Sharing the Easter Story with Little Ones

I have been trying to find some good ways to explain Easter to Hazel. It is such a hard concept to really understand especially for a preschooler who is still trying to grasp death, heaven, etc. We have been reading the Holy Week stories in her Bible story book. We also got some more picture books about Easter. We hit the used book store after Hazel's appointment for allergy testing and bought quite a few new ones. I will admit we have not gotten through all of them yet, but am sharing them here so you can check them out. Please note: Two have the same illustrator and thus the same picture on the covers.

Besides reading these books we have also been using toilet paper roll characters to act out the crucifixion and resurrection. We colored in the characters and scenes that you can get at Catholic Icing (if you subscribe you can get her water color painted ones as a subscriber bonus). Hazel still has many questions like "Why did they kill Jesus? Why did they want him to die? Why was he put between two thieves? Why were they killed?" She is however enjoying acting it out.

You have the crucifixion with the Roman soldiers. The crucified Jesus can come off and be put in the tomb.

I glued the large stone to a piece of a toilet paper roll so it could be moved back and forth. The middle picture is the inside of the tomb. She suggested a small tissue box, but we didn't have one and we used a large one.

The other people you get are two angels, the two Marys, Peter and the Risen Christ.

I noticed after I glued it that the Risen Christ's arms are suppose to be cut so they can be open and they have the nail marks on them.

I truly think giving her these puppets to act out the story is helping her at least understand some of it.

Sharing Saturday 13-9

Thank you to all you shared last week! We had some amazingly creative ideas shared. If you have not had a chance to check out all of the wonderful posts, please do so. Also make sure you check out my co-host, Having Fun at Chelle's House for Michelle's Features. This week she is featuring some of the wonderful Dr. Seuss ideas shared last week since March 2 is Dr. Seuss' birthday! 


This week I get to feature the most clicked! By far the most clicked was from Toddling in the Fast Lane and it was her Say It Two Ways Thursday Link Party and the one she linked up had food as her features. For her most recent and still open link party, go here!

My next feature is a bit of favoritism/self promotion. My dear friend, Kelly, from Happy Whimsical Hearts shared her knitted farm!! If you have been following here for the past year, you may remember I am the one who organized the farm swap last March. Kelly finished hers and gave it to her children for Christmas. (My squares are still sitting in my craft room untouched.) When Hazel looked with me at the pictures she said, "Mommy, I want one of those. Can you put it on my wish list?" (Every time she wants something that I don't want to buy at the time I tell her I'll put it on her wish list. If it is something I want her to have, I do put it on her wish list and if not, I don't. There are so many things on her wish list, she will never get them all, so she won't know.) Seeing Kelly's has motivated me to get knitting again. I couldn't help sharing a few pictures of it. Of course Kelly is also very talented in many ways and has many beautiful animals and other additions to her farm.

Now onto some of my other favorites.

1) From Raise a Boy: Make Your Own Graphic T-Shirt (Now I may have picked this since we are planning Hazel's first visit to Disney, but I loved the personal t-shirt!)

2) From We Made That: Milk & Soap Experiment (This looks like so much fun. I think we may have to give it a try!)

3) From My Nearest and Dearest: Small World Construction Site (Oh, I love the mud play dough and the green paper to fill and play with the trucks. I know a little girl who would LOVE this!!)


4) From Learning and Growing the Piwi Way: Not Your Usual Princess Stories (With a princess loving daughter, I found a few new books to check out and I added some in my comment that we love as well.)


5) From Wesens-Art: Spring Wreath (Ok, what I LOVE about this wreath is that the wreath itself is made of tongue depressors!! And yes, she gives a tutorial on how to do it!)
Thank you to everyone who shared last week!! If you were one of the ones picked as a feature here, please feel free to grab a featured button to display proudly on your blog.

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My Week in Review: This week I shared Easter decorations including some new printable garlands as well as books, an African American Cinderella type story, Spring flower fairies, cinnamon whoopie pie recipe, and two Dr. Seuss book activities to go with One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish and Green Eggs and Ham.

 

 

Now for This Week's Party 
 
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1)  Please follow Crafty Moms Share and Having Fun at Chelle's House via GFC (or one of the other ways that work for you).  

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3) Post the newly updated button on your sidebar or somewhere on your blog to help spread the word.

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Cinnamon Whoopie Pies

During school vacation week, Hazel and I took a cooking class with her best friend from school and his mother at a place called Play Makers. It is a local place that is run by mothers and offers play times, cooking classes as well as art classes. Her friend's birthday party was at this location in January which was our first exposure to it.

