in it's glowing. That's how it is with God's love, once you've experienced it, You want to sing, it's fresh like spring you want to pass it on.

 

 

So you see once you receive Christ, you want to share it with EVERYONE!  It's like a fire, you can't contain a fire. And you can't contain Christ either. You have a light that you want to share with everyone. So on this Camp Sunday I want to give each of you a glow stick to remind you that you need to share the light that is inside of you that is Jesus. And that you should "Pass It on."

 

And we closed in prayer.

Slowing down?

Just when I thought things might slow down just a little bit - the weather turned NICE!! The Maple syrup is done and all the equipment is cleaned and put away. It was a long season this year as we had taps out for almost a month plus I was helped Andrew cook his down too. I cooked over 255 gallons of sap into syrup in my kitchen through March and part of April.

  Robert participated in 4-H in the Mall and received several scholarships for events.
And now we have had BEAUTIFUL weather! The sun has been shining and I should do some yard work. We had a tree cut down in the yard so that needed to be cleaned up. Gary is pruning apple trees (hopefully gets them done before the blossom) and that takes cleaning up. Plus it is now time to start the flower beds. Wait I got a new front porch this March, so there is some landscaping that needs down and extra parts and pieces still need cleaned up from that.
Do I ever get to quit cleaning up something???

Okay, I'm done now - just overwhelmed with "cleaning up"  The daffodils are wonderful this year! Make sure you take time and smell a few or cut a bouquet. Gary brought me in some just the other night:) One of my favorites!

An Easter Children's Lesson/ Activity

I saw this post on Pinterest and loved what I saw. I did use this for the last Children's Sermon that I had, but I didn't used the same words. So here is kind of what I said and then you will need to click on the link to see the pictures that go along with it. Here's the link and it is WAY COOL!!! http://futureflyingsaucers.wordpress.com/2012/03/16/awesome-childrens-easter-object-lesson/

I started by asking questions as I folded my paper
So where are we to share the story of God's love? How about on a boat? (goes with the 2nd picture)
How about at Home or our friends house? (Goes with 3rd picture)
How about when we travel (this goes with picture 4&5 and I flipped the one side out so it did look like an airplane for a minute and then put it back the way it needed to be)
How about anywhere that we walk around (goes with the 6th picture)
Then you need to finish tearing the whole way through.  Now I did skip a few parts because I had 2,3 & 4 year olds.

But I showed the 3 crosses that Jesus and the robbers were crucified on.
Then I talked about the sign that hung above Jesus
The sword that pierced his side
And the dice that were cast for his clothes
Then I showed the tomb and that it is now empty.
I closed by writing out the word "Jesus" with the paper pieces

Such a neat way to share God's story with a single piece of Paper!

Easter Egg Decorating

Haylee with her YELLOW

Garrett checking his eggs

Andrew trying the rubber bands

Robert coloring 1/2 an egg

 

We had a fun afternoon at Nanny & Papa's decorating Easter Eggs for the Community Easter Egg Hunt. Nanny & Papa were both there helping and guiding the 4 grandchildren. Papa helped put on the plastic shrink sleeves and handed out the eggs. We used rubber bands, clear crayons, Q-tips, and plastic sleeves. Haylee had a thing with Yellow- I think every other egg she did was yellow. We had a fantastic pink color and a very deep blue. Amazingly enough - NO MESSES!!! I think we colored 6 or 8 dozen eggs. Fun Day

 

Easter Preparations

Okay so I have made my first butter lamb (for my mother-in-law). So here is what we did.
We had cold cream and poured about a pint into a quart jar and added 5 ice cubes and put on the lid- tight. Then we all took turns shaking the cream. We ended up shaking this jar for about 20-30 minutes. As you shake the jar you will get to the point that your thinking maybe this really isn't working and then all of the sudden you have a lump in the middle of the jar along with watered down buttermilk. I usually drain off the buttermilk/water and then put the butter into a bowl. I took a wooden spoon and worked the butter (a lot like kneading bread) to work out the rest of the water.
Then I used the butter lamb kit that my mother-in-law had and pressed the butter into both sides. You need to make sure that you get butter clear into the nose (I didn't the first time and had to fix it. A noseless lamb just won't work) Clip the mold together and freeze for at least an hour. I pulled the lamb out of the freezer and ran it under warm water for a couple seconds - you could feel it let go of the form.  I continued to follow the directions and took off the clips, opened the front and then flipped it onto a plate, but it fell a little harder than I was planning and now our lamb has a flat nose this year.

