Path Through Palestine

We just finished putting on a Primary activity. The activity was to help the kids understand and know a little bit more about Christ's life. Our theme in Primary this year is "I Know My Savior Lives". We are studying Him all year. We thought this activity would be especially important right before we celebrate Easter. It came together well, although not exactly as I imagined it.

We invited the Primary kids to come on a tour of the Holy Land with us. They arrived and were put into groups, assigned "tour guides" (the 11 year olds) and given maps of Palestine to follow. They traveled to 6 rooms and had to have the person in that place stamp their map to show they had been there. The people in most of the rooms were invited guests (girls from BYU) that just got back from studying at BYU Jerusalem. They had pictures, souvenirs and stories to share from being there.They went to Bethlehem. Here they saw a nativity made of olive wood from Jerusalem and pictures of actual Bethlehem today. They also talked about the nativity story, dressed up and acted it out.The Jordan River. The kids talked about baptism, Jesus' baptism, saw a slide show projected on the wall of the Jordan River, sang the baptism song and played a game.
The Sea of Galilee. Here they were told the stories of Jesus calling his apostles and calming the stormy sea. They saw a slide show of pictures of the Sea of Galilee and went "fishing" in a fishing pond for bags of gold fish crackers.Gethsemane. The kids saw pictures of the actual garden of Gethsemane filled with olive trees. They also saw olive oil made from those olive trees and the olives and olive branches. We did activities to learn more about what happened there as we put together a puzzle of Jesus praying in the Garden of Gethsemane.On to Jerusalem. Here they had a mini version of a seder or passover dinner. They learned a lot and tasted a lot. They had grape juice for wine, salt water, parsley (bitter herbs), unleaven bread, dates, etc. I think this was a really neat room to experience.The matzah.
Setting for Elijah.
And they ended at The Garden Tomb. Here we saw a slide show of pictures from what they believe to be the tomb where Jesus was laid. We read "The Garden" (wonderful book) and they colored their own little books to take home about the resurrection. We also had Easter sugar cookies to make up for the parsley we just served them.

I was honestly so exhausted after planning, setting up and putting on this activity. I hope that from our work the children in Primary felt more for why we celebrate Easter. And certainly I hope they felt more for and gained a deeper appreciation and relationship with our Savior. I am so grateful to know that He lives, who once was dead.

Did Jesus really live again?
Yes, when the third day came,
He wakened and he left the tomb;
He called Mary’s name.

Did Jesus come to those he loved?
Yes, people touched his feet,
And of the fish and honeycomb
He did truly eat.

And there were nailprints in his hands
And a spear wound in his side.
Did Jesus really live again
After he had died?
Oh yes! And so shall I!

Pinkalicious!

My sister Laura gave the girls the book "Pinkalicious" when Zachary was born. They L.O.V.E. this book. We were reading it one night before bed and we made a plan to make pink cupcakes the next day. Some of us were sure we would turn pink if we ate too many pink cupcakes, just like Pinkalicious. Well, take it from the one who ate the most pink cupcakes . . . I did not turn pink. We did eat some delicious cupcakes and even got to deliver some to the neighbors (so I wouldn't keep testing the experiment).

St. Patrick's Day 2010

St. Patrick's Day was celebrated in full force around here. Scott's grandpa is from Ireland, so we felt the need to be supportive of this holiday . . . until Landon told us the real story of St. Patrick. Well, it's still fun to dress in green and turn everything green and most especially, eat corned beef and cabbage.

It started with a very fun Playgroup St. Patty's Day party. The kids got to play musical chairs, which we soon found out is not a game for 2 year olds. They all burst into tears when they didn't have a chair. By the end of the game every mom was holding a crying child. So funny. They also set a trap for a Leprechaun, did a craft, had lunch and got to run wild. Good time. I had the bright idea for us all to head downtown for the St. Patrick's Day parade the Saturday before. I thought it was going to be nice weather. It was not. We watched about half of the parade in the cold and then retreated indoors when it started pouring rain. It really snowed the whole rest of the day. So, maybe in honor of St. Patrick's day, Scott turned on the Christmas lights on our house that night. It was a winter wonderland. (Yes, the lights are still on our house.)On St. Patrick's day I served the girls green scrambled eggs and green milk for breakfast. I ate it with them and let me tell you, it was not all that appetizing, but they thought I was pretty tricky. But our dinner . . . yum. We had Landon, Sarah and kids over for the party. We played Irish music and served corned beef brisket that had been cooking for hours. We also had potatoes, carrots, cabbage, bread and then mint ice cream sandwiches for dessert. Delicious! (P.S. If you remember, the shamrock on the table is a shamrock that Scott's grandparents brought from Ireland over 40 years ago. Cool, huh? And it's even still alive at our house!)
And a Happy St. Patrick's Day to all!

