I loved the hand drawn cards, the hugs and all the “Happy Mother’s Day” wishes.  I really appreciate the flowers the the kids’ Sunday School teachers had for the kids to give me…but the best gift of all was on this paper…

and it was this in particular…

“I know my mom loves me because I am me”.  Through all my faults I do pray the each of my children know that I love them because they are themselves.  This was the best gift I could receive…the glimpse that in my imperfections that somehow Cade has gotten that I love him unconditionally…simply because he is Cade.  I love you, Buddy!!

I hope your Mother’s Day was blessed as well!

Finding ways to celebrate Easter is always fun.  This activity is one thing that the kids really like doing, and for younger kids it can really make it real that Jesus is not in a tomb anymore.

All you need is marshmallows, melted butter, a cinnamon sugar mix and a tube of crescent rolls.

The marshmallow represents Jesus (we talked about white representing his purity).  The butter and cinnamon/sugar mix represents the oil and spices that covered Jesus body after his death.  The crescent rolls are the tomb.

Roll the marshmallow in butter.

Then roll it in the cinnamon/sugar mix.

Place the marshmallow on the open crescent roll.

Then wrap the roll around the marshmallow.

Make sure you seal the seams well.

Then put your tombs on a cookie sheet (I always forget to put some aluminum foil down…but I would recommend doing that).

Bake according to the package directions…and then open your tomb.

This is the part that the littlest kiddos are always so amazed at…”Where did Jesus go?”.  What a great opportunity to share with them that “He has risen, indeed!”.

And Sawyer, well, he was busy playing on the floor.

We did this activity last year too.  It’s here.

Blessings to your family this Easter!

Ella Elise:

• Born February 28th, 2006 at 4:53 am (5 days early:)).

• Biggest blue eyes ever

• Loves anything creative:  drawing, crafts, singing, dancing, cooking, baking

• Very sweet and helpful (especially with Sawyer)

• Happy 6th birthday, Sweetheart!  We love you!

Blessings to you!

I know it’s only the 13th of February, but we have plans tomorrow evening so this was our chance to get a family Valentine meal in.  It was quite impromptu, but we had fun pulling a few things together.

Here’s Addie “helping” to make our Valentine cupcakes.

This is my attempt at making heart shaped cupcakes using marbles between the muffin papers and the muffin tin.

Lesson learned:  Don’t overfill the muffin papers ~ who knew?

It actually worked out fine to just remove the marble and excess cake.

The cupcakes won’t win any awards, but Cade was proud of his creations.

Ella would have loved all of this, but unfortunately, she was on the couch not feeling well.

Addie cleaning up!

Here’s our table ~ Happy Valentine’s Day!!

What did you do for Valentine’s Day?

Blessings to your family,

I’m always interested in traditions.  Isn’t that part of what made childhood fun and nostalgic?  I have found that I “borrow” other’s ideas better than coming up with my own.  Most of these are for Christmas, but there are a couple others.  This is a short list of some of the traditions we have done, will do, or have heard of recently.

Little Cader

Cade & Ella 2010

A stocking for Jesus. I just ran across this one this year, and I am the most excited about this one.  We have an extra stocking up for Jesus this year.  What are we putting in it?  Everyone is to write (or draw) about what they have done that was kind or helpful to someone else.  Then we will read their “gifts to Jesus” before we open our gifts as a family.  I love that!!

Gingerbread House. Every year for the last 5 or 6 I have made a gingerbread house with my kiddos and their good buds who I nanny for.  It really isn’t hard (it can be time consuming…just plan accordingly).  Here’s a great recipe, and the cement icing really works.  Here’s the template we use for cutting out the pieces of the house.  It is very basic and simple.  You can get much more extravagant if you’re feeling adventurous.  I’ll have to post pictures after we do ours this year.  The kids LOVE the decorating part and it makes a great centerpiece or decoration.

Night of Lights. On a night where you know you can sleep in the next day take the kids out for a stroll to find houses that are decorated with lights.  Bring some snacks (popcorn etc) and enjoy seeing what others took the time to put up.  You could make it into a scavenger hunt or a counting game ie. see how many snowmen you find etc.  Don’t forget to check out the beautiful stars if it’s a clear evening and you get out of the city at all.

Operation Christmas Child Boxes. This one has to be done more around Thanksgiving time, but it is such a fun thing for each of the kids to pick out stuff for a child their own age and prepare a box for them.  It really helps them think beyond what they might be wishing to get for Christmas.  We also went on YouTube and found videos of kids receiving the boxes to help the kids really so how excited the kids are for their box of goodies.

Gifts from Samaritan’s Purse. This is the second year we have done this.  The kids just seem to accumulate money between birthdays and holidays, and we wanted them to have a fun way to give some of it away.  Samaritan’s Purse (who also does the Operation Christmas Child boxes) sends out a catalog before the Christmas season where you can pick out a variety of items from shelters, to mosquito nets, to medicine to purchase to be given to those in need.  Ella picked out 2 little stuffed lambs, and Cade picked out a soccer ball.

