Some easter FUN

With Easter coming up we raved the craft and bargain shops for some Easter craft to do at home with friends. We had some days at our place with friends to share the fun with and we had some Easter craft fun at our friends places too. Here are some of the things we got up to.

• We found these beautiful cases to wrap around eggs. We pricked the egg at both ends and blew the egg out and rinsed them. Then put the egg in the casing and put it on a spoon. Dip the egg into boiling water for 3 seconds and watch the casing wrap the egg. The result is really pretty.

• The children decorated small plain noodle boxes with paint, stickers and collage bits n pieces. They filled the boxes with coloured feathers, little chicks, a couple of chocolate eggs and their decorated egg. (above)

• We also found some foam chicken cut outs and enjoyed collaging these with various colourful bits including googly eyes.

• Using icing pens and sprinkles we decorated some egg shaped biscuits.

• Painting and decorating eggs(with the inside blown out) then popping them in a piece of decorated egg carton is another easy but fun craft we did this week.

• Colouring in Easter eggs and bunnies and making an Easter wreath by gluing them onto a cut out paper plate

• Painting egg carton pieces yellow and sticking one on top of the other, decorating them and turning them into chickens and popping a couple small eggs inside. These are really cute.

• Of course the Easter chocolate. We simply melted chocolate an poured it into Easter moulds to make Easter shaped chocolate.

• Easter Cake Decorating Workshop with our home school group

• We always include the true meaning of Easter story in this lead up week and do some related colouring in/activity sheets

Lots of fun simple ideas to do with the family at Easter! Here are some photos....

John 3vs 16: for God so loved the world that he gave his only son for whosoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life

My little brother gets married

What a FUN day!

So you may remember back earlier in the year I blogged about Celebrating LOVE my brothers engagement party....well back in September was the wedding.

What a day! I will always look back at this day with fond memories and with one three letter word in mind which really captures the day and this couple really......FUN!

Being an early morning wedding the morning was hectic. First on the agenda was to get the boys
(hubby-best man and son-page boy) in their suits and off to my older brothers place for all the male pre wedding shenanigans.

Then we began the very huge task of getting 4 girls ready!!! That's mother of the groom, 2 sisters of the groom(my sister and I) , flower girl-my daughter and pretend( i just need to look cute) flower girl-my baby.

There was clothes, hair curlers, lipstick and powder, stockings and shoes all over the place! We were in amongst organised chaos and believe it or not we had a plan. Thankfully baby stayed asleep in her nice cosy bed( i think she knew what was good for her) and we woke her in the last minutes before needing to leave. She was in her highchair in the nude eating brekky while having her hair styled, she was then wiped from head to toe and thrown into the cutest little pink dress you've seen.

Somehow we managed to make it to the church at the agreed time of 9:30am with plenty of time to take a few breaths, freshen up and talk to our soon to be married little brother! I was just so proud of him and my whole family, it was really special to have everyone there together on this significant day.

The ceremony was lovely and I particularly remember my brothers face when he sees his bride walking down the aisle, I Still cant look at that photo or think of that moment without tearing up! I also loved when the couple shared a moment in worship, honouring our father God for all that he's done...with the gorgeous song...  "this is my desire" , a personal favourite of mine.

Oh and I cant forget to mention that as I was doing a bible reading with bub on hip(she would not co-operate and stay sitting with her aunty) she sneezed right in the middle of it which caused quite a reaction from the guests-FUN!

After the ceremony lots of photos were taken and then we had quite a few hours to relax and recover before the reception so we decided to take bub and daughter R(7) home for a rest. This was lovely to have a few hours to freshen up and sit in the air con to get ready to celebrate the night away.

Son(J-7) and hubby where off gallivanting around Brisbane city with the bridal party having lots of pictures taken.

The reception was great. A lovely venue, set up with a gorgeous ambiance. Lots of lovely people there to celebrate with the bride and groom. There was lots of dancing, talking, laughing and eating. The kids had a ball too! They loved the lolly buffet and had loads of fun dancing, with bub(19 months at the time) being the centre of the circle a lot of the time! the party animal danced the night away and didn't crash till we were in the car at about midnight!!!

A special day for our family and another perfect day in all our lives.

1 Corinthians 13:4-8

 ⁴ Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵ It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. ⁶ Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. ⁷ It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.  ⁸ Love never fails.