Books We've Been Enjoying

Today, I thought I would share with you some of the books we have been enjoying from the library.

The Paper Princess by Elisa Kleven is about a princess a little girl made on paper and while trying to decide what hair to give her, she blows away. The story is about the adventures of the princess as she tries to find hair and get back to her little girl. I haven't done it yet, but a great craft would be to make a paper princess. Hazel is not old enough to really draw it herself and cut it out, but she could decorate it.

The Umbrella by Ingrid and Dieter Schubert is a wonderful book without words. It starts on the inside cover and ends on the inside back cover. (The children's librarian told me they had to find a special way to cover the book as to not takeaway from the story.) It is about a little dog who goes for a ride around the world on a red umbrella. The umbrella is used to fly, surf, float, protection and all sorts of things as he sees animals from all over the world.

The Dot by Peter H. Reynolds is a book I discovered through Amy at One Artsy Mama and Rachel at I HEART CRAFTY THINGS.  It is a lovely book about a girl who claims to not be artistic, but her art teacher inspires her and helps her realize we all have some artistic ability. Amy and Rachel have some great crafts to go along with this book. Hazel and I keep talking about making the watercolor dots, but haven't yet.

Those are three of our latest library finds. Hope you enjoy them!!

Family Time

Our Easter Grass Eggs

A quick check of our Easter grass eggs show that Hazel was not great at getting the seeds spread evenly, but they are growing well. It is hard to believe how tall it is. I may add some  

more seeds to the sparse ones when she is not here so they will be full by Easter.

Many Hands Cookies for Church

This year I was asked to chair the Stewardship Ministries at my church. I turned it down several times, but they kept asking so I caved. I know our church like most is really hurting for money and kept thinking who will do this if I don't. After talking to Steve about it, we decided I needed to do it. Then of course I gathered people to be on my committee. Luckily I found four willing people who have been wonderful, and we have had the full support and help of our minister. Well the church motto is Many hands, many beliefs, one journey. As I was thinking about it I came up with our theme which is Many hands, many stories, one church. Then as I was thinking about it at church I looked and saw:

on the pulpit and came up with our logo (above in black and white).

Today I kicked off our Stewardship Celebration/Campaign with a speech introducing all of this and sharing why the church is important to me. My committee also provided the coffee hour and to go with our theme, Hazel and I made cookies shaped as hands. You may remember that I have mentioned previously that I have not had luck making sugar cookies from scratch, however I decided to try again. I decided to try the recipe I saw at Christmas time over at April's Homemaking. And we had success!!

Cracking Eggs

We followed the recipe for the cookies completely. Then for the frosting I used bags of mix I had from the gingerbread house kits.

Hazel was in charge of the mixer. Oh, and since I was taking pictures, she needed to as well. However I wasn't quick enough to get her actually taking the picture.

She helped with the cutting out the first batch, but then just wanted to eat the cookie dough, so I sent her off to play with Daddy. This is what they looked like out of the oven.

This morning we frosted them. Hazel was more in to telling me stories then actually getting much done, so Steve came and helped us. We made about 7 to 8 dozen. And they were all gone after coffee hour!!

We put them on two platters--one for the juice table and one for the coffee and tea table. One of the other members of my committee brought grapes. And the children at our church during Lent always sell muffins that they bake for donations for Heifer, so we didn't want to compete with their sales.

My speech went well. Many people came up and let me know they enjoyed it and thought I did a great job. And everyone loved the cookies and got the connection with the many hands!! Overall a successful day at church. Tomorrow I'll share how we spent the rest of this beautiful day!! (It was sunny and in the low 70's here. The heat wave finally made it to the Boston area!)

Hope you had a great weekend!!

Sharing Saturday #11--St. Patrick's Day Edition

First of all Happy St. Patrick's Day to everyone!!

Thank you to everyone who shared at Sharing Saturday last week. We had some amazing entries. If you haven't been back to check out the ones that shared after yours, please visit.

Family-Made Easter Garland, Mantle and More Egg Ideas

I was trying to come up with ideas for an Easter garland with which Hazel could help. I decided on Easter egg shapes. I figured she could decorate them any way she wanted and I could use her glitter glue to write the letters. I decided to go with "Happy Easter" but considered "He has risen" or "He lives." We may make another one for Easter morning.