Resurrection Rolls

It is so easy to get caught up in the fun of special holiday and forget to reflect on the actual meaning behind that special day. Why not take the significant stuff and make it fun for our kids.

This year, in order to keep the focus of Easter on Jesus, we made resurrection rolls. They are a simple and tasty way to walk your little ones through the story of Easter.

So go gather up your ingredients. All you will need is:

Marshmallows (however many rolls you will be making, we did 8)
Crescent Rolls
Butter
Cinnamon Sugar

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. While your oven preheats begin sharing about Jesus' death on the cross.

Line your baking sheet with parchment paper and then place your crescent rolls onto the sheet. You will want them separated based on their pre-cut triangles. As you lay them out, explain that the dough is like the cloth that they wrapped Jesus' body in.

Now for the hands on part, which my kids love. Give them their marshmallow and explain that it represents Jesus. It is white and pure, to show that Jesus was without sin.

Have the kids cover their marshmallows in butter to represent the embalming oils.

Then take their covered marshmallow and roll it around in the cinnamon sugar which symbolizes the spices that were used to prepare his body for burial.

 

Now place your marshmallows in the "cloth". Make sure to close them up securely. Remember that this represents how they wrapped Jesus' body.

Place your rolls in the oven which will represent the tomb. Bake for 12 minutes.

While you wait for your rolls, read John20:1-18.

Remove your rolls from the tomb. Open them up and see that the marshmallow is gone.

Jesus is Risen!

Crafting it Up

With Easter right around the corner, the kids and I have been working hard to cutesy up the house. One of the projects we have done, is a cute Easter egg banner.

She is intense.

 We started up by ripping up lots and lots and lots of colored paper.

Once the paper was all torn up, we pasted it to sheets colored paper. Try and cover the whole page, if you can't it's ok since you are using a pretty color background.

Once our paper was all covered and dried, I drew a few eggs on the back and then cut out our egg shapes.

I had Rhiannon help me put them in an order that was most appealing to her little eyes. We punched holes in the tops and then threaded yarn through the holes. Which is also a great project for fine motor skills.

Sorry, no pictures of those steps. I promise you will figure it out though :)

We hung our banner on our fire place for all to enjoy. This was a fun project and a great way for us all to do something crafty together.

Check back tomorrow for a fun recipe to prepare the kids for Easter.


P.S. I am linking up at Made with Love Monday

Toddler Talk: Opinions.

Was baby number 2 a surprise? 22 months, that's less than 2 years! You've got your hands full! What were you thinking when you had your kids so close together?

These are all statements I have heard when people see or hear the age difference between my kids. I know I am not the only one with kids close in age. I know there are people with kids much closer together than mine. Is this age difference not as common as I thought?

When people say things like this to me, I'm not going to lie, sometimes I want to blow up at them.

First off, my kids are amazing, well behaved and frankly a piece of cake to take care of. I am blessed. I know my kids are not the norm. I seriously have it so easy. So when people say things like "you have your hands full", it makes me laugh a little. I usually just smile and nod. But seriously people, seriously? When my kids are sitting quietly, laughing and smiling in a shopping cart, what makes you think that my hands are full? Since when is having two kids a handful? Isn't that the average number of kids in a family? I'm a little confused.

Second, was he a surprise? An accident? NO! He was completely planned. I want lots of babies. Babies are a blessing. Why do so many people see kids as such an inconvenience? That is not saying that if your baby was a surprise, they are unwanted or an inconvenience, it is the assumption that number two must have been a surprise that I have beef with.

And lastly, what was I thinking when I had my kids so close together. Well... this:

These moments. The bond. The friendship. I wanted this for my kids. I want them to grow up together. To share moments together as the best of friends. I love the age difference between my kids. I love that the get to experience so many first time memories together. It is fun.

Plus, if I am going to talk my husband into having a soccer team full of kids, I gotta keep them close together, right? You think that I'm joking huh?

Sorry about my rant. Just had to vent to y'all.

Do you have experiences like this? Or am I the only one?

Sand and Water to the rescue

These past few days, weeks, months have been chaotic around the house. As we prep for foster care we are making lots of changes in our home. Since there is so much to do and construction happening, we have really had to cut out a lot of our fun out of the home activities.

The kids have been quite stir crazy because of it. Don't get me wrong, when my dad is here working on building the girl room, all the kids want to do is help him work. But when he's not here, they are bored. They are sick of coloring, they have played with all their toys...all 2143273249709 of them.

We have been taking lots of breaks to go outside and play in the sand box. I am so thankful for little things like sand and water. They really have broke up the monotony of our days. We are having fun despite being cooped up.

They love playing in the sand!

Is there anything sweeter than siblings playing nicely together?

I am so in love with his always messy baby face!

I'm equally in love with her beautiful little face.

Is there something you do when you are stuck at home? How do you keep your little ones occupied and happy? I would love some tips.

Toddler Talk: Setting the Standard

Have you ever taken your kiddos on a date? It is a fun thing that we try and make a point of doing often. Steven started taking Rhi on Daddy dates when she was about 18 months. As Talon is quickly approaching that age, this month in fact, Valentine's Day seemed to be the perfect time to take him on his first Mommy and Me date.