The Butter Lamb kit

Our flat nosed lamb for this year

We have made butter here in various ways, but actually putting it into the mold and molding it was a new step for us and kind of fun. Thanks Grandma for the butter mold.

Planning on Spring

Okay, I agree if you look out my window (um snow blowing, sleeting, cold wintry weather) you would not be thinking spring, but a cup of hot chocolate.  But here we spent some time looking at the seed catalogs and planning the garden. We have ordered some seeds and have soil in the basement. The table is up and soon we will be ready to start some seeds. We had some seeds left over from last year and are checking their germination times to see if the seeds are still good.  This is something that is kind of fun for the kids to help with. Take a plate and a paper towel. We used a 6" Styrofoam plate. Wet your paper towel and lay it on your plate. Lay your seeds on top and slide into a plastic Ziploc style bag and set in a warm location.  in several days your seeds should have germinated and you will see signs of life. And actually you have created a little greenhouse.

Stay warm and safe!

Different Signs of Spring- Ag Minute

Every year, I go outside looking for signs of spring. Little flowers poking their heads up through the frozen ground, the sound of birds returning , geese flying overhead in the northward direction, but there is one that I tend to forget about... newborns.

Spring is the time of year when there are a lot of newborns. New born goats, lambs, piglets, chicks, ducklings. This year I have been able to be part of the births of several sets of goats and of a set of twin lambs. I have seen baby piglets recently and I heard that it will soon be chick days at our local farm supplier.  These are no the normal signs of spring that I look for but I have been privileged to be involved this year in a new way. And it does remind me that Spring is just around the corner. 

So if you get a chance, this is a great time to visit a farm and maybe see some little ones about. It is also a great time to stop in to your local farm/ranch supply store and see if they will be having baby chicks. The kids love it, if nothing else to stop and see and maybe pet those little yellow fluffy bodies. (remember to wash your hands after petting animals!)

If you want to see more baby chicks of a variety of breeds, check out this link: https://www.esteshatchery.com/baby-chick-pictures.html

So go see what signs of Spring you can see!

Pop Bottle Piggy Bank

Tonight as Cub Scouts we discussed how to use your money. To save, spend, donate and invest. Well after discussing with the parent providing that part of the activity, we thought that a divided bank would be really neat for the boys, but they were a little pricey to just give away. So I came up with this divided bank from a 2 liter pop bottle.

Take a 2 liter and wash it out. Then mark 2 1/2" down the side. You will cut with a craft knife about 1/2 way around and the width of the thickness of cardboard that you are using, at those 3 2 1/2" marks.  Between those marks going with the length of the bottle, you will cut small splits where the coins will be dropped in. You will need 4 of those slits. You will also need to drill a small hole in the bottle of the bottle for the tail

supplies needed

You also need:
 2 googly eyes (we used the peel and stick eyes);
 a small circle of adhesive pink fun foam (cut to the size of the bottle cap)
a black marker
1 piece of pink construction paper (cut into triangles)
3 circle discs, cut slightly bigger than the diameter of the bottle
1 pink pipe cleaner, cut in half
hot glue gun



You add the eyes to the neck of the bottle making sure that they are toward the top of the bottle where the coins would be dropped in. The take the marker and add the nostrils to the pink nose. Peel the paper backing and place on bottle cap. Take the pipe cleaner 1/2 and wrap around your finger to make it curly. The place the end of the pipe cleaner into the drilled hole in the bottom of the bottle.
Take your construction paper triangles, fold a tab across one side, and using a glue gun place the ears slightly above the eyes on the neck part of the bottle. The add the cardboard discs to the large slits in the side of the bottle.

You now have a piggy bank that is divided to divide your money or to sort your money. Just a simple activity to help reinforce money management to children.

Dr. Seuss Weekend

I was SO thrilled that Dr. Seuss's birthday was on a weekend and that the boys would actually be home!!! YEAH!! So I started thinking and planning- nothing too time consuming, but a little fun and then add a couple of books! Well we started Friday night by watching the Lorax and we talked about UNLESS. What type of things wouldn't get done unless they helped or did their part. I also made red jello and whipped cream Seuss hat desserts for during the movie.

Saturday morning before soccer, we had green eggs and ham (of course). This year I made green scrambled eggs and I colored the butter for their toast too. Garrett wasn't real thrilled with green butter on his toast, where Robert was like "oh it's part of the fun - it's just food coloring!"  Following several soccer games, we came home and had lunch. "One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish" came to mind, and so I baked chicken nuggets and then cut little triangels out of both sides, I added an eye and a smile and they looked a little bit like fish.

