Easter Lesson and Activity

This was my lesson for activity days. You've probably seen it. Take 12 Easter eggs and fill them with symbols from the Easter story. When I looked online to print this lesson out. I never found one I loved. I felt like they dwelt on too many of the sad graphic parts of the Easter story and not enough of the happy parts. So here is my happier version.
First off, here are my notes. Before you read them, know this:

• It is my own words unless there is a reference at the end of the paragraph. I referenced everything unless it is my own words.
• This is an LDS version: it includes when Christ visited the people in the Americas after his resurrection.
  
• Scriptures follow the symbol
• Symbols are bold
• There are a good amount of notes. Read it, see what you want to use and just cut out what you don't want to use. The younger your audience, the more you take out.

Here's what you do. Gather symbols (Their meanings are in the notes I linked to):

1. Leaf: bay leaf
2. Coins: 3 dimes
3. Piece of bread
4. Sacrament cup
5. Olive: I made one out of paper
6. Sword: made it out of paper
7. Scarlet robe or thorn: I used a piece of red cloth
8. Cross: I broke a tooth pick a quarter of the way down and glued it into a cross shape
9. Linen: I used a thick piece of a white fabric scrap
   
10. Leave Empty
11. Book of Mormon: I cut out a picture from a pass along card
12. Cloud: cotton ball
    

Next number the eggs with stickers, or you can just write the numbers on the eggs. Then put the pieces in the eggs.

I displayed them nicely in an Easter basket:

When I presented the lesson, I think I talked a little too much for my age group (8-9 year old girls). So, just remember, if you audience is young, briefly describe each symbol. Now I know for next time.
After the lesson we made Easter lilies. The idea came from The Friend, April 2012. Here is a link on how to do it. So easy! Just trace your hand, cut it out, roll each finger, tape it in a circle and add yellow and green pipe cleaner. I had the girls make two. One for a bouquet for the primary president and another to give to who ever they wanted.

We added these tags. Here are ideas of what to put on the tag:

• You are an EGGcellent Mom
  
• You are EGGcellent
  
• Hoppy Easter
• There's no bunny quite like you
• Some bunny loves you
  

The pipe cleaner poked through the paper really nicely too!

Felt Flower

It was time for a girl baby shower and I wanted to make a felt flower headband. I followed this tutorial, using 4 pieces of felt like she said. When I was done with that I didn't like how it looked and when I tried adding in one more, like she said she did sometimes, it still just wasn't enough for me. So here is what I did to make it more to my taste.
First follow the tutorial she has until your flower looks like the one on the right in this picture:

Next, cut out two smaller flowers, the same shape as the first 4 (above on left).
Here's what I did next:

Here is a still picture of how it looks when you pinch this piece:

Glue the pieces to each other and then to the larger petals. Here's a tip: when you are putting the two small pieces together, don't match up the tips, leave a little space like I showed here:

So cute!

Book Club Idea

My husband and I just hosted a family book club and it turned out great! We read the book Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley. I thought I would share some material I used for it, since it did take some effort to put together.

Trivia test: I got about a quarter of the questions from Goodreads, but the rest I made up.
Trivia answers
Vocab test, with words from the book (even the people who didn't finish the book can do this one!)
Vocab Answers
To the winner we gave a few stamps. Everyone thought that was clever!

For food we had pizza pie (and salad) and berry pie for dessert.

Why this is a good book club book, in my opinion:

• It is a murder mystery, so it appeals to both men an women.
  
• The writing is awesome! It never goes overboard with descriptions of places or things (I get bored very easily with that). Bradley has brilliant imagery, he lets you know exactly what he's describing in few words. I laughed out loud with some of the imagery he used!
• Flavia, the main character, is just plain amusing with the way she thinks--totally not a typical 11-year-old, but this is one thing that really makes the book enjoyable.

There you go, have fun. It is a great book (and I am picky)!

Tutorial: Boy Hair Cut

When we lived in the Palo Alto, CA, the cheapest haircut we could find for my husband was $18, not including tip. My husband likes his hair cut every 3-4 weeks. That would be about $240/year. With the husband being in grad school and me paying off my schooling, I knew this was an area we could save money.
A pair of nice clippers was about $37. In 2 haircuts we would have paid for the clippers. Totally worth it, even if the hubby had to have a few bad haircuts before I got it down (he agreed).
Now, we save even more money cutting my son's hair too. If you haven't tried cutting your husband's or kid's hair yet, try it. It isn't that hard. Remember, hair grows back!

