Gratefully Growing in Grace

Easter sound eggs

2013-03-19T05:00:00.000-05:00

We did this activity last year after I saw the idea on this blog. Little Lady didn't really get it, but Mini Me had a great time. We are most certainly going to try this again. I chose six small items (a small bell, a large bell, wooden beads, lentils, a small wood shim, and a pom pom). I put those inside plastic Easter eggs and then put matching sounds in another set of six plastic eggs.

Three and a half ways to dye Easter eggs

2013-03-16T05:00:00.000-05:00

Last year all four of us had a blast coloring Easter eggs. We used several different methods to color the eggs. Our supplies were: colored water/vinegar mix crayons spray bottles of water stickers paper towel tubes cut into sections for egg stands We like hard-boiled eggs so we can eat them! I made a batch of 16 and took a few straight from the hot water to the table. The rest

Resurrection Eggs

2013-03-10T08:00:00.000-05:00

I saw this great idea here last year and made a note to do the activity this year for the kids. I copied the ideas directly from the blog, but I wanted to share the idea with more people. Each egg has an item and a Bible verse telling the Easter story from Palm Sunday to Easter morning. It's meaningful for little kiddos because there is a tangible item for each part of the story. At the site

Egg letter matching

2013-03-06T06:20:00.000-06:00

Little Lady is getting great practice matching her letters with this egg matching game! I bought a big pack of plastic eggs for $1 and wrote about 15 letters on egg tops and egg bottoms. I made sure to not match the colors. I also made sure to include letters that look similar like these: It's a challenge (especially snapping the eggs together) but she has a great time. Mini Me also loves this

Preschool activities: Fruits of the Spirit

2013-01-04T06:30:00.000-06:00

Galations 5: 22-23 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. For the month of January, we are going to do activities on the Fruits of the Spirit. Each activity begins with a preschool devotion on the Fruits. I printed it last year and I have no idea where it's from so I

A Year of ABCs, Letters X, Y, Z

2012-12-27T06:31:00.000-06:00

LETTER X Art: X is for X stamps I was going to cut an "x" letter stamp out of a potato but just didn't get that done. I like the idea, though! Literacy: X is for X We used stick pretzels to make letter X's before we ate them. This was as big a hit as when we make Cheerio towers, so we consumed many pretzels during snack time that day (and the next, too). Movement: X is for X-cellent relayThis

A beautiful Merry Christmas!

2012-12-24T06:21:00.001-06:00

New stuff: Tatted snowflake ornament and nativity hand print animals

2012-12-21T06:30:00.000-06:00

I love my tatted snowflake hanging ornament. Made mostly from the serious talent my grandma has for tatting anything dainty and beautiful, I assembled it from several of her tatted snowflakes, fish line, beads, and sparkly ribbon hot glued around an embroidery hoop. The pictures are terrible but in real life it is sparkly and gorgeous! I saw this blog post with some hand print nativity

Joy

2012-12-19T06:00:00.000-06:00

One day last week one of our Advent activities was to take a special treat to people in our community. We made those really easy chocolate-circle pretzel treats (very easy, quick, and fun for kiddos). Little Lady chose to take some to our pastor and our new neighbors (I prompted her with that one), and Mini Me wanted to take some to the firefighters, police officers, and ambulance drivers (I

Baby doll bibs, burp rags, blankets, cloth diapers

2012-12-14T06:00:00.000-06:00

I am giddy with excitement about Little Lady's Christmas gift this year; I can't wait for her to enjoy it and I can't wait for me to enjoy playing, too! I have a beautiful wooden baby doll cradle and high chair from when I was little. My parents have carefully kept them all these years and they are in fabulous condition. I am giving them to Little Lady for Christmas along with some other baby

Stepping out

2012-12-10T13:47:00.000-06:00

It's always been interesting to me how light bulbs flick on in my brain at the most innocuous times. One recent day I was out and about with both kids. We were heading out a doorway that was pretty narrow. I was carrying Little Lady and Mini Me was at my feet. I stepped ahead of him to get out the door first, but he plowed ahead of me, stepping on one of my feet so he could be the first one out.

