Amber’s Taste of Belize & Outdoor Movies July 7, 2015

In this post: My special fruit drink that reminds me of Belize, outdoor movies, and a way to help the Belize Mission.
Hello dear ones! For Memorial Day (awhile back I know) we watched a movie outside with our projector and we had my special fruit drink “Amber’s Taste of Belize”. I’m giving you the ingredients…but not the amount. I’ve got to keep some of it a secret ;). There was this awesome fruit drink the hotel staff made for us on the Belize missions trip. I’ve tried to replicate it and this is as close as I could get.

Amber’s Taste of Belize

• Cans of pineapple juice
• orange juice
• Cranberry Sierra Mist
• Shaved ice

 

We finally bought a projector. It was worth the investment too. Outdoor movies rock! You may remember that a couple summers ago we dragged our t.v. outside for a redneck drive in on the trampoline. That post is here:

https://amberdover.wordpress.com/2013/05/26/my-family-rocks-sunday-redneck-drive-in-repentance-corner-summer-fashion/
Well, that trampoline died and we got a new one with a net. It’s not very projector friendly, so we hung a bed sheet on the gazebo. Then we put tarps down and covered them with pillows and blankets.

We put the baby in his bassinet.

It was great fun. We also got a little pool. Leeland doesn’t mind the water until the wind hits him and he’s cold. We’re able to go to some pools for free too since my husband is a vet. It is very hot down here so we do what we can. It’s not as hot as it is in Belize though. We’ve also had several big thunderstorms…still not as bad as the monsoons in Belize. I miss Belize…lol. I really do. My church is about to go for a week. I will be home with the kiddos, but I hope to go back some day.

Hey, they do some awesome work there in Belize. They feed babies. They give them medicine like Tylenol so they don’t die of fever. The missionaries don’t take any money for themselves. They completely give of themselves for the people of Belize. They share the gospel. Help them out if you feel led.

Pray, give, and go : http://www.iservants.com/

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

St. Patty’s Day 2015 March 28, 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/

Mardi Gras 2015 March 1, 2015

In this post: Mardi Gras treats, crafts, parade fun, and a lapbook.

Hello dear ones! We celebrated Mardi Gras as a family for the second time. We’ve come up with our own traditions, like decorating a float for our family parade. Anywho, this is how we did Mardi Gras.

• We began with a Mardi Gras lapbook and several videos on Mardi Gras’ history. I’ll include a link at the end.

 

• Michael made a jester mask.

• Michael and I watched The Hunchback of Notre Dame because it has the Festival of Fools in it. It’s not the same holiday but the style is similar. I also like the lessons on sin and grace in the movie. Rio and The Princess and the Frog are also good for this time.

• We had a small feast for supper. We had ham which is a rare treat. We don’t give up anything during Lent, but it was a nod to the history of Fat Tuesday and how people ate all their meat before fasting during Lent. I found the centerpiece at the Dollar Tree.

 

• We made a King cake using cinnamon rolls. We put it in the oven while we had our parade.

Here’s Chris braiding his part.

 

Into the oven!

 

• Michael and I made a parade float out of Leeland’s wagon. We used tissue paper and masks. Then we filled it with beads, moon pies, and coins. Teddy played the king/jester and rode in the float.

 

• I turned up the jazz music and we had a parade. Michael and I took turns throwing things. We put on masks and beads.

 

• Lastly, we decorated and enjoyed our King cake! Mmmmm….we just used the icing that came with the cinnamon rolls and sprinkled it. I couldn’t find purple sprinkles so I used glaze.

You can find the lapbook, videos, and other ideas here:

Mardi Gras on Pinterest

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

Mardi Gras past
https://amberdover.wordpress.com/2014/03/29/mardi-gras-dr-seuss-birthday/

https://amberdover.wordpress.com/2013/02/11/crafty-monday-gods-love-hearts-galore-plus-mardi-gras-celebration/

Another good Disney film to watch for Mardi Gras is The Princess and the Frog. Here are some ideas to give you that New Orleans’ flavor:

https://amberdover.wordpress.com/2013/06/10/crafty-monday-disney-countdownpinocchio-the-princess-and-the-frog/

Winnie the Pooh Day: A Random January Holiday January 23, 2015

Hello dear ones! January 18th was Winnie the Pooh Day. It’s one of the two random January holidays that my family chose to celebrate to stave the winter blues. Here’s how we celebrated :).

The Set Up
I decorated cheap posterboard with tissue paper, construction paper, and Winnie the Pooh quotes. Yellow and red were the colors of the day. I got plates and napkins at the Dollar Tree.

I used brown package paper and green balloons for the tree in the “100 Aker Wood”.

The Food
Hunny Bears~ Honey Teddy Grahams
Acorn Cookies~ Nilla wafers, Nuttella, and Hershey’s Kisses
Honeycomb Treats~ Honeycomb cereal, butter, & marshmallows

Hunny buns~ Honey buns
I found the paper hunny pot online. Links at the end.

Activities

Watch the 2011 movie

Play bingo while watching the movie. The bingo cards actually didn’t match the movie we had, so we had to improvise. We used coins as pieces.

