Easter Gifts

Easter Basket Sewing Project

I decided last minute this year that I wanted to personalize our Easter gift to the kids. They really needed some new church activities and since Lucy is getting older I've been wanting to limit what she has to keep her busy (ie distracted) in church. She's been into drawing and writing, so I thought a drawing notebook would be perfect for her. Since Murray likes to do whatever Lucy is doing, I got him a notebook as well.

This was a last minute decisions, so I used scraps from a dress I made for Lucy a few year ago (it turned out too short...so it's packed away and this baby will wear it)..and I used an old receiving blanket for Murray's. Lucy's fabric was a little short, Murray's was a little stretchy and long, but overall they love the end result and it's definitely something I'll build on in the future...there are definitely ways I could improve on the design, especially if I took more than a naptime to accomplish it!

A few great ideas I stumbled upon to keep your kid busy in church. We have been focusing on telling both of them to keep their hands in their laps. This is especially helpful for Murray...it helps him remember to sit nicely with whatever toy or book he has. If his hands are in his lap, they're not turned around or up off the pew.

At the beginning of church I've been talking to Lucy about what she sees around the sanctuary. She then has been drawing what she sees or about the Bible reading she hears. I also saw on another blog about a mom who writes a few words at the top of the page and has her kids keep a tally of when they hear the words. We gave this a try on Easter Sunday and it worked GREAT!! I wrote Jesus, Alleluia and Joy (it was in the title of the sermon)...she had a blast keeping tally...it did end up being less about the number of times and more about making the tally marks connect with eachother, but it worked...she was listening to what the people in front were saying! We'll definitely keep trying that one!