Let the river run… March 28, 2015

Here’s an inspirational post from my friend Ali. I needed this tonight. I think I’m obsessed with this song now :). God bless & remember the High King lives! ~Amber Dover

It's a God thing...

Times of transition call for reflection.

Change can cause us to doubt, question, and grieve the season before…

As we turn a corner – as the river of our life swishes round another bend – we look up, and wonder why.

Then we brace ourselves, and roll with it – ready or not…

What rivers are you winding into at the moment? How are you feeling about the changes afoot?

Take time now to stop and remember that God is steering the boat. Lean on him. You are not alone…

*

I’ve been enjoying the music of Australian artist Mark Wilkinson lately. I really appreciate his lyrical depth and impassioned delivery.

Here are some of the lines of a favourite song:

Take all my memories down to the riverside
Wash them all clean, wash them dry
Rinse out my eyes till I’m colour blind
And let this heart begin.

Let…

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Lent Crafts Part Three 2015

In this post: Lent/Easter crafts and a lapbook.

Hello dear ones! Well, I’m going to keep this post short. We haven’t done a whole lot lately because we’re hoping the baby comes soon. We did manage a couple of crafts and we planted our garden.

I’m not going to repost all the craft pictures. Simply, Michael made palm branches out of his hand prints. Then he read R.C. Sproul’s “The Donkey Who Carried a King”. We made an Easter Lily that’s leaf says “He is risen!”. And for several weeks we’ve been slowly working on an indepth Easter lapbook.

Lapbook link here: http://www.currclick.com/product/7908/Easter-Lapbook

Lily printable here: http://www.freefuneaster.com/easter-crafts/paper-lily-craft/

We also did these two printables:

http://www.biblewise.com/kids/fun/crown-of-thorns.php

http://www.sundayschoolkids.com/activities-lent-easter/1-road-to-easter-activity-bible-lookup.htm

Chris prepped the garden area and me and Michael helped plant. Our gardens usually don’t produce much and especially not enough to feed us. Still, it’s nice to know we are planting something. It’s good for kids to know where food comes from (besides the grocery store!). Planting time always excites me.

Michael planted a few things by Terabithia (his clubhouse).

Planting in the garden…

Well, I hope you have a lovely Holy week and Easter.

God bless & remember the High King lives! ~Amber Dover

Easter ideas on Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/doverette/easter-crafts/

Lent crafts from this year on this blog:

https://amberdover.wordpress.com/2015/03/01/ash-wednesday-2015/

I AM craft, The Lord’s Prayer chapel, and band-aid prayers cross~

https://amberdover.wordpress.com/2015/03/09/lent-crafts-part-one-2015/

Egg study & Resurrection egg diorama~

https://amberdover.wordpress.com/2015/03/21/lent-crafts-part-2-egg-study/

St. Patty’s Day 2015

In this post: St. Patty’s food, scavenger hunt, decor, lapbook, and craft. 

Hello dear ones! Here’s how we celebrated Saint Patrick’s day this year.

• As you can see from above, we brought out our usual St. Patty’s decor. I let Michael set things up because I felt like I was going into labor that day (false alarm). You can see our family leprechaun and trap. We had Lucky Charms ready for breakfast, a book about St. Patty’s story, and this year an indepth St. Patrick’s Day lapbook.

You can find the lapbook here:http://www.currclick.com/product/1055/Saint-Patricks-Day-Lapbook

It has Catholic principles in it. We are not Catholic but we had an interesting conversation about praying to saints etc and what a Biblical saint is compared to the process of becoming a Catholic saint. As protestants, we don’t believe in praying to saints or talking to them at all. Also, we believe all Christians are saints and in the process of being sanctified. Anywho, the lapbook had great info about Ireland and we even learned some Gaelic. We talked about the symbols of St. Patty’s and how it’s celebrated in different places.

Even the dogs got festive! Here’s Annabelle :).