Our chicken turned fish

The whole school of fish

Following lunch they wanted to play "Cat in the Hat Catapults", which we have to make a rythming word for the word that mom gives in order to launch the catapult. That lasted a little while ( we started that game a year or so ago). Then they wanted a new game for this year - so we played "Ring the Gack" - I took some light weight cardboard and cut discs, which they each colored and designed. Then they had to stand at one end of the table and throw the rings to land on a set of antlers form one of Gary's whitetail deer.  They thought this was great.



Rack the Gack game

For snack, I made up some vanilla pudding, divided it into 3 bowls and added food coloring to each bowl. I then piped the pudding into bowls, reminding you of the cover of "Oh the Places You Will Go" .

Oh the Places You Will Go Pudding

And then we HAD to make oobleck (requested from BOTH boys). It was an afternooon spent being silly and doing crazy things while reading several books too.

Working our version of Oobleck

I think I am going to miss Dr. Seuss Day when they get older. Maybe they will still let their mom serve Green Eggs and Ham at least!

Sand Spelling Words

Winter is still here in PA, but I have a boy that LOVES dirt and sand. I was trying to think of ways to make spelling word practice fun for Garrett. So the other night I grabbed a cookie sheet, a small bag of sand that I had left over from another project and his spelling words. We put the sand on the tray and he spread it out evenly then when I gave him a spelling word , he used his finger and then an unsharpened pencil to write and then spelled it out loud. That makes it practice times 2!
It was so simple and when he was done with his spelling words, he was allowed to play in the sand with his tractors for a while- which for him equaled a bonus!

Just a simple spelling word fun idea

Franklin on Ice

Last weekend, we took the boys up to Franklin for their annual ice sculptures in the park. This year's theme was "The Arts" and they were beautiful. I did for get my camera, but I had my phone which worked for 1 photo because it was dark, but they were beautiful!! There was a full size ballerina, a trumpet, A carriage, a painters palette, saxophones, , I don't remember the rest, but they added color changing lights this year. They were so cool!!! Another great job by Franklin  on Ice!

Garrett's Baby Goats

Today was the day - the arrival of Garrett's baby goats. His goat had twins. They arrived sometime between 1pm and 3pm, as when I went to check on her on my way to pick-up Andrew off the bus, low and behold there were 2 little kids needing taken care of. So I quickly went to work cleaning them up and taking care of them and their mother. Then off to get Andrew. Then back to take care of little ones and wait for the bus for Garrett to come home so he could see his little ones. IT is so neat to be able to enjoy God at work when there is a birth.

Beginning of Indoor Soccer season

Garrett is playing indoor soccer this winter and we are now 2 games into the season. He is still learning the game but has a great time playing. This year he is the blue tie dyed team and has orange shoestrings.

Robert's 12th birthday

Well you can tell that Robert is getting older and involved, because he wasn't even home for his birthday. He celebrated his 12th birthday with the Boy Scouts at the Klondike derby- which it sounds like he had a blast at.  So today we had his birthday lunch and he got to open a few gifts, but some are being held until we can get family together. But overall, I think he had a good fun birthday! Happy Birthday Robert - love you!

Well I am finally getting pictures posted of Robert's birthday! We were able to get some of the family together for pizza and cake and ice cream a few days after his birthday. Amazing how kids grow so quickly.

1st Pinewood Derby

This weekend was an exciting one here. This was the first time that Garrett got to participate in the Cub Scout Pinewood Derby. He has been working on his car for a couple of weeks. He learned how to use a coping saw, a wood file, and a wood chisel. He found out that he really likes 800 grit sandpaper and that painting details can be tricky (he had more details than there was space on the car). Saturday morning he was up early and he isn't a morning person, but he was ready to go. With his car in hand and Dad by his side they went to the weigh-ins. He was 5.1oz so they had to drill out a little bit more wood. Then he patiently waited and checked out the competition. 54 cars were entered in the race this year. When his car was up to race he stood at the end of the track. If he won you could hear "YES" and if he lost he quietly took his car back to the table to await the next race. He won 6 races and lost 4. His car ran well, but there were a LOT of fast cars this year. Twice he had to rerace it because the lights didn't go off and the judges couldn't tell who won - so some very close calls.

