God Bless America, Land That I Love!

It's a quiet 4th of July for us today and that's just fine.  Since we're not busy running to parades and fireworks and having people over for barbecue (although we will grill out for ourselves of course), it's given me some time to reflect on the things that I do love about this land:

In No Particular Order

Patriotism and seeing our national colors everywhere I look

National and State parks -- the wide variety of beauty preserved by our nation

The goodness of people

The variety of places to live and jobs to do -- you can have any life you want!

Clean air, clean water, and clean rest stops for traveling!

A fantastic road system that takes me to my friends and family

The beaches, the crab cakes, and the she-crab soup (oh Charleston, how I miss you!)

Huckleberries in Montana in the summer

Warm weather in Texas in the winter!

Trees

Mountains of grandeur and mountains of tranquility

Wildlife -- but not bug life (sorry I just can't love that!)

The sun setting and turning the Sandia mountains pink

Quirkiness and the little things that bring us together -- Roswell and the aliens, Dallas and the Mavericks, Washington DC and the commute!

Washington DC -- city that I love!

Road trips that are filled with ridiculous and wonderful things

Historical sites -- my particular favorites are Colonial Williamsburg and Pioneer Village

Public Librarys!!!!

Parades

I think I could go on and on but I won't.  Today I'm just grateful for so much that we are blessed with!

Happy 4th of July!!!

A Spiritual Easter for Toddlers

I've been pondering and pondering how to make our Easter celebrations a little more spiritual and have had no major lightbulbs unfortunately.

Don't get me wrong.  I love the Easter egg hunts, the egg dying, and the candy (I really love the candy), but I want our children to understand the real reason behind Easter and that's proved to be rather difficult.

I've decided that Christmas is more accessible to toddlers on a spiritual level because the concept (a baby born) is a little easier for them to understand.  Atonement and resurrection?  Not so much.  So these ideas are very very basic (we all have to start somewhere right?) but they have helped my 3-year old.

Let me preface this by saying that I am a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  Most of the resources I am using are published by the church.

The first is the Ensign and The Friend magazines.

Since the content of both of these is completely online at The Church website, I don't save the old ones anymore.  Instead, I cut out pictures and activities that I like and file them away for later.

There is a nice activity here that uses eggs filled with symbols of Easter and has the kids read the scriptures that correspond.  I'm definitely saving it for later, but a 3-year old?  

So this is my version:  I filled 11 eggs with pictures representing different parts of the ENTIRE story of Jesus Christ (I want her to connect all the parts of his life to the same person).  The parts are: birth, baptism, calling the apostles, teaching the people, miracles of healing, triumphant entry into Jerusalem, instituting the sacrament, atonement, crucifixion, burial, and resurrection.

I folded the pictures up and put them in eggs and then "hid" the eggs (difficulty according to age so in this case, in plain sight).  When my daughter found all the eggs, the idea was to open them one at a time and tell the story.

She got a little excited and just opened them.  But afterwards, she did sit on my lap and let me tell her the story.  With all the pictures, it was kind've like reading a book -- and she loves books.

I know she doesn't understand it all yet (heck, I don't even understand it all!), but I feel better knowing that we have made a start.

My other ideas?  Well we haven't done them all yet but what I'm thinking is . . . 

1.  Watch the end of the Testaments movie, when Christ appears to the Nephites

2.  Maybe watch the short video His Sacred Name: An Easter Declaration, found here

And I actually have one more thing but I need to find it first to link to it -- it's a beautiful presentation about Christ that I used last year in a Primary activity that brought the Spirit so incredibly strongly and that was for children 3 to 12.

And if anyone out there has ideas for me -- please let me know!

St. Patrick's Day Party

I decided it was time.  I've lived in this area for several months now and am still having a hard time really connecting with people.  So I decided to take drastic measures.  

I threw a party.

Of course, the casual observer most likely would not have considered it a party.  More of a playdate.    But it helped me get to know some people a little better and my munchkin had someone other than mommy to play with.  Actually, it was a lot of fun.  And quite successful I might add.

Since it was adult women and toddler children (and 2 babies), I kept it really simple.

Toys, playtime, and balloons when they walk in the door.  Check.

A St. Patrick's Day Scavenger Hunt for that ever elusive pot of gold.

Which they did find with a little prompting from mom, and mom, and mom.

Check.

Lunch.  Delicious check.

Decorate cookies.  Even more delicious check.

Everyone goes home and everyone takes naps (at least at my house) -- very satisfied, pulled off my first party and am happy, check.

And that is one easy formula for a simple gathering that doesn't take a lot of preparation but has some great results.

I loved that it was a playdate (party) with some structure.  The kids did play "together" (still working on the together part), but also had something to focus on and it was a small review of color.  It could so easily be made more educational or to fit older children.  But it worked for toddlers too and that can be difficult to accomplish.

St. Patrick's Day Scavenger Hunt

I wasn't sure how much 2 and 3 year olds would get the idea of leprechauns, so instead we focused on rainbows and that wonderful pot of gold.

Start with a stack of 5 different colors of construction paper.

Cut your rainbow shapes out of the paper.  The paper will probably shift some but you'll still have 5 nesting arcs of each color to swap out.

Reorganize your papers to form a multi-colored rainbow and write your clues on one side.  I also labeled mine with the initial of each child so that when we "found" another piece of the rainbow with it's clue, each child had one that was theirs -- no fighting over colors!

Hide your rainbow pieces so that each part leads to the next smaller one.

Hunt!

Our clues were super simple of course and just had the children go to various rooms in my house to find their pieces.  In between each find, we went back to the living room to tape our rainbow together.  The last piece's clue said "we see rainbows outside, that's where the pot of gold is too!"  So we ran outside and sitting underneath our budding willow tree was their "pot of gold". 

Contents thanks to a quick thinking husband.  Get it?  Goldfish?  And the bubbles -- every kid loves bubbles.

And each child took home their pot of gold prizes as well as their rainbow -- with my dorky little clues in plain view (maybe we should've taped them clue-side down!).

 But ten bucks says that when my husband walks in the door tonight, my little one will run up to him and say "look what I made daddy!".  And that's definitely worth it.