 

• Michael made this rainbow chain with a pot of gold at the end.

 

• That morning, Michael had a St. Patty’s placemat with activities on it. I got this free printable from: http://www.thedatingdivas.com/holidays/st-patricks-day/top-of-the-morning-to-you-printable-placemats/

 

• Chris and Michael did this St. Patty’s Scavenger hunt that I got from The Dating Divas. I set up clues around the house. Each clue bag had an activity that had to be completed before they could move on to the next clue. They were simple but fun. Examples: Don’t Eat Pete (leprechaun version with Skittles), figure out your leprechaun name, and find all the gold pieces.

Scavenger hunt printables here: http://www.thedatingdivas.com/holidays/st-patricks-day/st-pattys-scavenger-hunt/

 

• Lastly, we ate our traditional Irish foods: Irish stew (beef instead of lamb) and Irish Soda Bread. Chris made the stew while Michael and I baked the bread. This has to be my favorite bread.

Recipes here: http://pocketchangegourmet.com/irish-soda-bread-recipe/

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/irish-lamb-stew/detail.aspx

And I leave you with my 36 weeks pics (I’m actually about 38 weeks prego now. We’re praying that the baby comes soon though because he’s already bigger than Michael was at birth).

God bless & remember the High King Lives! ~Amber Dover

St. Patty’s on Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/doverette/st-patrick-s-day/

St. Patty’s past on my blog:

Trinity lesson/craft & big party with tons of Irish recipes~

https://amberdover.wordpress.com/2013/03/11/crafty-monday-st-patricks-day-celebration-with-the-homeschool-group/

String maze, Shamrock punch, & peg dolls~

https://amberdover.wordpress.com/2012/03/17/happy-st-patricks-day/

Leprechaun trap & t-shirt art~

https://amberdover.wordpress.com/2013/03/19/crafty-monday-prepping-for-st-pattys-easter-brazil-country-study/

St. Patty’s decor~

https://amberdover.wordpress.com/2014/03/29/st-pattys-day-2014/

Leprechaun hunt~

https://amberdover.wordpress.com/2013/03/25/my-family-rocks-sundaydates-with-our-son-hunting-for-leprechauns-pet-parade/

Michael’s Spiderman Pajama Party

Hello dear ones! My oldest son Michael celebrated his 9th birthday early a couple weekends back. He had a Spiderman pajama party. We kept it simple since I’m pregnant. Michael’s actual birthday (April 11th) is a day before Leeland’s due date so we wanted to make sure he was celebrated. Here’s how we did it:

I haven’t been in a store in awhile. This pregnancy has been rough on me. So I ordered most of the party supplies from Party City. A few things I had left over from other parties…like crepe paper from the Dollar Tree and balloons from Valentines’.

The set up

• Spiderman posters and balloons~ We got a cheap helium pump from Walmart.

 

• A personalized birthday banner with Michael’s picture on it.

 

• We didn’t have room for all the birthday banners so we taped some to a project board (from the Dollar Tree). Project boards are great for decorating, especially when you have limited hanging space. We put red balloons on the chairs, and Chris hung red crepe paper from the ceiling.I made a web with white crepe paper in the middle of the board. Chris drew and cut out a black spider for the web.

 

• I didn’t get pictures of all the favors (sorry). You can see the favor bags though. Since we only invited Michael’s two best guy buddies I decided to buy nice favors. They each got a Spiderman mask, Spiderman mini basketball hoop with ball, Spiderman blow outs, Spiderman ring pops, and Spiderman bottles.

 

• I used white crepe paper to make a web on Michael’s door. Then I filled it with red and white balloons. He had such fun with it that he made his own webs all that day. I kept running into them :).

 

• I baked a simple box cake with white sprinkled frosting. I also made three small bundt cakes so the kids would each have their own. We had Spiderman candles. I had leftover cookie letters and I used them to spell out “Michael”. The bundt cakes were kind of a disaster but the kids didn’t care. The kids had pizza and individual cups of icecream also. We had Spiderman plates and napkins.

