FHE Fun David and Goliath

Come Monday night a bit panic spreads over me as I try frantically to try and come up with family home evening activities that are both spiritually uplifting and fun for a toddler. I imagine most people feel this way so whenever I come across a fun and uplifting activity I am happy to pass it along.
A little bit ago we did a family home evening on the topic of David and Goliath. We told the story then had Cailey threw paper rocks at Ben (he was pretending to be Goliath). We then ate cheese balls for our snack. It was really simple and easy to do and Cailey loved it. In fact we have played David and Goliath nearly everyday since because she thinks it is so much fun.

Here is Cailey ready to throw rocks

Action shot!

Another fun FHE that we did recently was the Iron rod. Was strung yarn all over the apartment then dimmed the lights and followed the yarn from room to room. Then when we got to the end we had strawberry Popsicles.  This activity was also a lot of fun. Since we dimmed the lights I didn't get any good pictures of that activity. I'll keep you posted on any other fun activities I come across :)

Dora Birthday Invite Instructions

Here is the invitation I made for Cailey's Dora birthday.  Once again I did get the idea from pinterest.  I am adding it because I think that with Ben's help (he is the computer savy one in the family) we improved the one we found online.  We made a template that you can use to make your own.  I highly recommend using the template.  Ben found the font used on the show, Flora Dora.  It turned out really cute.  Yes he really is that awesome :)
Here are the directions

1. Click here to get to the Dora backpack template
2. Click on the "highlight existing fields" button in the upper righthand corner in adobe reader.
3. Type in your own information
4. Print it off on pretty purple paper.  (I just took it to kinkos it only took a few minutes)
5. Cut out the face and glue it to the front of the invite.
1. Red for mouth
2. White for eyes
3. Black for pupils
4. Yellow for Eyebrows
6. Outline the eyes and mouth in black
7. To make the white in the pupils a perfect circle use two holes from your hole punch
8. Fold the top first, I did just under an inch from the top
9. Then bring the bottom up and fold it so that it will not lay flat, giving the invite the look of a backpack.  For me it was around 5 inches from the top of the backpack.
10. Cut two 4 x 0.5 inch strips for the backpack straps.
11. Glue them to the back of the pack 

This is what the back of the invite looks like

Here is the inside of the invite

Cute pictures of the kids

At the end of the week I always have a bunch of cute picture I would like to show everyone, so here are a bunch of cute pictures of my kids.

This is from last Sunday when I was getting Cailey ready for church. She noticed that her cute new dress from her cousin Kenedee has a belt on it. So she put a pedometer on it and asked me to put the shampoo bottle in her belt too. I had to take a picture because I thought it was so funny that she had a utility belt! Look out batman there's a new superhero in town...and she is rocking shampoo and a pedometer. Bad guys beware!

This is a picture of my little man Jason, he is a such a cutie. I love that I got his hand up there. He was actually trying to take his glasses off  but since I took the picture right then he looks like he being a little flirt.

It is starting to feel a lot more like spring here :) We played at the park the other day and introduced Jason to playing with sand at the park. 

Cute Videos for Everyone!

I had gotten some feedback that the videos I had posted weren't working on mobile devices. So to fix the problem I uploaded the videos to youtube and posted the links to the videos below each of the them. Thanks Ben for coming up with a solution.  Now there shouldn't be any problems. Sorry for the mixup everyone.

Dora and Diego Packs

I am so excited I finished these packs! They are for Cailey's 3rd birthday. It is going to be a Dora party. I made a pack for each kid and we are going to use them for our adventure. I got the idea from Pinterest. I was a bit resistant to Pinterest at first because I am not super crafty, but I have found a lot of awesome ideas on there.
Since the website was a bit vague on the directions I will put the pattern I used in case anyone would like to give it a try. I took the measuments from a toddler backpack so if your making it for an older kid you will have to make it bigger.
Here are the directions

