Thursday 27 November 2014

'Celebate' Wednesday Club #2

Today we are celebrating God becoming Human!

Ice Breaker
What does it mean to celebrate?
Acting in pairs so the rest of the group can work out what sort of celebration it is.
-Celebrating the birth of a new baby brother/sister.
-Winning a football match
-Celebrating your birthday
-Getting Married
-Celebrating Christmas

 Story
(Taken from Splash by SU)
Make 2 pictures, one of shepherds and one of angels. As you tell the story, the children can run to the pictures, point to the picture saying 'Baaaaa' when you said the word 'shepherd' and 'Hallelujah' when you say the word 'Angel'.

That night in the fields near Bethlehem some shepherds were guarding their sheep. Suddenly an angel came down to them from heaven, and the brightness of God's glory flashed around them. The shepherds were frightened. But the angel said, 'Dont be afraid! I have good news for you, which will make everyone happy. Today in King David's hometown a Saviour has been born for you. He is Christ the Lord. You will know who he is , because you will find him dressed in baby clothes and lying on a bed of hay.' The shepherds could hardly believe their eyes! Suddenly many other angels came down from heaven and joined on praising God. They said, 'Praise God in heaven! Peace on earth to everyone who pleases God.'
After the angels had left and gone back to heaven, the shepherds said to each other, 'Let's go to Bethlehem and see what the angels have told us about.'
They hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and they saw the baby lying on a bed of hay. When the shepherds saw Jesus, they told his parents what the Angel had said about him. Everyone listened and was surprised. But Mary kept thinking about all this and wondering what it meant. As the shepherds returned to their sheep, they were praising God and saying wonderful things about him. Everything they had seen and heard was just as the angel had said.


Think!
Why should we celebrate God becoming a human and coming to earth? What did the angels say?

'Dont be afraid! I have good news for you, which will make everyone happy. Today in King David's hometown a Saviour has been born for you. He is Christ the Lord.'

Why did God come to earth as a baby?

1John 4:9
'God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him.'

It was part of the rescue plan and because of Jesus we can now have a relationship with God.

Activity.
For a party/celebrations we need cake :)
So we decorated cupcakes and made a little flag to stick into the cake to remind us that we are celebrating the birth of Jesus.


With 13 kids it was all a little busy so yet again I forgot to take photos...this was the last cake remaining!

'You will call him Jesus' Wednesday Club #1

As the afternoons are getting dark MJ and Lj can no longer play outside with their friends. So I have decided to invite their friends to our house every Wednesday after school. As there are a number of them we have decided to structure the fun! We will base each week on a historical event recorded in the Bible, telling the story, playing games and doing craft.

As we are in the Christmas run up I thought we could kick start our afternoon fun looking at the events around the Birth of Jesus.

Week 1- 'You will call him name Jesus'

Ice breaker
Aim- To get the children thinking about the meaning of names.
I had written the childrens names and the meanings of their names onto pieces of cards. The children had to try and work out the meanings of their names and match up the pieces of card.
My little niece was rather impressed when she realised that her name means 'Princess'. 

Story
This is what happened before Jesus was born. Mary and Joseph had promised to marry one another. They were not yet married when Mary discovered that she was going to have a baby. God had given her the baby. Joseph did not know where the baby had come from so he decided that it would be best if they did not get married after all. But after he had decided this God sent an angel to him in a dream. The angel said 'Joseph do not be afraid to marry Mary. The baby which she is going to have is from God. It will be a boy and you are to call him Jesus because he will save his people from their sins'.
When Joseph woke up he did what the angel had commanded him and married Mary.
These things happened to fulfil what God had said through the Old Testament Prophets. There is is explained that an unmarried woman will give birth to a son who will be called Immanuel, which means 'God with us'.
(Taken from TNT resources)
 Verse to remember

 "... you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”
Mathew 1v21 

I had hidden the words of the verse around the room and as the children searched and found them we put the verse together. 


Activity
Paper bunting. We stamped our names onto the flags, decorated with pens, stamps and stickers. Strung them together with twine (could also use ribbon or yarn) and used glue sticks to stick in place.
 

These are the templates which can be printed onto white paper.


Sunday 23 November 2014

My precious girl


Although it is difficult to see, (I was being lazy and took it on my phone), this photo really captures my little girl. She has her gold dancing shoes on, her easy to throw on coat and is helping her Daddy tidy up the garden in the rain. She loves life and lives it to the full.
 

This was taken the day before. I had been looking at packaging ideas on my computer with Lj on my lap when she spotted a template for a house. In an instant she wanted to make it so that she could take a present to her best friend who lives a few doors down from us. She took her time over making it and colouring it in and then found some sweets to put inside. She is a thoughtful and caring child making a card or present for someone at least once a day.