Frozen "Marbles"

Okay, with the extreme cold that we have had recently , it seemed like a great time to try the "Frozen Marbles" that I have seen on Pintrest. Well yesterday morning, the boys had a little time and we grabbed the balloons and food coloring. I hadn't shown them what the outcome was, just said that we were doing a science experiment while they were are school. We actually tried this 2 different ways. First we filled the balloon and then added the food coloring. Worked great for balloon number 1, but number 2- well let's say we had blue water EVERYWHERE! So we then put the food coloring into the balloon and then added water- this seemed to work a bit better.

The boys sat them on the porch swing in the "deep Freeze" at temperatures barely reaching 15 degrees yesterday. When they came home, they were very excited to check them out. But when they went to pick them up- they weren't completely frozen. So we waited over night and this morning they were solid.  We picked them up and peeled the balloon off of them. They are so pretty at this drab, cold time of year that they look very "cheery". So you might want to find ways to use the cold rather than hide from it.

Things that you might want to try:
Have you ever blown bubbles in freezing temperatures? Sometimes it is really cool!
How about which freezes ice cubes faster- the freezer or outdoors?

So how do you use the outdoor cold for fun?

Snowflake Children's sermon

I was having problems with this post, so I will try it again, but I'm sure it won't be exactly as I first wrote it. sorry if you have seen this earlier and it's not the same.

This is a children's sermon I did a few years back, but it is always fun. So I begin "so have you been enjoying the snow? (Assuming that you have snow- it's a good lesson for a wintry weekend) Have you been sledding? Snowman building? How about just checking out snowflakes? What do you know about a snowflake? Did you know that is starts as a speck of dirt? Did you know that snowflakes grow? They all have 6 sides but did you know that they all are unique? What does that word mean? Unique! Well that means that each 1 is different, there isn't any 1 snowflake exactly the same.  Here let me show you. I have asked a couple of adults to help me today, if they would stand. Now they have NO idea what they have agreed to, but I need to ask them to agree to the following rules. First rule- you won't look at what the other adults are doing- please do your own work. Second- You can't ask any questions. And finally that they will do their best to follow the directions. (Once the adults have agreed to this they each receive a square piece of paper like what you would cut snowflakes out of)

Okay adults here we go- (make sure that the children can easily watch the adults) Please fold your paper in half and then in half again. Now tear the top right corner off.

We will continue by having you fold your paper again in half and again tearing off the top right hand corner. And we need to do that one more time- fold your paper in half and tear off the top right corner. (now have the adults open their snowflakes)

 

What they aren't all the same?!? What happened? Did the adults follow the directions? They did? Oh I get it  this is how God works, we are all different.  You are just like the snowflakes- you are each unique and if we look into God's word in Psalms 139:14 it says "I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well."  So you see that we have been told in the Bible that no matter what others may have said or told you, you are perfect just the way God made you. Just like the snowflake- you are unique exactly the way God wanted you to be.

 

With that we closed in prayer.

 

Daily Bible Readings

Did you know that there is a Proverb per day of the month? Each day for 1 month you can read 1 chapter from the book of Proverbs. There are 31 chapters and it is full of wisdom. Amazingly if you read it more than one month, you will find other things that you missed the month before or things that may apply today that didn't apply last month. The Proverbs are written by King Solomon - the wisest man , so there HAS to be something there for each of us! Take a minute and look into the Proverbs and see if it applies to your life.

The Christmas Story with a Twist

Well this year, I decided that I wanted to share the Christmas Story in an interactive way. But how? After a couple of days of thinking and several readings of the Biblical story, I arrived at the following family gift. I typed out the Christmas Story from Luke2:1-20 when there was a word that linked to a gift I put a number in parenthesis. I had gifts wrapped and numbered, most were 1 gift per family member but a few were family gifts. So it looked like this:

In those days Caesar Augustus issued a degree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman World (This was the first census that took place while Quirinus was Governor of Syria) and everyone went to his own town to be taxed (#1) Here they opened gold dollars - 1 per family member

So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem to the town of David, (#2) Here they opened an atlas which I had gone through and put stickers where everyone lived. because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. While they were there the time came for the baby to be born and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger (#3) Here they received a feed bucket because there was no room for them in the Inn.

And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks (#4) everyone received a pair of wool socks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them , and the glory of the Lord shone (#5) each received a LED flashlight 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 city of David a Savior has been born to you; his Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you; you will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger. Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying (#6) Here we added a Praise Cd for them to listen to during the Christmas season
"Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests."
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, (#7) Here we added the movie "The Nativity Story" concerning what had been told them about this child and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told. (#8) Here we added one more family movie "Christmas with a Capital C"