1. Cut two rectangle pieces of fabric measuring 10 x13 inches-this will make the body of the pack
2. Cut two pieces for the flap 10 x 4.5 inches ( I made the curve start at 4 cm up and across. To help me make the curve pretty I just traced a mug) 
3. Cut 4 pieces for the straps 2 x 18 inches.
4. Hem the two rectangle pieces half an inch from the top.
5. Sew the rectangles with right sides facing each other
6. Trim the edge be careful not to cut the seam, then turn it inside out.
7. sew the flap pieces together with the right sides facing each other, then turn it inside out
8. Sew the straps with right sides facing each other then turn them inside out.
9. Iron the straps
10. Sew the flap on to the bag, fold under the edge to make a pretty seam.
11. Sew the straps on to the bag s

I made the faces from felt. Each bag didn't take that long alone, but six bags did add up to a bit time. I made them all while Cailey was sleeping so we will get to surprise her with it at her party. I am dying to show them to her!
Her party is next week so I will have to post pictures of all it all turned out.

Dyeing Eggs with Onion Skins

I am so excited for Easter. Easter is one of my favorite holidays. I have always loved dyeing eggs. We had an egg dyeing competition every year growing up and now that I have my own family we carry own the tradition by having an Accinelli egg dyeing contest. My favorite way to dye eggs lately is with onion skins. I learned how from people I met on my church mission to the Baltics. Russians are amazing at dyeing eggs, the eggs I was given were remarkable! I thought would post this early in case anyone wanted to give it a try for Easter.
The only part of the onion you need for dyeing eggs is the flaky outer layer there is no need to buy a bunch of onions to do this. Red onions work best for this.  Anyone working in the produce section would be happy to give you the pieces that fall off, but they may give you a look when you ask for them :) remember this is a Russian way of decorating eggs and Russians know how to use money wisely. That's one of the reasons why I love them so much :)
Take those onion skins and apply them directly onto an uncooked egg. I think it is easier to do this if you get the onion skins wet and the egg wet.

To hold the onion skins on the egg wrap the egg in an piece of cloth and then rubber band the cloth onto the egg. Do not use a cloth you care about the cloth will become yellow from the dyeing process.

Then put the eggs in a pot add enough water to cover the eggs. Add a few tablespoons of vinegar to the water.
Bring the eggs to the boil then simmer them for 12 minutes. When the eggs are done pour off the water  and put the eggs in an ice bath. Don't skip the ice bath. The egg shell retains heat really well so if you don't use an ice bath you will over cook your eggs.

Let them sit in the ice bath for awhile and then remove the onion skins and voila! Your eggs are done.

Russians like to take it a step further by dripping wax in a pretty pattern on the eggs and then dyeing them in another color. Then after that they peel off the the wax, sorry no pictures of that because I don't know how to do that yet.
Since the eggs were boiled that way they will be super easy to peel. To peel the egg crack the egg all over then start peeling where the gap between the egg and the shell is and slowly work the shell off the egg. Ta da! You just peeled an egg in one piece :)

Happy early Easter all!  Иисус истинно воскрес

Who needs teddy bears when you have a purse?

My daughter is a crack up! Every night before she goes to sleep she absolutely must have a purse packed with a few toys laying beside her. She does not sleep with stuffed animals. Occasionally she will have her giraffe with her but that is it. When she wakes up in the middle of the night her request is usually for a another toy to be added to her purse. She is such a character.
I have a bunch of cute pictures of the kids that I have been meaning to add so this post will be a bit random.

We have a playground right by our apartment so we have been able to play on it a few times when the weather warmed up. Here the kids are enjoying the swings. 

It takes forever to get the kids bundled up to play outside. Doesn't she look cute all bundled up?

The other day Cailey climbed into a box and closed it the lid up around herself. My favorite part of this picture is that there are a bunch of toys in the background and instead she is playing with a box :)

I love this picture of Jason, he is such a cutie.

Like I said the pictures are random but they certainly are cute. I just wanted to show you all my cute kids. No worries the next post will be centered around one topic.