Last night she declared that she was going to Doggy Woof Woof land on holiday. In the picture she has her Minnie mouse (favourite toy at present) in the baby car seat and her two dogs in the pram below. In her bag she has her passport, a dog lead and a book (to read to Minnie on the plane). She told me that I could come too as there are 'Mummy resting chairs' in Doggy Woof Woof land. That was good enough for me so off we went!

This girl of mine she laughs easily, loves to sing and dance, has a huge imagination, is caring and affectionate but the one thing she hates most of all is the thought that someone is upset with her. This morning we had a few obedience issues and so she was disciplined...shortly afterwards she came to me, gave me a cuddle and said 'Mummy, I'm sorry for my naughtiness but I'm happy that I'm still your precious girl.'

You will always be my precious Lj!
Mum xx

Christmas Presents #1 Bath melts



Last year my dear friend impressed me with her homemade bath melts. The smell as they melted in my hot bath was amazing. Since then I have desired to try and make my own but was feeling daunted by the new challenge. Then for my birthday this year I was given a gift voucher for Hobbycraft...I know...the best present EVER! In Hobbycraft I purchased 'Beauty Oils and Butters' by Elaine Stavert. That was the first step. The second was to order a rather large array of essential oils, almond oil and butters in order to follow the melts recipe from my new book. With all my supplies the final step was to get making. My friend reassured me that it was a very simple process, in fact her description of using a plastic jug in the microwave kind of took the shine off the process. Thankful that I hadn't ordered a double boiler as suggested in my book I used a glass jug in a saucepan of boiling water. When the Cocoa butter had melted in the jug, I added sweet almond oil, rose geranium ess oil, sandalwood ess oil, ylang ylang ess oil and vitamin E oil. After a little stir I poured the liquid, very carefully into my heart shaped silicon cases (these were purchased in Aldi and I suppose are really for mini cupcakes?!). Running out of heart cases I filled an ice cube tray and a Lego man ice cube tray! I popped a little dried rose bud on top for presentation. Then into the fridge they went for about 15 Min's and voila we had cute, sweet smelling bath melts. My friend was 100% correct when she stressed how easy it all was.


 My plan for our bath melts (and bath bombs) is to give them away at Christmas time. I also found in Hobbycraft these cute decoupage star boxes which I thought Lj and MJ could decorate for their teachers and then we could fill them with sweet smelling bath time treats.


This one was decorated with napkins we purchased in IKEA.


It is trickier than it looks to decorate a star shaped box with a ribbon...this is the best I could come up with.

Go on have a try...the best thing about them is that our house is still smelling amazing, 4 days later!

Tuesday 11 November 2014

Let's play snap!

 As I scanned facebook this morning I came across this image and realised that it helped to sum up what M and I have been thinking about and musing over for the past few weeks.

Through a combination of events, M's Grandfather passing away, spending more time with extended family and being inspired by our 2 yr old niece to play more games we have been talking about the importance of family and friends and the distraction of technology.

As a result M and I have made a pact that we will not use our phones to scan the Internet while the children are awake and in the home. We are aware that children follow the habits of their parents and we are concerned about the signals we are sending to them if we are sitting around browsing the Internet on our phones instead of engaging in conversation, reading books and playing or working together.

This has coincided with the evenings drawing in earlier so the kids are unable to play outside with their friends after 5pm, leaving me with an extra hour with children who want to be outside with their friends, who are tired but it is too early for bed. Thankfully we have found a solution...board games, jigsaws and card games. I can't believe how much fun and how quickly time flies when we are playing the simple games that have been sitting on our toy shelves gathering dust for months.

Each night while eating our tea we decide whose turn it is to choose the evenings game and then while Lj is finishing off her dinner (30mins after MJ and I), MJ gets things set up and I get the kitchen tidied.


It is a cliche but children DO grow up so fast  so I'm trying really hard to slow down, to relax and enjoy their company while I have it.

Sunday 9 November 2014

A fortnight round up!

 Kids are in the bath and another weekend is drawing to a close. I'm feeling sad that I have been neglecting my blog of late and am going to have a think tonight about how I can revive my interest and reconsider the reasons for updating it regularly.

So this is yet another little round up of some of the things we have been doing the last two weeks.

 There has been a baby boom of boys so this is the first of three birth name pictures I am working on. LOVE the name Hugo!




 During the half term break we visited M's parents and stayed with M's sister and family. They live in a beautiful area so we explored a few forests and relaxed in their new homes.

 I was  commissioned to make a zebra cushion for a little girl called Zoe...her name is on the reverse. I had fun coming up with some ideas but sadly my sewing machine was poorly (skipping stitches) so it was hard work getting it completed. I am pleased to say that my machine is now working well after a good clean out and a new needle, although I'm still not sure what the problem was exactly!



 This week we remembered the 5th November by making some edible sparklers and sharing them with our neighbours and then trying out the real thing when darkness fell.

 Today I had a craft party for a 7 yr old called Sophie. I'm still picking pva glue from my fingers!

 And finally, the Christmas present commissions have begun!

Before the kids kill each other in the bath I better finish up!

Have a great week everyone!