Events Archives - Yearning to Create

Birthday Cake Traditions

I have four daughters with birthdays in March – that’s our version of “March Madness”! And to make it worse, they’re on the 6th and 7th and the 22nd and 23rd!!!

So, just to make life a little easier, and because it’s a birthday tradition, they decorate their own cakes! Well first of all, they get to chose their own dessert – might not even be a cake (because honestly, can’t you think of lots of desserts that taste better than cake?).

Jo here chose Rice Krispie squares with caramel icing (she needs gluten free foods).

Her “cake” was too gooey to get much decorating, and too hard to stick candles in. So they’re just sticking to the caramel and were flopping over. Blow quickly Jo!

Jen planned hers all out carefully and worked with much care to get her cake perfect. She chose a marble cake.

Perfect! I like how she used candle holders as flower clusters rather than as candle holders! Love the pink and yellow colour scheme!

Okay, I did this one . . .

. . . it says Happy Birthday and has two candles – one for each decade!!! (Do you think it’s too much?) She was too busy finishing up college and starting a new job to decorate her own cake. She chose the delicious Tres Leche Cake (always love making that cake – gives me a reason to open a can of Eagle Brand and lick out the can!)

Note: I can’t believe I have a 20 year old daughter. It’s really hard to fathom since I’m only 25 myself!

And finally . . .

. . . Kat requested a rainbow chip cake with purple icing. Here she is with her finished cake and toothless 7 year old grin.

Then a few hours later, she decided she needed to add a little more . . .

. . . and now we have a finished cake!!! Wow! It took more than a few minutes to pull all that out of the cake before we could eat it. All those animals and ballerinas came from my childhood. Mom used them to decorate our cakes. The tradition continues!!!

So . . . it works for everyone – they have fun decorating and I have time for other birthday preparations. And then we put the cake stuff away until the other three birthdays in the fall. My guy and I usually chose undecoratable desserts for our birthdays – like coconut cream pie or black forest in a bowl!

Flat Missionary Advent Calendar

My daughter Min is serving as an LDS missionary in Mexico City for 18 months. I wanted to send her an advent calendar to help her enjoy the Christmas season. Shipping to Mexico isn’t the easiest thing, so I wanted an advent calendar that would fit nicely into a large envelope, rather than a package. Another brilliant missionary momma (Teri) had this great idea to make one out of baseball card holders. So I borrowed her idea of the card holder to make my version of an advent calendar.

Mac holding the finished product.

These are the three separate page protectors for baseball cards. Each page has nine slots. I just cut Christmas scrapbook paper into the right sizes and copied a scripture advent calendar on each one. This advent calendar is based on one that was printed in the New Era magazine in December 1989 called Come, Let us Adore Him: A Live Advent Calendar. I just copied the scripture reference and the hymn. If you click on the picture, it should enlarge it enough to be easily read.

This is the advent calendar we do at home every Christmas, so I thought it would be nice if our missionary was reading the same thing as us each day.

The back side isn’t looking to fancy to start with . . .

Also in each little pocket I included a gospel picture. Where possible, they correlated to the scripture of the day. So the idea is that she puts the gospel picture in the front of the pocket of each day once she’s read the scripture.

By the time Christmas arrives, she’ll have a page of lovely pictures of the Savior and other gospel items that she can have up in her apartment all year (or at least until June when she comes home!)

I tied jute string at the top. But the knots were a little bulky and made my package bigger. If I was doing it again, I’d use a smaller string, or ribbon or yarn that wouldn’t make the postal workers need to measure my envelope!

To attach the three pages to each other, I simply used clear packing tape and taped across the back side of the pages. Worked great – holds it tight and is still easy to fold up to pack into that envelope, and later, into her suitcase!!!

I also tucked a little Christmas quote or story for her to read in each day too. I was planning to put a balloon in some of them too, with Christmas messages for her to blow up and get, but forgot to do it when the family was all together. We’ll save that for another package.

And there it is. I mailed it on September 22 in hopes that she will have it by December 1st.

Simple, inexpensive, but fun for my missionary!

(Edited to add: She finally received it on January 19 – too late for Christmas this year, but it can be used forever!)

Decorating for Grad – Our Time to Shine

I was one of six parents on the Decorating Committee for our High School Graduation this past weekend. Our job is to transform the gymnasium into something that resembles the theme the grads chose. That was one tiring week of decorating, not to mention the meetings and mental work before that!!!Their theme greeted you at the doorway. (I’m showing a few decorations here. This is Friday morning, a few hours before everything started – and we’re almost finished decorating. My next post will be after grad, with actual people in the pictures!)

Big silver sparkly numbers made from MDF. They stand about five feet tall and the kids could move them around and pose with them.

This picture shows the star lanterns hanging from the ceiling. They were pretty and had a remote control to activate the LED light inside – pretty smart!!!

All set up for the banquet. That was a late night of setting tables – didn’t get home til almost 11:00pm. The grads on the decorating committee chose the colours of teal and silver – very pretty.

