Our 2012 Easter Garden

Last Saturday afternoon we made our Easter garden.  An Easter garden is a great visual way for me to teach Hannah and Ethan about Easter.  Our garden includes 3 crosses (Jesus' death on the cross), a tomb (teaching about resurrection of Jesus), candles (Jesus is the light of the world), and of course the garden part (Jesus prays in the garden, and in Christ we have new life) .  Between now and Easter my hope is to use the garden to talk about the events of Holy week (When You Rise has a great chronology of  Holy Week).  This is our second year making an Easter garden, last year we didn't actually plant anything but this year we did. 

Both Hannah and Ethan had fun helping Andrew and I put the dirt in and leveling it out.  Then we put in the tomb, candles, and rocks.  Once it was laid out I added the seeds and covered with a little more soil. Finally, we put in the crosses and some more rocks.

Hannah and Ethan liked decorating and re-decorating with the rocks.

I love how Hannah hugs Ethan when I ask her to take a picture with Ethan.

We made the tomb when we made our Lenten Spiral.  Hannah and I made the tomb out of salt dough with black paint added to the dough to  give it the grey rock color.

We planted three different seeds but only the sprouts have come up so far.   This picture was taken 3.5 days later I couldn't believe how fast the sprouts came up.

Our Lenten spiral on the left, our Easter garden, and finally Hannah's Lenten Spiral on the right.

Here is our Easter garden from last year.  Hannah looks so tiny.

Happy Birthday Uncle

Today is Uncle Kevin's birthday.  Hannah and Ethan thought it would be fun to play a practical joke on Uncle since he doesn't really like to celebrate his birthday anyway.  Teresa and Kevin were out for the evening, so it was the perfect opportunity.

First, they wrote a note to explain.

The note says Happy Birthday Uncle, follow the string to find a present.  With strict instructions not to "pull" the sting (and there by pulling their furniture over).  

Then Hannah and Ethan got some string and set to work.

Then they expertly wound it around everything.

They were especially careful to make sure the bathrooms were all covered.

Hopefully Uncle has as much fun as they did setting it up.  At the end is a special treat to snack on.

Wordless Wednesday-Park Time

(yes these are pre-op)

Adventures in Surgery

Andrew, Ethan, and I woke up before humanly allowed to make the trip out to Children's Hospital this morning.  Hannah thankful (because of her wonderful Auntie) got to sleep in.  Today was the date of Ethan's scheduled surgery.  He has a Dermoid cyst above his eye (see my previous post for more info) that needed to be removed.  All in all it went VERY well.  The nurses and doctors were amazing.

Here we are in the car on the way to the hospital.  Pretty awake for being up so early.

Getting in a good cuddle with mama.

I think Ethan started to figure out something was up was we were taken to his little cubicle.

Gown (I love this picture)

Ready to go.  Not a happy camper.

Bubbles made this little boy very happy.  You can see the mark the doctor put on his forward so they wouldn't do the wrong eye by mistake.  We didn't wait too long before they called me to bring Ethan into the OR.  It was very nice to be able to carry him in myself and be there while they put him to sleep.  After, he was asleep his surgeon walked me back to where Andrew was waiting. 

Here is Ethan in recovery after they let us is to see him.

He tried so hard to keep his eyes open.  We were their less than a few minutes before I got to carry him back to where they discharge him.

Here he is all snuggled and ready to go home.  He was so drugged out.  His nurse was wonderful and gave me a whole list of instructions to help him heal up well.

My sweet pirate baby.

 Ethan has done very well since getting home, his appetite is thriving.  He had a good nap this afternoon and he is acting as if nothing out of the ordinary is going on.  Here he was playing this afternoon with his letter.  In fact, he is a little on the verge of hyper right now.  

Our biggest task right now is to keep him from ripping off his patch and touching the stitches because we don't want any sort of infection getting in.  Big thank you to everyone who has and continues to pray for Ethan.

Finished with S and now on to T

S was long and drawn out.  I thought we might never finish.  First, the kids got sick, then Andrew and I got sick.  Come to think of it S is for sick so I guess it kind of fits.

 Before we got sick, sticking snowflake stickers on to our letter S and making spiral snakes were the only activities we did.

 Finally recovered, we played with the items in the letter box.  Hannah liked playing memory with the items.

 One afternoon we did a little experiment with water.  I dyed one of two glasses of water green and they had to smell the two cups to see if they smelled the same or different.  They smelled the same.  Then we repeated it but tasted to see if they were the same or different.  Hannah giggled when she realized that both glasses had water in them.

 Next, I brought out 3 glasses all tinted green (one with water, one with lemon, and one with vinegar).  I asked if they could figure out which one was only water.

They smelled them and Hannah was thoroughly disgusted by the vinegar.  But she smelled all the cups and guessed right.  For my own amusement I ask if they would like to taste each cup.  Their vinegar pictures are priceless.

Hannah and I did some Snap Painting during nap time one afternoon this week.  I thought this was going to be very messy.  But it wasn't and it was also quite fun.

I think Hannah's splattered cards turned out quite lovely.

 Finally we are moving on to the letter T.  So without further ado:

T Letter box:  train, tomato, toothbrush, toucan, triangle, tree, turtle, letter T's and the t bean bag.

Stringing beads on a pipe cleaner.  One pipe cleaner is for all the letter T's and another for practicing her name.

Teddy bear matching (from Playing House)

Triangle folder game (from Kidz Club)

Tool Belt craft (from Brilliant Beginnings)