So this Saturday (because I am not willing to give up my man on Valentines day) we parted ways and took our kids on Valentines dates.

We started off by giving them their little Valentines. After gifts were given, Rhi and Steven headed to the Santa Ana Zoo. They had a blast and Rhi talked about it all evening. After the zoo, they went for ice cream cones. In order to devote all of his attention to Rhi, Steven ditched his dSLR and used his iPhone to catch a couple images for memory sake.

What a sweet date they had.

Talon and I grabbed my pass for a fun trip to Disneyland. We hit up Small World after battling a massive crowd.

 From there it was Talon's all time favorite Winnie the Pooh or as he says "Wi-e-apoooooo".

  

We cut the trip short in order to go have dessert at Rainforest Cafe. He enjoyed lots of sweets while I devoured the time I had alone with my sweet boy.

In that moment, as we shared in memories and fun with our precious babies, we were also teaching them valuable lessons. Lessons of how they should be treated when the dating days come. How they should treat the people they chose to date. From the time we found out we were having a little girl, these dates were something we knew we had to do. We live in a time where courting and treating a girl right are not common. We knew that Steven would be taking her out, showing her what she deserved and setting a standard for her. That any boy who didn't treat her this way was not worth her time. We decided to start at a young age because...well, it's when kids learn the most. How my husband treats me and how he treats her during date time, is what she will likely base her dating and eventually marriage off of. We wanted to make sure that was shown to her properly.

Now that we have Talon, I want more and more to teach him how he should be treating a woman. AND how she should be treating him back. I think, so often, we forget to protect our boys. Not that we forget but it is not as important to us as protecting our girls. Why is that? They are just as precious. Yes, they are the "stronger" gender. They are the ones who are expected to protect but they too need protecting. They need to be treated with respect.

I encourage all of you to take your kids out on dates. Teach them to show love and respect. Show them how they should be treated and just importantly how they should be treating others. It is never to early...and it's never too late. They are sponges and you need the training too. If you start now, you are more likely to do it later.

Toddler Talk on Financial Peace Junior

This week we began Financial Peace Junior with our oldest (3 y/o). Financial Peace Junior is a set of tools and resources designed to help parents teach their kids how to manage their money. Kids have a commission chart to keep track of their chores, how much each of those chores are worth and how much commission they will be receiving daily and weekly.

Once you pay your little one, there are three envelopes that they separate there money into. Give, Save and Spend. We are using the give for Rhiannon's tithe, it can also be used for charity. As for her save, she hasn't decided what she wants to save up for. I am thinking a trip to Target to pick something is in order.

As for how this is all working. Let me just start by saying, I was a little bit worried that Rhiannon wouldn't grasp it. She is only 3. How would she comprehend any of it?

She shocked me. We set up a list of chores and she has been rocking it. She will finish one task and ask what's next. She has lots of little jobs around here and only wants more.

When she is paid, she instantly asks "How much for God?". We are so excited for her. It makes me a little sad how grown up she is but this is a huge step in getting our little one to help, all while she learns proper money management that we all need.

Steven and I are currently going through the debt snowball plan. It is amazing how easy it is to reach goals when you take time to plan things out and stick to it. We have paid off so much debt and are so close to being debt free. Doing it all on a very tight budget. Before starting the snowball plan and working out a strict budget, we were hardly paying our bills, putting excess on credit cards and struggling. With the same (even slightly less) income, by simply managing a cash budget we are not only paying our bills but almost out of debt.

Why do I mention any of this in a toddler talk post, a post about Rhi's money management? A couple of reasons.

1. If we were taught to properly manage our money at a young age, we would not need to go through any of this. Our generation is so dependent on "credit". We do not realize that credit is a friendly word for debt. We want to train our children up, knowing that acquiring debt is dangerous. 
2. What we teach our kids about money means nothing if we cannot manage our own. If we gave the kids all of the resources that Dave Ramsey and Financial Peace Junior offer but did not stay out of debt ourselves, what would we really be teaching them. Our children learn directly from our actions and how we live our lives. Us being debt free and managing our money well is detrimental in teaching our kids to be debt free.

I am bias to Dave Ramsey and all that he offers on his site/radio show because I know that it is what worked for us. Whether your follow our lead or go another direction I would highly recommend that you start your children up on a money management plan as early as possible.

For more info on the Debt Snowball plan, Financial Peace and/or Financial Peace Junior go visit Dave Ramsey's website.

What are you and your toddlers up to this week?

Toddler Talk Tuesday

Wow! It feels like forever since I have done a Toddler Talk post. I missed sharing fun little things going on over here with my two toddlers. Can I tell you though that it was really nice to take a break from lots of things and just enjoy my kids. My family.

It was fun. We did so much together. It is always nice to have the husband home. Not only is he a great second pair of hands. I mean the decrease in changing of poopie diapers is phenomenal. But more than just cutting my work load in half, it is so fun to just enjoy our little family.