The boy can eat!

Zachary has been eying our food while we are eating for a few weeks now. The girls have offered him every type of food, but he just can't do fishy crackers yet. I so much don't like the baby food feeding stage though that I was trying to hold him off. He would be held off no longer. There I was with mashed potatoes and apple sauce on my plate . . . perfectly edible 5 month old food . . . and I gave in. And he loved it! He munched it down better than I've seen either of the girls ever do.

So, we started giving him rice cereal and he is downing that too. We'll see if maybe, hopefully we can get some baby chunk rolls on this one. Begging for more. Pleeeeaaaaaaassssssssse!
One happy, fed boy!

Smile!

Here are some of the smiles from around here recently. . . .

Scott and Zachary all dressed up for church working on HT lists on the couch. I thought they looked quite handsome together.
Brielle went to the dentist for a cavity yesterday. Scott took her and said he was crying watching her in that big chair with all of that work happening on her. I was crying with the pictures he was sending home on his phone. How awful for a little four year old, right? Well, she didn't mind in the least. She had no problem going, no problem climbing into the chair and lying still, no problem with the work they did and no problem once the numbness wore off (except that she had chewed up the inside of her lip so much). This is her half numb smile when she got home. It was cracking me up.Ava still has a hard time figuring out how to force a smile for the camera. Here is her best attempt. Hilarious. She's really trying.Zachary smiling through a mouthful of rice cereal.After Zachary gets all sloppy, dirty and covered in rice cereal he "chases" the girls around the kitchen to give them a big, wet kiss. They go screaming and running. Aaaaaah . . . Here he comes! (Brie took the pictures.)Here is a smile from Ava's person. Ava has started drawing people "just like di di does". It's so funny to hear her talk her way through the drawing, "big circle, polka dot, polka dot, mouth, other mouth, arm, arm, leg, other leg, body." The scribble at the bottom of the circle is the body, of course.

Brielly Pie

Well, she is still at it. The obsession of princesses and girliness and pink and fanciness and frilliness is still holding strong in one Brielle Buchanan. She actually just requested that "Gimme Gimme Gimme" by Abba be played while she does a dance of cleaning up her toys in panties and a tube top made out of a fairy skirt.

Brielle is definitely sure of who she is and what she likes and dislikes. She has always been very independent and confident. I like this most of the time, but this always means there is great discussion over what dress she will wear for the day and what accessories she can wear to go with it. Or if she will get the pink plate or cup with her meal. Or who is a princess and who is not. Etc., etc., etc. Brielle is in preschool and really liking it. She has just started to be interested in what she is learning there. She has mostly only talked about which of her friends was there, how funny Luke is, what Angelina was wearing, what toy the other Brielle brought and how special it was to her, and how Ellie was not sharing. It was all social. She still cares about what is going on with her friends and of course, what they were all wearing, but has started to be excited about learning letters and numbers too.She loves to go through sheets and sheets of computer paper "writing letters" to people or drawing pictures. Brielle can write her name now, all of the letters of the alphabet and the numbers. She also takes after her mother and "writes lists" of what we need at the grocery store or what she wants to do today. She also spends a lot of time "reading" books by herself or having me read her stories.Brielle is all over little Zachary. She hugs and kisses him until she is smothering him so much that she gets told to back away. Zachary laughs really hard at her though and really does like the smothering . . . for now. Sometimes Brielle and Ava play together so well. They have a great time running and screaming through the house or playing doggy. They are upstairs jumping on their beds right now. I guess I'll have to head up there soon. She always wants to dress Ava up, but Ava yells back at her saying, "No, Ava want to be a human!" There is A LOT of fighting too. I can always count on someone screaming and crying after "playing" together for awhile. She still dresses herself up all day, every day. Not so much in princess dress ups anymore, but just putting together random outfits and accessories. I get her ready in the morning, but there will be at least twenty outfit changes between then and bedtime. They are almost always very revealing and immodest because they usually involve something that is size 12 months. When a new outfit is revealed there is quite a fashion show and dance that goes along with it.Brielle has a lot of girls that she considers her best friends and is so excited when she gets to go play at their houses or they come here. Those counted as best friends include some 15 year old girls from church that she adores. The ranking of best friend status is completely dependent upon if the girl has dress ups at her house or not.

Gotta go. Brie is asking me to tie a cape (and only a cape) onto her for a "lovely gown". Crazy girl.