Sheep and Seders

– cotton balls

– black fingerpaint

– construction paper: white, green, blue, and a background color

– scissors

– tacky glue

– optional: frame

STEP 1: “So I knew he wouldn’t be sure or accurate the first several tries…and I only did one hand, but older kids can do more with accuracy!

I first took several sheets of white paper…black paint on a paper plate, and lots of wet paper towels!…Dipped Collin’s right hand into paint, and we started making prints…I made prints all over four sheets of white paper to assure I’d get a couple of good ones. (and more for grandparents!) (PLUS, I cut all of them out, and I have a keepsake of his little handprint in my wallet…love it.)”

STEP 2: Cut out hand prints.

STEP 3: Make some scenery by cutting slits in green paper for grass and gluing it to a blue “sky.”  You could also make trees or flowers or anything you want.

STEP 4: Glue cotton balls to handprints.

STEP 5: Sign, date, and voila!  It’s ready for a frame or the fridge.  If your little one’s hands are small enough, it can also make a great card.

Isn’t that the cutest?  And Erin’s little guy Collin is toooo cute himself…he has a 1st birthday coming up soon, plus they’re getting ready to welcome a new little brother, Cameron, to the family.  Thanks, Erin, for the great idea!  Love ya!

Meanwhile, things have been busy but fun around our house; yesterday we cleaned like crazy up until 3:00 when our family started showing up for the Seder.  If you missed the post about why we’re celebrating Passover, you can read it here.  Anyway, here’s how the table looked all set and ready for the big meal.

Our handmade centerpiece looked great on the table!  For step-by-step instructions, see Symbols & Centerpieces.

My mother-in-law’s cousin Cookie was sooooo great and helpful to us; she provided the seder plate, the matzah cover, the afikomen bag, serving dishes, and the kiddush cup…here’s how the seder plate looked, complete with all the symbols from our tree: lamb, egg, parsley, maror/bitter herbs, charoset, and salt water.

She sent us some special haggadahs too, ones that she and her family had made.  They had all the important pieces of the service, but told the story in kid-friendly language.  There were lots of fun songs to familiar tunes that help kids {and big people too} to remember the ten plagues and other elements of the story of God delivering his people from slavery.  Here’s LC checking out his haggadah…

And, of course, Cookie and my mother-in-law, Belinda, did almost all of the food preparation.  It was ah-MA-zing!  Yum!  Even the gefilte fish was edible, but you didn’t hear it from me. 😉  Here’s the lemon herb chicken, potato puffs, and Israeli salad.  We also had meatballs, another potato dish, asparagus, matza ball soup, and charoset.

My sole contribution food-wise was this flourless chocolate mousse cake from the local bakery.  Wish I knew the recipe…it was the most rich, delicious, amazing chocolate cake I’ve ever eaten.  It was even better than it looks, if you can believe that.

It was such a wonderful time to spend together as a family.  LC actually stayed at the table almost the entire time, which is a lot to ask of such a little guy.  He enjoyed the songs and stories and his favorite part was searching for the hidden piece of matzah {afikomen} after the meal was over…especially since Grammy gave him a silver dollar every time he found it.  We repeated the game till Grammy was out of money. 🙂  We are already looking forward to celebrating again next year!

Hope you and your family are having a wonderful weekend!  We’re getting ready to teach LC about Palm Sunday and make some palm branches to wave around.  I’m sure there’ll be pictures to come…