First off, here is a link to the clippers we purchased. We have had them for 4.5 years and they are still going strong!
Here is a video of how I do my son's hair. Know that there are more steps for men. I will get to those on another post.
Here I have a video of how to do it.

I first started cutting my son's hair before he was even 1 year old. The first 5 hair cuts or so, he was shaking, trembling, and crying. It wasn't a protest, it was fear. So, I would skip out a few of the steps I showed you in the video. Here's what I cut out:

• Trimming around ears
• Size 3 clipper altogether. Just take the 2 LONG and make sure to get a good swoop for best blending.
• Size 1 clipper. Forget the nice fade to nothing look at the bottom and have it suddenly cut off--that look is totally fine.
  

To help, he sat in dad's lap and we turned on a video he liked.

Petticoat Skirt

This skirt is pinned by pretty much all my friends who sew. In case you haven't seen it, here is the tutorial. But I really wanted to show what it looks like for a baby:

Also notice, that I used the bleached muslin as the base for the baby skirt and unbleached for my skirt. I kind of like the bleached muslin better but still, both cute.

Isn't it darling? The one thing I did differently from the tutorial is this: after I sewed together the side seams I also sewed the ruffles together individually on the sides. I didn't like how it looked without them all being sewn together.

Valentine Movie Quotes

So, Valentines Day. My husband and I aren't the cheesy type. We like humor. So that's what my Valentine's Day idea is about. I'm taking quotes from our favorite movies and shows, putting the quotes in hearts and leaving the hearts for him to find.

There are often two people talking in the quotes (and I didn't write down names of characters, I want him to figure that out...part of the fun) so, I used 2 fonts to make it easier to read. Here is a link to the quotes I used. I'm sure some of them are from your favorites too. Hopefully, this makes your work a little easier since it does take a while to find the exact quote online and then change the font. Oh and,I spaced it, leaving you enough room to cut the quotes into heart shapes.
Here's a few examples:
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On the water bottle in the fridge, Groundhog Day:

To the groundhog.
I always drink to world peace.
Later

What should we drink to?

I'd like to say a prayer and drink to world peace.

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With the cereal, Psych:

There are two kinds of kids. There’s the kid who flipped the box over and opened it from the bottom and grabbed the prize right away. And then there was the kid who waited patiently and ate bowl after bowl of cereal until the prize just tumbled out on its own. There’s also a third kid named Mikey who will eat anything, including the prize. But, uh, he’s not really important right now. I didn’t wait. I didn’t wait for my decoder ring or my frankenberry action figure when I was a kid. So what am I waiting for now? All I know is that I don’t want to miss out on the prize.

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On the hanger in the closet, Napolion Dynamite:

I like your sleeves. They're real big.

Thank you. I made them myself.

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Others I will do:
My husband brings his laptop to work. I will put quotes from "The Office" in there:

What is that?

It's a feral barn cat. I trapped him last night and I am giving him to you as a replacement cat for the one I destroyed.

Her name was Sprinkles.

And his name is... Garbage. Moses calls him Garbage because he likes to eat garbage. Don't you Garbage?

AND

Daryl Philbin is the most complicated man that I have ever met. I mean, who says exactly what they're thinking? What kind of game is that?

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In his backpack that he takes to work he has a pouch with random things in it. In that I am putting a Simpson's quote from the episode "I Love Lisa" (one of our favorites)

Uh...so...do you like...stuff?
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On his tooth brush, Elf:
I think you're really beautiful and I feel really warm when I'm around you and my tongue swells up.
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I think you get the idea. Find fun places to put the hearts using words in the quotes. It has been so hard for me to keep this to myself, I can't wait til Valentine's Day!

Music Competition

I am putting all crafts on hold for the moment to finish up a song I am entering in the annual music competition for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. If you want to enter at any time in the future here is the link for guidelines and an entry form.
Here is a primary song I wrote for the competition two years ago. It is themed for Thanksgiving.
The song I am writing to enter this year is for a youth choir and the theme I'm working on is stand in holy places. I will definitely post it later, probably sometime in the summer. Wish me luck!