Easter Baking with Kids: Cinnamon Crosses (and some other Easter playgroup activities)

This morning was our Easter celebration at playgroup, so I decided to make cinnamon crosses with the kids. They are REALLY easy. I've made them at a few camps, with my own kids and at playgroup a few times.

Cinnamon Crosses

You need:
1 packet puff pastry sheets
melted butter
pastry brush
cinnamon/sugar in a shaker

Defrost a pastry sheet and cut it into 2cm strips. Cut the strips into 2 pieces, one piece longer than the other. Lay the pieces onto baking paper, in the shape of a cross (the longer piece makes the vertical part of the cross, the shorter piece is the horizontal part of the cross).

Now is the fun (kid-friendly) part! Use the pastry brush to "paint" butter over the crosses. Use the shaker to sprinkle them with cinnamon and sugar.

Bake at 180˚C (160˚C fan-forced) until the pastry puffs up and turns golden (5-10mins).

Other Easter playgroup activities

We made Easter Sensory tubs...

Thanks Deb at the Aspiring Mum for the great idea!

and stained-glass windows (which even the 1 year olds were able to do with assistance!)

Mr Fun's craft (with a bit of help from Mummy)

We had an Easter Egg hunt (with plastic eggs containing chickens)...

and talked about how the Easter eggs/chickens remind us of the new life that Jesus gives us.

Lessons in trusting God (or, "Why am I such a slow learner?")

Our Family Holiday (Church Weekend Away)
Last weekend was our church weekend away - the first in a very long time. It went really well :) Lots of positive & encouraging feedback from people. There was lots of time for relaxing, getting to know people, learning together from the Bible, sharing meals together, enjoying the bushland and campsite, sharing in some baptisms and soaking in the sun. Well, that's what everyone tells me ;)

Bush-dance on Saturday night

Kids & Dads did wrestling in free-time

Franky & I were responsible for lots of the organisation - so we were pretty busy on the weekend away - and for the past few months of preparation. I'm a pretty task-oriented person, so I've been in "action mode". I achieved lots organisationally - writing a program, writing briefs for the people, liaising with the campsite, packing all the equipment for creche, etc. But, towards the end of my planning, I realised that I hadn't been relying on God to sort things out. I was so busy "doing" things, stressing about the issues and trying to solve everything myself (no one to run a kids program, not enough registrations to cover our minimum booking, rainy weather forecast etc). But God is so much bigger and more powerful than me and my attempts to control and "do" everything. Within the final week, the kids program got sorted, money issues were resolved (or pretty close to it) and the weather was beautiful - I felt pretty silly for not praying more, and stressing less!

Mr Sociable spent much of the weekend on his scooter (showing everyone the light-up wheels)

Work
At the end of last month, Franky left his position at a graphic design studio with a plan to do freelance work. On the night before he finished, he still didn't have anything lined up and we were a little nervous. In my usual "planner" way, I had back-up plans - I could go back to work part-time, I could do some casual teaching... But, we prayed that God would provide work for Franky and help us to trust him. I resolved in my own head to step back a bit and just wait to see what would happen - to give Franky a chance to get some work, to trust that God would look after us.

Sure enough, the next day, Franky got a call from a recruiter who offered him freelance work for a week (which turned into two weeks). He had a couple of days off this week. It felt strange to have him home during the week (but we made the most of it by taking the kids swimming together!). Today, he has started another freelance stint that will go for a week or two. God has, and will, provide for us. We need to keep praying and trusting him. 

Mr Fun with Franky at the weekend away

Pregnancy with Mr Fun
This should have been the lesson that helped me to trust God forever. I had a big bleed in the 1st trimester and formed a clot. That night in Emergency, I prayed for my baby and I prayed we would trust God - whatever the outcome. A few ultrasounds followed and the midwife at the hospital told me that the baby should not have survived. I was scared. I prayed. Lots of people prayed for us. I had months of "rest", but we were still not sure whether the baby would be ok. More prayer and encouragement from my church family. At 29 weeks we went for yet another ultrasound and the clot was gone. Everything looked just perfect! Praise God!

19 weeks - clot smaller, but still there.

29 weeks - clot is gone, bubba boy is doing fine!

Perfect :)

Why do I find this lesson so hard to learn?? God big, me small. God powerful, me weak. God in control, me not. God has acted in my life in amazing ways. Why do I forget so quickly??

Looking outside our family

I read a blog post a few weeks ago discussing whether Mummies of young kids are superficial or narrow in their perspective. I wrote a comment in the discussion & started thinking more about our family.

I love spending time with my kids, I love teaching them things, I love making them things, I love blogging about the things that we do. I spend lots of time thinking about things we can do together. But, I wonder what my example is teaching our kids? When I choose to use most of my time serving our family, what do they learn about my priorities? I don't want our kids to grow up thinking that our family is the centre of the universe.

 

If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. (1 John 3:17-18)

Mr Sociable has a real heart for those in need. He prayed earnestly for flood victims in Queensland and sent some of the money from his money box. He still talks about the earthquake victims from Japan and New Zealand. He often prays for the homeless people who live in Central Park, New York.

I've been trying to encourage his passion by teaching him about others who are in need & giving him concrete things that we can do. 

Last week, I paraphrased a few articles from the Compassion magazine while we were sitting at the dinner table. I'm ashamed to admit that I often put this magazine straight into the recycling - but it was great to read and talk about people God is helping.

This week, we wrote a letter to one of our sponsor children, Noel. I wrote the letter, Mr Sociable did a drawing of Mummy and Daddy at the beach. Mr Fun mostly scribbled - but he really wanted to join in!

Today, we packed a box for Operation Christmas Child. Mr Sociable was really excited to pack a Christmas present for another boy who was 3-4 (although he did find it a bit difficult to accept that he wasn't receiving any presents today - we were only packing a gift for someone else!).

Painting some wrapping paper

Filling the box with gifts

Ready to drop off at a collection point

My next plan is to introduce the idea of "useful" Christmas gifts. I often give these to family/friends at Christmas time. This year, I would love Mr Sociable to help us choose some gifts for people.

TEAR Useful Gift Catalogue

I also like this idea of making up "care" packages for homeless people, to give to people as we walk through the city - but we haven't done it yet!

I know a lot of these ideas are about people in need in the broader/global community. I am still thinking through how I can serve people in my local/church community, while looking after small kids. It was much easier pre-kids to serve other people (helping people to pack & clean for moving, making meals for people, driving people around, etc.)!!

I'd love to hear your ideas! How do you serve people outside your family? How do you teach your kids about being generous with their time and material wealth?