Snip Snip and Away

LilE loves arts and crafts. She has a new love for cutting. Other than ONE incident, we have not had any issues. I have heard horror stories about kids cutting their hair off at the scalp and we have been fortunate that has not been the case in our home.

Today I was running some errands when I received a phone call from LilE's teacher. My first thought was she was sick. But then the words came out of her mouth. "The kids were working at their stations and I gave them their supplies. Turned around and a second later I saw LilE cutting her hair."

I gasped and paniced. Seriously started to sweat a bit and freak out. I LOVE her hair. It is so long and so pretty and the thought of it being a buster brown haircut made me want to cry. But her teacher calmed me down and told me that she couldn't even tell she cut it. But I still wanted to know, "how much was cut?" She told me it really wasn't much. She picked up the locks and put them in a baggie for me to see when she got home. She told me LilE cried for an hour at school. She had taken the scissors away after explaining we don't ever cut our hair. Poor thing just melted, not because she was in trouble necessarily, but because she couldn't finish her craft.

I was a little on edge the rest of the day. But when I picked her up from school there wasn't anything noticable. Praise the Lord. I acted as though everything was normal and I didn't know anything. She was a bit hesitant with me, which makes me laugh a bit at her sinful nature. As she does every day, she wanted to show me the stuff from school. We went through everything and the baggie was amongst all her papers. (There was some MAJOR relief as I had to squint to see the 10-2" hairs in the baggie. It was not as much as I thought.) I asked her what it was and she answered her hair. The poor girl thought she was going to get into trouble and when I asked her how it got there, she said she didn't want to tell me. So, we had some lessons on being honest and telling the truth--even when it is hard. And since she had kinda already been punished and she was heartbroken over her choices, there were no further consequences on our end. She did start crying on the way home so I stopped and took her out of her seat and just gave her lots of love. She sure did need it!

We had to run and pick up the camera from being cleaned (woot!). So on the way we stopped for a little happy hour treat! Maybe that will help her realize that we love her enough to give her a treat to make her feel a bit better about life. I know they sure help me feel better!

The Tomb is EMPTY!

A couple of years ago we made Easter Story Cookies. They we fun to make and we enjoyed the reading that went along with them. But we didn't like the end result (the taste, not the "empty tomb" analogy).

This year I decided to give the Resurrection Rolls a try. (And I kinda tried to take pictures along the way...kinda).

Gather:

One can of crescent roll dough  (I had biscuits, so I used those...be sure to keep reading)

One large marshmallows for each roll you’ll be making (not pictured, oops) 

Melted butter (1T was plenty)

Cinnamon sugar

Bible or Easter storybook

          
Assemble rolls and read the story:
 
1. Read John 19 while the oven is pre-heating according to the package directions. If you’re really on top of things, spend the week before reading John 12-18 with your kids.

2. Unroll the crescent rolls. Explain that this is like the cloth they wrapped Jesus in.

3. Give your child a marshmallow and explain that it represents Jesus… all white and pure because He was without sin.

4. Roll the marshmallows in the melted butter. This symbolizes the embalming oils.

5. Roll the marshmallows in the cinnamon sugar. This is like the spices used to prepare his body for burial. (or use a spoon because you don't like to get too dirty)

6. Wrap the marshmallow in the crescent roll cloth, pinching the dough together securely. Don’t worry about the shape so much, they’ll taste the same no matter how you roll or bundle them. This represents how they would have wrapped Jesus’ body.

7. Lick fingers.

8. Put the rolls in the oven (symbolizing the tomb) and bake for the amount of time specified on the package.

9. While the rolls are baking, read John 20:1-18.

10. Open the tomb (oven) and remove the rolls.

YIKES! They are supposed to be closed up. And obviously, they are NOT! Note to self, use crescent rolls next time!

11.When they’re cool enough to handle, break one open and discover what happened to the marshmallow. Jesus is risen! At this point, I also read 1 Thessalonians 4:16-18. Jesus is coming again!

Shew, this one was closed enough to see the 'emptiness'.  These tasted SO good! Live and learn!

The Attack of the Gingerbread House

We have never made a gingerbread house. *gasp* While Nonnie was here we decided to take that Friday and do something fun and new to get us into the holiday spirit.

First stop: Target. To buy the boxed gingerbread house. Sign says $9.99. Register says $19.99. So sorry to the lady behind us. You were so very patient as we waited to prove the sign said $9.99. And yes, we only paid $9.99. My guess is we were the last customer to pay that price!

Next stop: Home. Friday morning. Christmas music playing. Open box and lay out all the pieces. LilE asks to eat just one piece of candy. No. Candy rolling on the floor. Quit playing with the candy. Put candy in bowls to help it from falling on floor. Asks for a piece of candy. No. Somehow the candy is still falling on the floor. I thought I told you not to touch the candy. We must put the house together first. Must mix up icing to get it warm and squeezable. Ice, place, hold for one minute. Must hold together longer than a minute because it fell apart. Try again. Can I have a piece of candy? NO. Maybe 2 minutes will work. Holds a bit better. Stack candy bowls and move the temptation away from 4 year old. Wait one hour to decorate. Lets play a game. Every 5 minutes for the next hour "can we decorate yet?". One hour finally over. Must remush icing bags as it is cold in the house and icing is not squeezable. Argh. Move house a bit and the wall falls in. ARGH! Frustrated. Must start over. Once house is officially set, try and decorate. Must squish up icing again. Really? Then have to cut a smaller hole in bag to outline the windows. Icing will not come out of bag. Totally losing my patience. Call in the patient reinforcement and artsy one--Daddy. He makes very little process. LilE tells him where to put icing, then licks the icing off. She can finally touch the candy. And continues to ask if she can have a piece. We tell her there is no telling how old the candy really is. Random placement of old candies. She doesn't want to make it cute like the box. Whatever. Icing doesn't really work even in my Wilton bags. Daddy not longer has patience either. Icing all over the table now. LilE is licking the icing. House about half decorated. Yes, it only snowed on one side of the roof. Done trying. Santa and tree are next. Quick, easy, and ugly. Glad this is not a contest. Icing (or whatever it is) now in trash. Leftover candy, trashed. Want to trash the house. But keep it up because it is LilE's work of art and she is proud. So glad we did not pay $19.99. It was NOT worth the $9.99 we actually did pay. Total FAIL.

Baking Fail

This week LilE is studying the letter Cc. Before school started, I picked this week out knowing I could make chocolate chip cookies. I had seen this post before even making them into the shape of a C. Score!

I wasn't exactly sure how big to make them or how much space them out. On the first pan I tried several different ideas to see which one would come out the best. Still I am super pumped! Something about wanting to be super mom. Haven't I heard over and over, "don't try to be super mom." I didn't listen.

But I should have. It was a total fail. See what I mean. The only one that would have remotely worked was about 5 inches tall. It would have never transported without breaking carrying them from the car pool line to class.

Instead of trying other methods, I just gave up. After all, it was 9 o'clock on a Wednesday night and I still had an entire bowl of cookie dough to eat cook. LilE's class would have to settle for ROUND Chocolate Chip Cookies. *Gasp.*