Another homemade gift basket: personalized soap and hand scrub

2012-12-07T05:30:00.000-06:00

Last spring I made these small gift bags to give to Mini Me's preschool and Sunday School teachers. I wanted something that was small, simple, and useful and I think I accomplished that with my personalized soap bottles and hand scrub set. For some family members for Christmas I put together a very similar gift - something useful and meaningful to give them. This time I also went with a full "

Felt Christmas activities

2012-12-04T05:00:00.000-06:00

Here are some fun felt Christmas activities we enjoyed last year: Handprint Santas out of felt. With some googly eyes, a hot glue gun, pom poms, and the sweet little hands of my children, we made these fun ornaments. Christmas shape match Simply trace cookie cutters onto a sheet of felt, cut out the pieces, and have the kiddos match the cookie cutter to the cut-out shape. This was too

A good Santa

2012-11-29T06:00:00.000-06:00

This year marked the first time I took the kiddos to visit Santa. We went to our downtown and visited a really, really great Santa. He was calm and not pushy and asked the kids great questions - "How is school?" "Are you helping your mom at home?" - before asking what they would like for Christmas. Mini Me asked for a puzzle and Little Lady asked for a book. We weren't rushed despite the long

Home made gift baskets

2012-11-26T05:55:00.000-06:00

I gave these gift baskets for Christmas this year and couldn't post about it before Christmas so as to not spoil the surprise Nearly a year later... here they are! I wanted to give something fun, home made, and useful to some special people in our lives and this is what I dreamed up for this year. Each basket was a little different but here are the common threads: Skittles vodka -

Advent activity chain 2012

2012-11-23T06:00:00.000-06:00

I am already excited to do our Advent activities again this year! I slapped it together in a rush last year, but it was a fun, faith-filled way to celebrate Christmas for the entire Advent Season. Of the things Mini Me remembers and talks about from last Christmas, our Advent activities rank second only to our elf, Present Zucchini. Jingle Bell bean bag toss from last year I am making another

Organizing and happy hearts

2012-11-20T06:30:00.000-06:00

You may remember my feverish organizing and cleaning binge from last year about this time. I was trying to get our toy and "stuff" situation under control before the holidays. This year I decided to enlist Little Lady and Mini Me in the clean-out. It was much more of a time to organize than it was actual cleaning this year, but I liked it better with my little helpers. A few weeks ago, we got out

Our family's helping hands

2012-11-16T06:30:00.000-06:00

This is an activity directly from Mini Me's November activity theme of families and turkeys but it involved our entire family and it was a great thing for us all. We sat down together one night and traced our hands on construction paper. Then, we wrote on the hands the ways that each one of us helps our family. Each person had to think of ways that he/she helps our family, as well as contribute

A Year of ABCs: Letters V and W

2012-11-12T06:30:00.000-06:00

LETTER V Art: V is for vegetable prints We used a carrot, broccoli floret, and a cut potato to dip in paint and make some beautiful stamped prints! It was messy, smelly, and not tasty at all. mmmmmm Literacy: V is for vowels This was pretty laid-back... a few different times, I simply wrote the vowels for Little Lady on the train table and named them. We also found them in the magnetic

Our first one!

2012-11-08T07:30:00.000-06:00

At the end of July, my mom and I opened our Etsy shop selling lots of great homemade items - aprons, burp cloths, bibs, holiday decor, and children's games. We've had a few sales since then (yay!!) and I still chuckle when I remember our very first one in September. I sold one of my favorite magnetic games! I was so thrilled... until I realized how much I had messed up on entering the shipping

Preschool activities: families and turkeys

2012-11-04T06:00:00.000-06:00

We have a busy month this November so our list of activities is slimmed down, but still fun. We are going to learn about families and turkeys in November! November - Families and Turkeys Family helping hands All four of us are going to trace our hands on paper and cut them out. We'll decorate them and then write how each of us helps our family. I think I'll display them somehow for the month,

Why I don't enjoy Halloween

2012-10-31T06:00:00.000-05:00

After reading my deep thoughts on not liking Valentine's Day (here) I bet you'll really think I'm a giant holiday scrooge when I say that I don't like Halloween. Sometimes when I've said to people that I hate don't like Halloween, they look at me as though I've said that I don't like chocolate or cheeseburgers or freedom. I feel like a national traitor! But I don't like Halloween. Why? 1. I

Preschool activities: Leaves and Bats!

2012-10-28T06:00:00.000-05:00

October is bats and leaves month for the preschooler at our house. Take a look at what we did! October – Leaves and Bats Coffee Filter Leaves We used washable markers to draw on a coffee filter, then spray it with water from a spray bottle. My kids love spray bottles with water. When they dried, we cut them into a leaf shape. This is a 'la our long-ago chromatography activity (here).

It's pink ribbon time again

2012-10-24T06:00:00.000-05:00

It seems that you'd have to live under a rock, in a cave, in a forgotten forest to not know that October is breast cancer awareness month. I agree with some opinion pieces that you see about this: the "popularity" of breast cancer awareness is partially because it's sexy and fun to talk about boobs in any way. Breast cancer is a disease that affects many, many people, though, and with its

Name recognition

2012-10-22T06:00:00.000-05:00

I'm starting to work with Little Lady to recognize the letters in her name. She can identify the first letters of all of us in the family, and her grandparents. These activities are for her to start knowing the letters in her name. Letter Hammer I wrote Little Lady's name on the bottom of an egg carton, one letter per cup. She used golf tees to poke a hole and "hammer" the tee into the right