Popcorn for supper on Sundays. A friend of ours had this tradition growing up.  It gave his mom a break, and the kids thought it was great.  I haven’t been able to sell Kirk on the whole idea yet:).

So, what are some of your traditions?  I love hearing what people do, and be warned that I might steal borrow your idea in the future:).

This is the second year that I’ve done this activity with my kids and the kids I nanny for.  They really enjoy it, and I think it helps them think about the Easter story a little more.

This activity represents Jesus being covered in oil and spices and being laid in the tomb.  After you bake the rolls Jesus disappears (melted in this case) and the tomb is empty.  This is a great way for little minds to begin thinking about how surprised Mary must have been Easter morning.

All you need is a tube of crescent rolls (the tomb), marshmallows (Jesus), cinnamon & sugar mix (spices) and melted butter (oil).  Lay out the crescent rolls.  Have the kids roll Jesus in the butter and then the cinnamon/sugar mix.  After that they wrap the crescent dough around the marshmallow.  You may want to help them seal all the edges otherwise the marshmallow seeps out.  Have fun hearing the kids say, “What happened to the marshmallow?  Where did Jesus go?”

We also talked about the marshmallow being white and how that represents the fact that Jesus is pure and free from sin.

Have fun making your crescent roll tombs!

So, what is the definition of a “great” dad?  Well, via a quick Google search for the definition of “great” I found that the Archaic meaning is “pregnant”.  Ok, so that wasn’t what I was exactly going for here.  I reassure you that Kirk is NOT “great with child”. With some further investigation I found that Merriam-Webster’s definition #3 is, “remarkable in magnitude, degree, or effectiveness”.  I thought this was fitting for the dad that Kirk is. I don’t always understand why, but here are some of the things that Kirk will be doing with kids this week:

• He is currently on his way home with Cade and Ella from their Christmas program practice.  I stayed home with Addie.  He is a Sunday School helper in Ella’s class so that also means helping with the program.
• He just called me to make sure I had a package of hot dogs ready.  Why?  He is taking Cade and Ella out into the woods to make a fire and eat supper in the woods.  The temperature is currently 16 degrees and with the sun soon setting it will most likely get colder.  Never mind that we have just had the blizzard of the decade and probably have 2 feet of snow outside!!  I don’t get it, but Cade and Ella are sure excited!
• Kirk and Cade were supposed to go to the Vikings game last week via some tickets given to them by gracious friends.  It just so happened that the Metrodome collapsed so the game ended up being in Detroit instead of Minneapolis.

• Here’s the Metrodome Collapse if you missed seeing the fun.  Obviously, Kirk and Cade didn’t go to that game.  No, instead they are going this coming Monday night.  The minor detail that makes the whole experience even more fun is that the Metrodome (ok, I know it’s technically the “Mall of America Field”, but it’s still the Metrodome to me:)). is still not repaired so Monday night’s game with be at the TCF Stadium, and that is OUTDOORS.  Also, the tickets are general admission so Kirk is going to take Cade down there, stand in line for who knows how long, and then sit outside in the freezing cold for a team that hasn’t done well this year.
• Knowing that Kirk was going to take Cade to the game he felt he should do something special with Ella as well.  At a future date, he will be taking Ella ice skating.

This is just a sample of what he does with our kiddos as this is only this week.  I haven’t mentioned so many other things like how he will be involved with Christmas this week, how he does a great job running his own business while prioritizing us or how well he loves me.  He’s not perfect, but I would definitely classify him as “great“!  Thanks for being a very present and loving daddy to our children, Kirk!

Don’t you love traditions…especially this time of year?    Isn’t that part of what made childhood fun and nostalgic?  I have found that I “borrow” other’s ideas better than coming up with my own.  So, here’s some we’d like to share that we’ve picked up from others along the way.  Most of these are for Christmas, but there are a couple for other times of the year.

Little Cader

• Taking a picture of the kids every year in Mommy or Daddy’s shirt or dress. As you can tell from the pictures I haven’t been exactly “on top of ” doing this each year.  I was just excited Kirk still had the shirt in his closet!  I’m thinking that this would be a good beginning of the school year tradition.  I’ve see people do this with an article of clothing from a great grandmother.
• Sleeping in front of the Christmas tree in the living room. This always sounds so fun!!  We have never actually done it, although we have plans to this year.  I think I get to the evening that we are supposed to sleep on the floor and it doesn’t sound quite as wonderful as when it was planned:).
• A stocking for Jesus. I just ran across this one this year, and I am the most excited about this one.  We have an extra stocking up for Jesus this year.  What are we putting in it?  Everyone is to write (or draw) about what they have done that was kind or helpful to someone else.  Then we will read their “gifts to Jesus” before we open our gifts as a family.  I love that!!
  