 

The Plan

• We had a pajama party instead of a sleepover because Michael’s buddies are younger than him. Also I didn’t want to go into labor with kids at the house!
• We kept it simple. The kids ate first and we had the birthday cake.

 

• Then we opened presents. I let the kids take out their masks from the favor bags.

 

• We got Michael “Big Hero 6” for his present. The boys stretched out and watched the movie.

 

• This kept them busy for a good while, but the movie ended an hour earlier than time for parents to come. So I took toys to the living room. Kids these days get bored very quick…Anywho, so then I had the boys draw super heroes. By the time their moms came at 9:30 we were playing “Duck, Duck, Goose” and “Michael says”.

Well, God bless & remember the High King lives! ~Amber Dover

Lent Crafts part 2: Egg Study March 21, 2015

In this post: Egg lapbook, crafts, & treat. A unique resurrection diorama. Plus Lent decor and books.

Hello dear ones! I hope you are well. We’re enjoying the spring weather and waiting for our littlest to be born. A couple weeks ago, Michael and I did an egg study. It was a great way to gear up for Easter. Here’s how we did it.

• Egg lapbook~ I used this egg study to make a lapbook: http://www.currclick.com/product/35574/Eggs–Two-Day-Study-Series

 

• We made egg treats. Our treat is a lil different from what I saw on Pinterest. You take oval crackers and put peanut butter in them. Then you dip them in white chocolate. I didn’t feel like dealing with the mess of chocolate, so we just used frosting with sprinkles. We couldn’t cover the whole cracker so they don’t exactly look like eggs. Still, the treats were yummy :). Nana helped too.

 

• We made a stained glass egg and cross craft. I drew a pattern on black construction paper. Michael cut it out and stuck it to contact paper. Then Michael tore bits of colorful tissue paper and filled in the gaps.

 

• Lastly, Michael and I put together this resurrection egg diorama. Michael mainly colored the Jesus and cut him out. We had two coloring pages. We shrunk the one for the diorama. Then Michael colored the big page for his dad. I finished the diorama. My inspiration came from a beautiful painting I saw on Pinterest. Links below & details on how we did this.

Coloring page link here: http://biblefunfactory.com/146/easter-coloring-sheet/

Painting inspiration here: http://fineartamerica.com/featured/i-am-the-resurrection-john-lautermilch.html

I found these plastic egg containers at the Dollar Tree. I used one half to make the diorama. I glued gems to the bottom to keep the egg upright. I modge podged colorful tissue paper for the sky. I used sparkly white tissue paper for the clouds. I wanted a 3d effect so I bunched it up.

 

I took the Jesus that Michael colored and glued him to a craft stick. I hot glued the stick to the gems and I added purple tissue paper for his robe.

I wanted to make Jesus look like he was in the clouds, so I used more of the sparkly white tissue paper to cover the craft stick. Chris actually helped some too. He punched out tissue paper butterflies. I glued them all around Jesus, since butterflies make me think of new life.

Lastly, I punched out white paper flowers and cut yellow stems. I rolled them up to make lilies and glued them to the rocks along with felt leaves. Then I punched out the word “resurrection” using my hole punch. I glued it to a white tissue paper banner and glued that to the top of the egg. This has to be my favorite Easter craft we’ve ever made. I like that it’s pretty original too. I had inspiration but the creation is our own.

The diorama looks brilliant when the sun shines.

Other Lent happenings:

I love the season of Lent and counting down to Easter. For our family it is a time of remembering the resurrection and taking a good look at forgiveness and grace. We have fun with decorations, special books, and crafts.

Here are the Easter books we are reading this year. I’m particulary enjoying the author R.C. Sproul. This is our first year reading his books.

We have a fun time decorating. Many of these crafts you may remember from Easters past.