Notice the huge star archway on the stage made from balloons. It’s the perfect size for a couple to stand under. To the left we had frames hanging for photo shoots, and to the right, we had all sorts of props for fun photo booth pictures against the black curtains.

We had some teal netting and flameless candles and stars as centerpieces. The theme “Our Time to Shine” was printed on the paper that was wrapped around a large candle. They glowed very prettily when the lights were dimmed. Aren’t the napkins adorable!

One of the mom’s made these for each grad and they looked so cute on the tables.

It had a Grad photo on one side, baby picture on the other – a lovely keepsake for the grads. The baby side says:

“What lies behind us and what lies before us are small matters compared to what lies within us.”

That’s my guy up there in the Genie – he’s actually stuck up there. He’s hanging the moon and went up fine but the thing wouldn’t let him come down again. That’s why they got the ladder, and then found the emergency drop lever – glad he didn’t have to maneuver onto the ladder!

We put a little stool behind the moon so when you sit on it, it looks like you’re sitting on the moon. And no, the moon corner is not finished yet!

We used gossamer along the walls to hide the bleachers – making it look much prettier than a gymnasium. We had white Christmas lights in behind, just sitting on the bleachers, adding soft lighting. I must mention that it was disappointing to come back on three mornings and have to re-attach some gossamer that fell during the night!

Some of the grads felt very strongly about not having any plants used in the decorating. They wanted a more vintage look. So there is not one bit of greenery in the whole gym. The old doors and bicycle built for two was our “vintage” corner.

The doors were really cute with snapshots of the Grads throughout the year.

It turned out lovely and represented their theme well. Great job Mary and everyone else who helped!!! (And may I say that I’m glad I don’t have another Grad until 2015! And I’ll probably sign up for the Decorating Committee again – it’s a lot of work but I love seeing the gym transformation!)

(Edited to add: here’s the link for seeing the decorations with dazzling graduates in the pictures.)

Preparing for High School Graduation

This is my Min and she is having her Graduation Ceremonies on Friday. This is not what you want your eye to look like five days before Grad!!!

Wonder what colour it will be by Friday? Gonna have to get creative with the makeup!!! Although right now it kinda matches her red Grad dress!

I had two girls in a softball tournament on Saturday. In the final game, Min (on the pitcher’s mound) took a line drive to the face. Luckily it hit her glove first so it got slowed down before it hit her eye. It’s not very pleasant to be watching and suddenly see your child bent over, holding her face, staggering around in pain. The coaches of both team and the ump went running over to tend to her. She was still on her feet though, and I was very relieved not to see any blood when she took her hands away from her face. Ice was quickly produced and while she iced her eye, the coaches stood around her talking and laughing – giving her time to see how she was doing, making sure she wasn’t going to keel over or anything. She switched spots with first base and a coach stayed near her – just in case! But was able to play the last few innings. She said she felt fine – no headache or anything – but said it was really weird to be able to see her eyelid protruding from the swelling. This picture was taken about 18 hours after the hit – the swelling is gone and now it’s just the lovely red.

As for Grad, here’s a sneak peek!

That’s all you get right now! I’m on the decorating committee and will be spending the next four days transforming the gymnasium into something representing the theme they chose: “Our Time to Shine” (Hey – that theme works great for Min with her “shiner”!)

Stay tuned because you know I’ll eventually be posting pictures!!!

Click here to see the grad decorations.

Click here to see Min at grad.

Family Scriptures

There are so many ways to “create”. In this post I’m not trying to preach, I’m just trying to share a way that might help you in your family to create meaningful family scripture time. Okay, okay – true confessions time! This picture was posed by models. It really was!!! It’s the dream image in my head of what our family scripture time should look like . . .

. . . everyone is awake, happy, dressed and groomed nicely. And they even have open scriptures on their laps!!!

And now . . . the following pictures were not posed by models. They are a more accurate description of what our family scripture time looks like.

I know, shocking, but true!

In our home we do our scripture reading in the morning. The evenings never worked for us – too much coming and going and just plain forgetting. This was one of those mornings when our 8th Grader had early morning sports (which means 6:30am scriptures for us) – so she’s the one who’s awake and taking the pictures of her sisters. I was still in bed!!!

Let me add that we’re grateful for modern technology that allows dad virtually be with us, even when he’s working out of town, so he can still share scriptures and prayers with us.

So why do we do it? I often ask myself this as my children wake me up for scriptures – yes, they wake me up! (Have I mentioned I have awesome children?)

President Ezra Taft Benson promised,

“When individual members and families immerse themselves in the scriptures regularly and consistently . . . testimonies will increase. Commitment will be strengthened. Families will be fortified. Personal revelation will flow.”

And Marion G. Romney said,

“I feel certain that if, in our homes, parents will read from The Book of Mormon prayerfully and regularly, both by themselves and with their children, the spirit of that great book will come to permeate our homes and all who dwell therein. The spirit of reverence will increase: mutual respect and consideration for each other will grow. The spirit of contention will depart. Parents will counsel their children in greater love and wisdom. Children will be more responsive and submissive to that counsel. Righteousness will increase. Faith, hope and charity – the pure love of Christ – will abound in our homes and lives, bringing in their wake peace, joy and happiness.”