  
• Gingerbread House. Every year for the last 5 or 6 I have made a gingerbread house with my kiddos and their good buds who I nanny for.  It really isn’t hard (it can be time consuming…just plan accordingly).  Here’s a great recipe, and the cement icing really works.  Here’s the template we use for cutting out the pieces of the house.  It is very basic and simple.  You can get much more extravagant if you’re feeling adventurous.  I’ll have to post pictures after we do ours this year.  The kids LOVE the decorating part and it makes a great centerpiece or decoration.
• Night of Lights. On a night where you know you can sleep in the next day, take the kids out for a stroll to find houses that are decorated with lights.  Bring some snacks (popcorn etc) and enjoy seeing what others took the time to put up.  You could make it into a scavenger hunt or a counting/graphing game ie. see how many snowmen you find etc.  Don’t forget to check out the beautiful stars if it’s a clear evening and you get out of the city at all.
• Operation Christmas Child Boxes. This one has to be done more around Thanksgiving time, but it is such a fun thing for each of the kids to pick out stuff for a child their own age and prepare a box for them.  It really helps them think beyond what they might be wishing to get for Christmas.  We also went on YouTube and found videos of kids receiving the boxes to help the kids really so how excited the kids are for their box of goodies.
• Gifts from Samaritan’s Purse. This is the first year we have done this.  The kids just seem to accumulate money between birthdays and holidays, and we wanted them to have a fun way to give some of it away.  Samaritan’s Purse (who also does the Operation Christmas Child boxes) sends out a catalog before the Christmas season where you can pick out a variety of items from shelters, to mosquito nets, to medicine to purchase to be given to those in need.  Ella picked out 2 little stuffed lambs, and Cade picked out a soccer ball this year.
• Popcorn for supper on Sundays. A friend of ours had this tradition growing up.  It gave his mom a break, and the kids thought it was great.  I haven’t been able to sell Kirk on the whole idea yet:).

So, what are some of your traditions?  I love hearing what people do, and be warned that I might “borrow” your idea in the future:).

Cade and Ella are at the age where they are starting to remember our past Christmases together and anticipate our traditions.  They still seem to forget details of how things go though.  It is in the retelling of the Christmas story and Jesus’ life on earth that really helps me stop and reflect in a new way.

My most recent thoughts have been about what it must have been like to parent Jesus.  When you first think about parenting a perfect child it sounds really good.  You wouldn’t have to wonder if he was telling you the truth.  He would respect you all the time, do whatever he is told without arguing the first time.  What about sibling rivalry?  Can you imagine being Jesus’ brother??  How hard would that be?  I can just hear James saying to Mary, “Why do you always take Jesus’ side?  Jesus never gets in trouble!”  On the other hand, Jesus’ brothers would know that he thought of them first…did they take advantage of that?  Did Jesus always tell when they were doing something wrong?  Did Mary struggle with favoritism?

How did Mary and Joseph deal with the fact that they were imperfect and parenting a perfect child?  He was fully human and fully God so He needed instruction on how to do things, but He was without sin.  How convicting it must have been to have your child respond to you in a self-controlled and truthful way when you lost your cool?  Did Jesus confront them when they sinned and didn’t realize it?

What about when they are heading home after celebrating in Jerusalem, and they have been traveling for a day only to realize that Jesus wasn’t with them?  They take a days journey back and continue to search high and low for another 2 days for Jesus.  I can’t imagine searching 3 hours much less 3 days for my child.

They finally found him in the temple.  Were they relieved, exasperated, frustrated, confused?  I think I would have given my child a huge hug and then said, “What in the world were you thinking?!  You scared us to death!!”  Jesus responds in a way that I think I would be frustrated with…”Didn’t you know I would be in my Father’s house?”  Um, obviously not…we just searched for days.  You should have been with us!!

Maybe by then Mary and Joseph had already learned that Jesus was right and to listen to Him.  Maybe they were already so used to submitting to God in all they had been through prior to Jesus even being born and the following 12 years.

It all gives me a renewed appreciation for all that Jesus went through.  The Creator of the earth had to answer to parents who were part of His creation.  Amazing!!

The kids are excited and we are having fun putting up the tree, wrapping gifts, going to Christmas programs, making Christmas treats and listening to Christmas music.  There is something so fun about hearing the story of Jesus coming to earth through the ears of a child.  As adults, we are so used to the story that nothing surprises us anymore.  The story can cease to be amazing.   Children seem to bring back how odd the reality of God coming to earth really is.  ”Jesus is God?”  ”He was born in a barn?”  ”They brought Him perfume?”  ”He laid where the sheep ate?…P U!”.

It seems to hit me even more the years that we have had a baby in the house.  I now look at Addie and think about how God chose to become completely helpless as a baby.  He was dependent on His creation to feed and care for Him.  So many times we choose to complain about this or that and even blame God or wonder why He isn’t answering our prayers.  I know I need the reminder that He gave everything when He came to this earth that is imperfect and full of sin.  He came to save us…He came to save you.

At times, we have also had fun thinking about how hard it would be to be a sibling to Jesus.  Mary would ask, “Why can’t you be more like Jesus?”, and tattling would be a total waste of time.  Although, I suppose He would be the most selfless to play with.

At any rate, we are having a lot of fun experiencing Christmas with 3 children this year.  It truly is the most wonderful time of the year.