The Lord’s Supper & Jesus praying in the garden

Resurrection set and new life tree (eggs and butterflies)
We actually lost the Jesus that goes to the set, but now that we have the diorama it makes it complete.

We decorate with the usual springy things: eggs, bunnies, chicks, lambs, flowers, and butterflies…whatever makes us think of new life and the resurrection. In the pic below you can see the stained glass chapel we made awhile back.

Our Easter village has grown.

Here’s the stuffed Velveteen rabbit that I made last year for our study on chocolate bunnies. Some decor is just for fun though a majority of it revolves around the resurrection of Jesus.

Many of the crafts hanging up on our armoire are from years past. We’ve got the Peep bunny chain, a Holy week chart, and a tomb craft.

We bring out old lapbooks…

We have our Lenten devotions at supper time. You can see some pom pom bunnies and resurrection eggs that we made. Usually we hang the eggs on a tree but I didn’t find one this year. Instead I have them in a bunny dish that I won at a party.

Well, I hope you have a blessed Lent and Easter! God bless & remember the High King lives! ~Amber Dover

Easters and Lent past:

https://amberdover.wordpress.com/2014/05/11/easter-sunday/

https://amberdover.wordpress.com/2014/05/11/easter-week-jesus-our-passover-lamb-easter-drama/

https://amberdover.wordpress.com/2014/04/19/the-importance-of-easter/

https://amberdover.wordpress.com/2013/04/01/crafty-monday-passover-the-lords-supper-and-the-resurrection/

https://amberdover.wordpress.com/2013/03/25/crafty-monday-charlottes-web-party-gearing-up-for-easter/

https://amberdover.wordpress.com/2013/04/07/my-family-rocks-sunday-chinese-date-night-easter-passover-celebrations/

https://amberdover.wordpress.com/2012/04/03/a-late-crafty-monday-resurrection-garden-coffee-filter-easter-eggs-mini-pies/

https://amberdover.wordpress.com/2012/04/09/more-easter-fun/

https://amberdover.wordpress.com/2012/04/04/extra-crafts-for-you-easter/

https://amberdover.wordpress.com/2012/03/26/crafty-monday-preparing-for-easter-celebrating-the-resurrection/

https://amberdover.wordpress.com/2011/04/20/thecraftbug/

Recent posts:

https://amberdover.wordpress.com/2015/03/01/ash-wednesday-2015/

https://amberdover.wordpress.com/2015/03/09/lent-crafts-part-one-2015/

DIY Baby Sign

Hello dear ones! This post is going to be short. I just wanted to show you the sign I made. Hopefully, it’ll help once the baby comes. God bless & remember the High King lives! ~Amber Dover

Happy St. Patrick’s Day! March 16, 2015

Happy St. Patty’s Day! Well, in ten minutes. Here’s a post from three years ago. Also here’s a link to my favorite St. Patty’s party: https://amberdover.wordpress.com/2013/03/11/crafty-monday-st-patricks-day-celebration-with-the-homeschool-group/ God bless & remember the High King lives! ~Amber Dover

amberdover

Happy St. Patrick’s day everyone! Me and little one started our celebrations a day early. He’s having some daddy time with our church today. They’re doing archery or something boyish. Anywho, so yesterday the leprechauns got a hold or our house and went CRAZY!

They left a mess of an obstacle course in the living room.

There was treasure at the end. I got the Irish Peg doll idea from Pink and Green Mama’s blog

Look at Michael’s face! 🙂

The leprechauns also left a big rainbow right in our kitchen! (Michael knows I”m the leprechaun lol)

http://mustardseeds.typepad.com/my_weblog/2010/03/tutorial-paper-chain-rainbow.html

He was so excited when he woke up. We enjoyed Lucky Charms while doing school.

We topped it off with Leprechaun punch: Sprite and Lime Sherbert

Michael enjoyed the obstacle course….

