Lenten Family Ritual

Kids love rituals and traditions.  I do too...in theory.  In actuality, I'm consistent at very few things in life (have you noticed I blog in spurts?), so having to remember a ritual and find the time to fit it in rarely happens. 

In the Christian church, the 40 days leading up to Easter (not including Sundays) are considered the season of Lent.  A lot of Christians use this time to either give something up as a sacrifice (like not eating chocolate) or to engage in a new spiritual discipline (like reading the Bible daily).  While I may not be consistent year round, I can manage to do something for 40 days.  Thus our Lenten Family Ritual...

1.  We light a candle.  (Candles make everything special, right?  We've actually started lighting two candles so we don't have to deal with tantrums over who gets to blow it out.)

2.  We cuddle on the couch, read a story from the Spark Bible and talk about it.  (We like this one because it has pictures, easy text, and covers a lot of ground.)

3.  We gather around our prayer cross (butcher paper) and share our prayers.  (We use 3 types of prayers:  Please God..., Thank you God..., and I'm sorry God...)  After they say a prayer we all say "Amen" and then write it on the cross in a simple form.  (They like to chose the spot where we write it.)

4.  We sit in a circle, hold hands, and say the Lord's Prayer.  (Liliana didn't know it when we started, but she's caught on!  We end it by shouting "And the whole Johnson family says AMEN!!!!" and throw our hands up in the air.)

5.  We blow out the candle.

Simple, requires no prep, takes about 15 minutes of our night and the kids LOVE it!  And I love that we're spending intentional, quality family time together and creating lasting memories, while helping our children grow in faith.

You can still do family rituals without it having to be a Christian thing too...just adapt.  For instance, you could light a candle, read a storybook together, and share your best and worst parts of your day.  Consistent, quality family time is the goal!

Micah's Lego Star Wars Party

Micah's birthday is in August, and since we move every July, he never knows anyone to invite to a "friends" party.  This year, we decided to let him have a half birthday party instead!  I made the invites on the computer and had them printed as 5x7 photos.  They turned out great!

Thank goodness for Pinterest!  I don't know how moms planned parties before it! 

The guests got Jedi robes when they arrived, but most of the kids didn't want to wear them, which surprised me.  My two were all over dressing up...which only makes sense since Mom and Dad were dressed up too!

Yay for old choir robes!

The first game we played was "Jedi Training" (aka- Obstacle Course). 

Micah dashes for the rings, determined to be the fastest Jedi!

Then they had to find the Princess Leia that was trapped in a balloon and rescue her.  It didn't take them long to find her, but man did they have a hard time popping that balloon!

They each got a lightsaber and practiced battling asteroids (keeping balloons in the air with them).

Once that asteroid was taking care of, they went on an asteroid hunt (searching for hidden Hershey's kisses).

Jedi Master Jeremy explains the directions.

Freeing Han Solo from the frozen carbonate (in this case, ice) was next.  I gave the kids a variety of tools to use and a big hint that there was a sink in the next room.  Micah was the only one who got the hint though and while the other kids hammered away at the ice with a potato masher and poured a bunch of salt on top, he ran it under hot water and got done the fastest.

After that came everyone's favorite party game- pinata time!  They got to destroy the death star that Micah and I paper mached.

Finally, they played a few filler games while I quick helped get food set out.  They shot a Darth Vader cutout with nerf guns, played Padawan, Padawan, Jedi (Duck, Duck, Goose) and worked on their precision skills by dropping the kisses from earlier into a bucket.

Yes, that's a flashlight taped to his nerf gun.  So he can shoot in the dark!  His idea.

The menu consisted of:

• Palpatine Pizza
• Han Burgers
• Endor Trail Mix
• Wookie Cookies
• Lightsabers
• Bantha Milk
• Yoda Soda

 

Lightsabers = Pretzel rods dipped in candy melts with tinfoil wrapped around the bottom.

And lastly, cake and presents!

The girls will be so disappointed, he got all the candles out.  ;-)

Red frosting...whose idea was that?!?!

What a great day!  We will definitely be sticking with the half birthday party thing.  It was a fun way to brighten up wintertime, and Micah felt so very special to be able to celebrate with his friends!

Labels, Seashells and Science Time!

We eat a LOT of grapefruit in our house.  I mention this because the Del Monte containers of grapefruit work great for storing craft supplies.  I recently organized all of our "special" craft supplies and made some cute labels to go on them!  (Our everyday craft supplies are stored downstairs by the kid table, so they have access to them all the time.)

Liliana was helping me label the containers and came across some seashells.  A LOT of seashells!  Which she promptly poured everywhere.

This led to some science time and one of my new favorite photos of Liliana.  <3 it!

She has big eyes to begin with but her using that magnifying glass was adorable!

All on her own, she decided to find matches and put them in the mini muffin tin.

Labels, seashells and science time!  What a randomly thrown together post...which is very suiting with what our life has been like lately.  ;-)

Liliana's Travel Agency

Yesterday, Liliana and I had an awful day.  We were both moody, neither of us wanted to compromise, and we spent most of the day angry with each other.  I was determined that today would be better.  So last night, I set out new markers and paper upstairs at the table and at the table downstairs I set out this, an invitation to play Travel Agency.

She was stoked!  She sat right down and started asking us where we wanted to go.

Apparently she specializes in "pink vacations."  She'd say, "Do you want to go to Minnesota?  How about pink Minnesota?  Would you like to stay in a pink hotel?  It has pink beds and a pink pool.  You can take a pink car to get there."  My kind of a trip!

She played nicely all morning!  If you haven't had a conversation with her lately...you should.  She's hilarious!  She makes all of these facial expressions when she's talking.  These photos were all taken right in a row while she was telling me about my vacation options:

She's so expressive!  Must get it from Jeremy.  ;-) 

If you have an old keyboard, phone, cash register, and notepad/pen, you've got the basics for a TON of different dramatic play opportunities. 

• Post Office- Add a mailbox, envelopes and stickers.
• Shoe store- Add shoes/shoe boxes.
• Toy store- Add toys and a shopping cart.
• Book store or library- Add books and fake credit cards for library cards.
• Grocery store- Add either empty or full food containers, grocery bags, a shopping cart or basket, and old coupons.
• Construction company- Add blocks.
• Restaurant- Add plastic food, table cloth, drawn menus, maybe a tray to carry food, etc.

You get the idea!  Grocery store was one of our favorite daycare games to play.  It's amazing how they pick up on the little details of social interactions that they can then repeat through dramatic play.  For instance, saying "Have a nice day." when you hand the bag of food to the customer.  That's nothing I've ever taught my kids, but they picked it up from observing.  Such sponges!!!

And in the meantime, if you're interested in taking a pink vacation, call Liliana!  Operators are standing by.