And that’s why we do it.

Let me share with you a book that has really improved the quality of our family scripture time.

We have a basket in the living room that holds various scriptures, and this book.

“Scripture Study for Latter-Day Saint Families”

It breaks each chapter into bite-sized pieces – for example, Alma 9 is broken into five segments. Verses 1-7, 8-13, 14-17, 18-23 and 25-28. And then in each segment there are activities, object lessons, stories, quotations, insights and questions. It’s fabulous – I highly recommend it!

We take one segment each day and it usually lasts 10-15 minutes. And it doesn’t require any advance preparation either! When I got this book about two years ago, there were also New Testament and Church History versions. It cost me just over $30.

We are almost finished the book – but we didn’t start at the beginning (we started from where we were currently at in our reading). When we’re finished, we’re going to start again, and then again, and then again . . .

So, I just thought I’d share something that works great in our family.

I think we need to share anything we can that will help us strengthen our families in these latter days.

Meal Worms (Not for the Squeamish!)

I home school my kids until grade 4 – that’s when they start public school. So this year I have Kat at home and she’s in grade 1. We have this wonderful facilitator who comes to our home once a month and does a science lesson with her.

Well, last weeks lesson was about bugs and so Miss S brought in some real live bugs for Kat to play with (although I think I was more fascinated with them than she was! I like bugs – it’s snakes and worms that creep me out because I accidentally killed a snake once by riding my bike over it, and now they’re all after me for revenge!).

We got to observe the three stages of meal worms.

The beetle stage – that light brown one emerged that morning and all he wanted to do was hang out on the cucumber – that’s how you give them liquid (a slice of cucumber about every two weeks). I think he drank too much cucumber juice though because he has since “crossed the bar”.

This is the boring stage – the little cocoons or chrysalis’s just lay around and do nothing. I wonder how long it takes them to emerge. This morning, there was a light brown beetle among them. He’s since been transferred to the beetle dish and I’ll see if he survives better without a cucumber nearby.

This is the grossest stage – maybe because they resemble snakes and worms! But they have legs so they’re not so bad – it looks like they have three little legs on each side, up by their head. And they hardly move at all. I’ve been wanting to see how they make their cocoon, but when I come back to look, suddenly there will be a new one already there and I missed it being formed. Today I did get to see one that wasn’t completely hardened yet because the tail was still moving. Fascinating stuff!

They have these nice secure lids so nothing is going to escape. Even when a basketball knocked them over, the lids stayed on! Phew!!! My family doesn’t seem to appreciate them on the table though so I’ve had to move them to the laundry room.

After observing the bugs with Miss S and her magnifying glass, Kat got to create her own bugs in the three different stages out of all this material that Miss S brought. (Sorry, forgot to take pictures and the worm balloon has since left us. You’ll have to use your imagination – think egg cartons, etc.)

Miss S is wonderful and does all these fun science projects with Kat and asks her probing questions and then listens and talks and laughs along with Kat – and Kat can talk the ear off an elephant!!!

So, why a meal worm post on a “Creating” blog?

I was thinking of the most amazing creation of all time – our world. I often see things (like the life cycle of a meal worm) that just remind me of what wonderful and glorious things our Heavenly Father has created for us. And I am just in awe – especially at this time of year, when it’s so exciting to watch the world start to wake up and spring to life after it’s winters rest. What a loving Heavenly Father we have to provide such an awesome place for us to dwell.

We are truly blessed!

2012 Primary Birthdays

The theme for Primary this year is Choose the Right.

With so many choices facing our youth daily, we wanted to give them something for their birthdays that could be a visual reminder to help them remember to choose the right.

Our Primary second counsellor found these bottlecap zipper pulls somewhere and ordered them for us. Then she printed out all the CTR logos in so many cute colours, and cut them all out by hand and assembled them!!! (I hope she had a good movie to watch!)

I think the zipper pulls is a brilliant idea! The children can put them on their coats or backpacks or anywhere else, for that little reminder to always Choose the Right.

Still haven’t decided which colour I’m going to give myself when my birthday comes around (being the secretary has some perks!)

I enlisted some help from my Jen and we made little birthday gift bags for the children. Even did some housekeeping of stuff that was already in the Primary cupboard from years past – the picture of Christ with the children with the Articles of Faith on the back.

I was searching for clear bags but they were sold out. Good thing because I think the red, yellow and blue bags turned out exactly perfect for Primary!

This stash of 45 should last until the fall, and then we’ll do a recount and make some more.

This year we’re also trying something new – we recognize and sing to the birthday child in Primary, and give them a little coupon. They take their coupon to the Bishop after church and he gives them their special birthday bag and is able to have a little chat with them. The Bishop loves it, the children love it, and there are no distracting birthday things in Primary!