There’s a snake because the legend goes that St. Patrick drove out the snakes from Ireland. So Michael got rid of…

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Leeland’s Owl Baby Shower

In this post: Hannah throws me an owl baby shower for Leeland, and 35 weeks prego pics.

Hello dear ones! Well, I’m 36 weeks prego now and just waiting for Leeland to arrive. I’ve had some false alarms and it’s a bit frustrating. I just pray that the timing will be right and I’m choosing to trust God to help me.

Meanwhile, my best friend Hannah threw me an owl themed baby shower. You may remember that I threw her a tea party baby shower last year. Here’s the link for that:
https://amberdover.wordpress.com/2014/02/08/a-tea-party-baby-shower-for-hannah/

I have plenty of pics to show you. First, Chris and I took my 35 weeks prego pics in our back yard. Chris’ parents came in for the shower and his mom helped us out. It was nice because up until this point we didn’t have any pics of Chris kissing my belly. Chris is smitten by our lil one and it truly shows in these pictures. So without further ado..here they are.

Now, on to the shower...

Thanks again Hannah for the awesome job! And thanks to my mom for having it at her place.

First, the adorable invite

A sweet set up

Yummy! Punch and owl cupcakes!

My mom put this awesome collage together of me and my hubby as babies.

In the living room. I added Leeland’s ultrasound art.

Favors

More owl goodness…

Mua

Remember the shower I threw for Hannah? Well, it was for Miriam, the lil bundle of cuteness Hannah’s holding in her arms. Miriam is a one year old now!

My dear friend Erin, who watched over Miriam so Hannah could set up. She also makes the best chocolate cookies…just sayin’.

My mom in law Peggy and my mom. Two very special ladies.

Let the present opening begin…

until my blood pressure suddenly drops and I have to take a break. Fun…

But that doesn’t stop me from winning the baby shower word scramble!

Yummm…these owl cupcakes turn our teeth and everything else blue. Someone thought this was funny…

A very special wishing tree to encourage me during labor and delivery. What a beautiful idea, Hannah!

What sweet thoughts from everyone. This inspiring quote is from Hannah. You may remember it from my chalboard art.

My darling mother

My lovely mom in law

My bff Hannah and her Miriam. Hannah truly blessed me! And my dearest ones that came to the shower encouraged me as well. I am so blessed.

Baby stuff everywhere! We’re ready :). Come soon lil songbird!

Cloth baby wipes that Hannah made for me.

Well, God bless & remember the High King lives!~Amber Dover

Ultrasound Art & General Happenings March 14, 2015

Hello dear ones! I was pinspired to organize the boys’ ultrasounds into artwork. Above you can see Leeland’s ultrasounds and how he’s grown. I don’t have his birth date yet because we are still waiting on our lil songbird to be born :). But below you can see that Michael’s ultrasounds has his birthday on it. I didn’t have as many pics for Michael. It’s been 9 years after all. Alot has changed. I didn’t have access to free 3-D back then.

So I painted acryllic canvas black, modgepodged the pictures on, and wrote with white paint. The glue shows up whenever I use flash but I couldn’t get a clear pic without the flash. You can’t see the glue so much in regular lighting. It looks much better.

Meanwhile, at the Dover household…

Chester hiding

Chris has started juicing.

Annabelle, from minion…

to adorable!

Baby shower pics to come soon! God bless & remember the High King lives!~Amber Dover

Maternity Chalkboard Art

Hello dear ones! Last month my guys painted the bedroom door with chalkboard paint. I’ve enjoyed decorating my door with chalk art. Here are two recent drawings.

The first contains lyrics from J.J. Heller’s “When I’m With You”. It’s a beautiful song dedicated to her baby.

The second has an anonymous quote that my friend Hannah shared with me at my baby shower. It was on my wishing tree for labor and delivery. I wanted it to inspire me at home too.

Well, God bless & remember the High King lives! ~Amber Dover