Easter Basket Scavenger Hunt

HAPPY EASTER!

Gran mailed the girls the pieces to make their Easter Baskets. They painted faces on wooden bunny cutouts. We cut the tops off empty milk cartons and glued the wooden pieces to make these baskets.

It was going to be hard to top last year's Best Easter Basket Ever. So why mess with a good thing? I created more coupons for their baskets, but this year, I added a little twist.


A SCAVENGER HUNT!

In addition to coupons, I added clues that sent them outside to search for a prize. Instead of toys, prizes were a book, bookmark, book light clip, package of mechanical pencils, and a shirt/nightgown.

Some prizes were small enough to fit into large eggs, while others I put in brown paper bags (great for instant camoflauge!). I hid them in specific places in the yard and wrote rhyming clues to help the girls find their prize.

One clue sent them to search for a prize in the shed. They opened this clue at the same time, so they went to search for it together.

Another to look under the fire-pit cover.

Another to the flower garden (minus flowers).

They had so much fun, and I do believe the scavenger hunt topped last year's Best Ever Easter Basket.



EMPTY TOMB ROLLS

I really can't believe I have NEVER done these before. I guess Easter Sunday is always so busy with getting ready for church, I've just not had time to do them. This year I was determined to do it, but we made them Saturday morning instead of Easter Sunday.

We followed this recipe for Empty Tomb Rolls.

Some of them collapsed, but a few were perfect and the girls were surprised to find them hollow, just like the tomb was empty when the stone was rolled away.

And they were delicious, too.








The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name. Luke 24:46-47

Our Tennessee Snow Days

It's always super exciting for us to get snow. This year, we got some good snow! It started with a layer of ice, then a layer of snow with perfect conditions for some great sledding. The cold temperatures kept the snow around for longer than usual, so we got to enjoy sledding every day for the better part of a week.

Coke Bottle Penguins
Because of the 2-inch layer of ice plus 2-inch layer of snow on the driveway, we were a little stranded in the house. We decided to make these Coke Bottle Penguins.

We found this idea on Pinterest and followed the instructions from the image below. It's good to note that for each penguin you need 2 bottles from COKE products. The shape of the bottle from Coke products is imporant and necessary to this project. We'd have made these a long time ago, but I'd been saving bottles from other brands, and I quickly learned those wouldn't work. We rarely drink soft drinks, so I resorted to taking empty bottles from various gatherings where 2-liter Coke products were served.

These are our penguins. Aren't they so cute? We each made our own pom-poms, and I crocheted the two scarves, too.

Colored Ice Balls
As I drifted off to sleep one night during our snow week, I suddenly remembered another idea from Pinterest that I'd told myself I needed to remember should we ever have cold enough temperatures for it. Considering I'd already gone to bed before the rest of the family, I got strange looks when I walked into the kitchen and called the girls to come help me. We filled balloons with water and food coloring and set them outside to start freezing.

I used regular balloons. I put them outside close to midnight the first night when it was in the low 20s and the next day all day it stayed in the low to mid 20s. They'd been outside well over 12 hours when one of them broke and it WAS NOT frozen enough to keep the water from spilling all over my shoe. The second night got below zero and the next day stayed in the mid-teens, and it was only then that they were solid enough to unwrap.

I used big balloons, too. I suppose you could use smaller balloons with less water and it wouldn't take as long to freeze.

The picture above doesn't show at all how cool the color was inside each ball. You can see it more with this purple one below. As you can see, most of the color was in the center of the ball. But even the yellow, green, and red balls had a similar effect that the photo doesn't show.

They were a fun addition to our yard during those very cold days, and it was fun to see how they melted a little each day.


Cabin fever set in, and out of desperation we took a sledge hammer to the 2-inch layer of ice on the driveway to finally set ourselves free. True story.


When the next round of snow came, it was very powdery and not good for much more than snow angels. We decided it would be fun to shovel the driveway. As we shovelled, we made a large pile into which we dug a snow cave.

We couldn't build a snowman in the normal sense of building a snowman, so we made another pile of snow into which we carved a snowman.

The next day, sunshine and slightly warmer temperatures made conditions right for building a proper snowman.

He cheerfully helped with the shovelling.

The kids missed two weeks of school. Maybe more. I lost count. They did manage to have one full week of class before dismissal for Spring Break.








"Come now, let us reason together," says the LORD. "Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool." Isaiah 1:18

Old Window Makeover

If you're on Pinterest at all, you've probably seen people taking old windows and doors and shutters and other house parts and re-purposing them into something new for their home, or into pieces of art.

Oh how neat it would be to re-create furniture in every room in my house with old stuff like that! If I were still newly married and looking to furnish my home, that would be the way I might do it.

But I don't need a headboard or coffee table made of old doors. I don't have an empty wall that would benefit from an old window turned mirror. So even though I have wanted so badly to do a window project at the very least, I did not allow myself to buy any old windows.

Then, recently, I saw some folks who took old window frames sans glass and hung them from their covered patio area, giving the outdoor area the appearance of a room with windows. I didn't really need a lot of prodding to decide I needed a window to hang from the "ceiling" of my covered deck. It was game on!

The very best part was that I was visiting my Mom when I discovered I needed a window and we got to hit the junk stores together looking for one. She knew the perfect place to go.

I sanded the window just a little bit, and cleaned it up, but otherwise,
I left it in a rustic state.

I used a dry erase marker on the underside of the glass to draw my design.

My daugher helped with the drawing.

Using the drawing as a guide, I painted the correct side of the glass.
When I was finished, I washed off the dry erase marker.
I decided to make it a simple silhouette of tree limbs and birds,
so I just painted with black paint.

I used hooks and short pieces of chain to attach the window
to the frame of the deck.

I love the homey feeling of my deck. When the weather permits,
I like to bring my laptop outside and work from this tempory office.

We recently made some changes in the girls' bedrooms, and I needed to sell my old wicker furniture. This wicker etagere was the only piece I didn't sell. I painted it red and gave it a new home on the deck, adding to the homey feel.

"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead." 1 Peter 1:3