So there is my tangent on what a joy it was to have daddy home. Now for the post. Instead of telling you all about our Christmas, I thought I would let you see the thrill in the little faces. So sweet.

Toddler Talk with Russell: Take 2

Hey Rock-A-Bow readers! So glad you came back to hear from me. This week has been nutso in the Murphy house. It seems like everyday a new family member has been sick. First the little guy, then the mommy and the girl (double whammy) and then the dad. Wowza. It's a good thing they can't touch me. I didn't want those nasty germs.

Because they were sick, I got a little bit of rest. I mean with no kids to watch, I didn't have to keep hiding. But when I did. Oh boy was it fun.

Well except on Wednesday. Someone thought it would be a good idea to do this ^ NOT FUNNY. I know the smile says otherwise but umm that smile was FROZEN on my face. Leave the hiding to me folks. This was not okay with me.

I thought that since the parents thought it was fun to make me freeze, that I should have a good old fashion snow ball fight. They got lucky and these snow balls wouldn't go anywhere. They both were like targets and me with no snowball amo. Grr.

Oh Oh Oh big news. Did you all know that Santa sometimes recruits moms to expand his workshop? Me either. But this mom has a full blown workshop in the house. She is making lots of presents for little boys and girls and shipping them all over. I overheard that one is even going to Japan. I was so excited about this that I hoped on down and got to work. It felt good to be in a workshop again.

The next day, well I thought I deserved a reward. Cookies and Milk? Yes, please. I may or may not have feel asleep on the job. Shhh.

Then, the kids were sick. I just hung out for a few days. I played up at the North Pole and then got a last minute word that they were all better. So I caught a ride back to make sure I'd get there in time.

Well, I think that is all. Until next week friends. What'd you do this week. Please share!

Toddler Talk with Russell

Hey everyone!

I'm Russell. Russell the Elf. I'm staying at the Murphy's home this month. Keeping an eye on them for Santa. I was excited when I arrived because I recognized Rhiannon and Talon from Santa's "Nice" list. I was a little nervous. I have heard some stories from the other elves and well, they aren't so pretty. What a relief!

The Murphy's named me Russell my first night here. That wise guy dad picked my name. He's lucky I didn't send him straight to the Naughty list. I thought I would cut him some slack though. Rhiannon loves my name and well, I do this for the kids.

Since I will be here for a whole month, I thought it would be fun to take over Toddler Talk until I go back to the North Pole. It's a win/win in my book. This mom has her hands full and I have been wanting to give this blogging thing a whirl. It seems to be the new hot thing. All of the elves at the North Pole talk about their "lifestyle blogs", I'm a hip elf. Why shouldn't I have one too?

Enough about my hopes and dreams of being a big name blogger. I'll stick to guest posting here for now. While I'm running Toddler Talk, I am just gonna take you along on my adventures around the Murphy household. Maybe share some stories about what I see being an elf on a shelf over at their place.

The first morning I hid in pretty plain sight. I wanted to take it easy on the little ones, since it was their first time hunting for me. They found me pretty quickly. We packed up and headed to work.

 

Once we were there, it was chaos all day. I was shocked at how good those kids were in an office though. Especially Rhiannon. Sharing, playing quietly. An angel I'm sure. Talon had some fits but his sister reminded him that ... in here words "Russell gonna tell santa you naughty. No cars for you anymore!" He shaped up.

 Day 2: I brought back a note from Santa and hid to see Rhiannon's reaction.

Day 3:It was fairly warm out and I'm in this hot suit so, frankly, I needed a bath.

Day 4: Since it was a late night, I hide in the kids room, pretty plain sight stuff. The mom thought it was boring and didn't take my picture. I was a little hurt but hey Santa will get her back for it.

Day 5: I took a friend to the north pole with me. In elf life, that's kinda like bringing someone home to meet the parents. So I guess you could say its pretty serious.

So what have you all been up to? Share your toddler stories, will you?

Little Pumpkins

Hey everyone! Sorry about the lack of Toddler Talk last week or any posts for that matter. It was a a rough week and a bit of a blur because of this and that. I am still having a rough time but have decided that I NEED to pull it together for my kids. 

I think that I have done a pretty good job of not letting them be put in the limelight. Making sure they still got to have fun in the midst of what mommy is going through. At least I hope that I have. 

Sometime last week, I told you it's all a blur, my friend Gaby and I took our kids to a pumpkin patch. They all had a blast. 

We started off at the petting zoo. Lauren loved on the animals while Rhi woke up a little. She fell asleep on the way there and took a while to warm up.

Next up was the bounce house. We laugh at Lauren and Rhiannon. They are such good friends but SOOO opposite. Rhi is a little princess. Timid about everything she does. She is the safety monitor. Lauren on the other hand is the wild child. NO fear. They are funny. They balance eachother.

 

We talked the girls into taking a couple of pictures before they were right back to running around and bouncing like crazy.

Talon was such a good sport and let me take some pictures of the him while the girls played.

We did convince them to come and take a few pictures all together. If only they would have all looked at the same time. :)

What have you been up to this week?