When we got there, we found out we were making whoopie pies. Now Hazel has similar chocolate tastes to me. We love chocolate but do not like chocolate cakes including brownies or even Oreos. While each child was mixing their whoopie pie, the other mother and I were talking about this and she suggested we put in extra vanilla and no cocoa powder. I asked the instructor if this was all right with her and she suggested we add some cinnamon. A new treat was born. I have to admit Hazel was the only child to eat both of her completed whoopie pies during the class (most took at least one of them home). Needless to say it was very tasty. Hazel also informed me that we would have to make them at home. So this week we did. At the class each child got to decorate a copy of the recipe to bring home.

We made two batches, one chocolate and one cinnamon since Steve loves chocolate and chocolate whoopie pies happen to be my father's favorite as well and he was here since he was taking my mother into the hospital for her surgery (all prayers are welcome for her). 

Cinnamon Whoopie Pies

Our recipe:
1/4 cup canola oil
3/4 cup light brown sugar, packed
2 eggs lightly beaten
3/4 cup milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour 
2 teaspoons cinnamon (we used 1/4 cup this time and it was too much--the original recipe called for 1/4 cup dark chocolate cocoa powder)

Cream Filling:
4 ounces cream cheese
1 cup confectioner's sugar
1 pint whipping cream
1 teaspoon vanilla
pinch of salt

1) Preaheat oven to 350 degrees.
2) Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
3) In large bowl mix oil and brown sugar until smooth.
4) Whisk in eggs, milk, vanilla, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
5) Fold in flour and cinnamon. Then drop by the tablespoon into twelve mounds evenly spaced onto each baking sheet. (Ok, with Hazel helping scoop ours were not evenly spaced.) Bake until springy to the touch, about 10 minutes. Transfer to cooling rack to cool completely.

6) Meanwhile, using an electric mixer, beat the filling ingredients until fluffy.
7) Spread the flat side of 12 cakes with the cream cheese filling. Top each with another cake.
8) Optional: Dust with confectioner's sugar. Enjoy!

Chocolate Whoopie Pies

My father tried both kinds and liked them both! Enjoy!!

Green Eggs and Ham Activities

Since Saturday is Dr. Seuss' Birthday and Saturday is Sharing Saturday here at Crafty Moms Share, I thought I would share our activities and crafts to go with Green Eggs and Ham. Now this is Steve's favorite Dr. Seuss book. We actually have it on DVD and watched it with Hazel as we were kicking off this month for the Virtual Book Club for Kids. (We normally try not to let her watch television unless one of us is sick or a special occasion.) I was going to wait until tomorrow to share this, but if you want to do our activity you need a good two days for it to work, so I'll share it today.

For those who do not know, the Virtual Book Club for Kids is a group of amazing bloggers who focus on an author each month and post about one of that's author's books with an activity, craft, snack, etc. to go with it and then host a blog hop. February's author is Dr. Seuss and this is our third book and activity this month. We did Bartholomew and the Oobleck and One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish.

First I will share the Green Eggs and Ham sheets we found at Seussville.

Hazel and Steve enjoyed playing Tic-Tac-Toe with green eggs and ham pieces. Steve also got the colored page since it is his favorite book and hung it in his office.

Felt Green Eggs and Ham

Next I cut some white wool felt and needle felted some green for the yolks and needle felted a small egg shape. I also cut some green felt to be a piece of ham. I decided to be lazy and glued it instead of sewing it. Hazel decided she would be Sam and I would be the other character who Sam harasses to try the green eggs and ham.

Green Egg Outside and Inside

Then we did the Naked Egg Experiment shared by We Made That at Sharing Saturday and also shared by Science Sparks and others the past year. Since we had three eggs that were going bad, I figured we would try it and we took it one step further. Two of the eggs we put in a container with vinegar and green food coloring. Here are our results.

When we bounced them in the sink, the membranes broke. That is what the green is in the last one. The inside of the egg came out normally and washed down the drain. Hazel has not let me "crack" the last one yet, though so she could play with it a bit more.

Now it is time for the blog hop. Please share your Dr. Seuss ideas here. And a very Happy Birthday to the late Dr. Seuss!

Easter Flower Fairy Peg Dolls

So last week I shared with you a few of my animal peg dolls for Hazel's Easter basket. Today I'm going to share a few more. I made her a daffodil fairy and a tulip fairy.

I painted the two bodies green and then cut green leaf wings. For the tulip I cut two pieces of petal strips and glued them on as a crown after giving her a face and hair.

For the daffodil, I did her face and yellow hair and then cut out the petals and the inner strip. On the inner strip I added a little pink since I did not have orange paint marker. 

Now I want to do a sheep peg doll and a Jesus peg doll and I then I'll sew some felt animals for her as well.