Winnie the Pooh quiz~ sadly we all failed but I got the highest failing score lol!

Pin the tail on Eeyore

Paint a Honey Pot~ I found the mini flower pots at the Dollar Tree.

Coloring 🙂
I also found this coloring book at the Dollar Tree. This was a very inexpensive party.

The finished products!

Mine

My son Michael’s

My husband Chris’

This party was a blast and so simple. The further along I get in my pregnancy the more I love simple!

I hope you enjoyed! God bless & remember the High King lives! ~Amber Dover

Pinterest links for Winnie the Pooh ideas and printables:

Advent 2014 & Christmas Decor December 26, 2014

Hello dear ones! Here’s our Advent list and Jesse tree devotions for this year. Enjoy and may you be inspired!

We kept our Advent activities in the Advent Christmas tree. I got it at Michael’s craft store and my son Michael painted it. Each day Michael opened a drawer to read the activity.

Jesse Tree, devotions by Ann Voskamp, and Advent wreathe. We read the devotions each night and Michael would put an ornament on the Jesse tree.

We also did this names of Jesus chain. We read a verse and one of Jesus’ names. Then Michael would write someone to pray for on the back. Each night our chain got longer. Links for printables at the end.

First off, this year wasn’t nearly as busy as last year. Some of the activities on our Advent list we never got to but that’s okay. If peace means skipping an activity then it’s worth it. Advent should not bring stress. It is a time to remember Christ’ birth and to look forward to Jesus’ second coming.

Last year was a bit hectic but we did have fun. Here’s the link for last year:
https://amberdover.wordpress.com/2013/12/15/advent-week-1/

There are 4 posts but the rest of them are at the end of the first post. So you can hop to each one. We had some nifty parties for the Grinch and the Nutcracker. We also did some fun random acts of kindness.
This year we repeated a few activities and added some new ones. I’m just doing one post this year. Here we go!

Advent 2014

1. Leeland’s ultrasound, Christmas shopping, and watch a movie.
Our precious miracle

2. Read “The Gift of the Christmas Cookies” & make cookies.

You can find a detailed post on the Christmas books we read this year here:
https://amberdover.wordpress.com/2014/12/24/six-inspirational-christmas-books-with-activities/

3. Decorate Chris’ office, give out cookies, & fill a shoebox online.

4. Nativity play at group.

I did a whole post on this here: https://amberdover.wordpress.com/2014/12/17/jesus-our-precious-gift-an-interactive-christmas-drama-2014/

5. Broadway Holiday (take canned goods) & make cornstarch ornaments.

Fake snow

6. Decorate a gingerbread house & sew primitive ornaments.

We never made the primitive ornaments but Chris and Michael did put together this gingerbread house kit.

Also, Chris and I had a date night. Details here:
https://amberdover.wordpress.com/2014/12/15/christmas-date-ingredients/

7. Army band concert and donate to World Vision, VOM, & Valley Rescue.

We didn’t make it to the concert because Michael felt under the weather.

8. Read “The Legend of the Christmas Tree”, make tree crafts, & watch A Charlie Brown Christmas.

9. Read “The Message of the Birds”, take a winter walk, & do bird crafts.

10. Watch Frosty, have a snowman ice cream sundae, & do snowman crafts.

mason jar snowglobe~ it was hard to get a good picture.

tea light snowman ornament

11. Group book club, drink mistletoe cider, and watch The Christmas Box.

We didn’t make it to our group because Michael still had the sniffles.

The Christmas Box is one of my favorite stories. My Dad read it to me one Christmas. It’s about a busy father who realizes he’s missing out on his daughter’s childhood. We got the movie this year on a dvd with other Christmas movies. I’ve read the book to my family once and will hopefully do that again some day.

12. Read “The Candy Maker’s Gift”, make candy cane crafts, & eat candy cane treats.

13. Christmas parade & movie marathon.
We didn’t make it to the parade. We intend to each year but usually don’t. Ah, it’s too cold anyways! Chris and I did make it to our Sunday School Christmas party. We played the white elephant game and that was fun. Here’s me and my buddy Carrie.

14. Christmas kid’s choir at church.
Well, after a busy weekend and a full morning at church we decided to stay home that night. I did go with the guys to the archery place after lunch. I had promised Chris that I’d go some day.

I shot once and…

found, archery is not my cup of tea. I broke the arrow. I came, I saw, and…next time I’ll stay home. At least there was a nice recliner.

15. Read “The Lil Match Girl”, make luminaries.

16. Fantasy in Lights.

Fantasy in Lights at Callaway Gardens is a spectacular drive thru light show with over 8 million lights! The last time I rode through was when I was pregnant with Michael and Chris was in Iraq. So it was neat this year to take the guys to this AND to be pregnant again!

We stopped in the Christmas village for some hot chocolate and treats.

17. Watch The Hobbit, have Christmas treats at bookstore, & visit the Pet store.

I didn’t get any pics for this. Michael got some Christmas money from grandparents and used it to buy himself a book. We took a quick trip to the pet store before going to the movies. Maybe I will write a review on the third Hobbit movie…

18. Scholars Christmas party and bookswap.

Hannah reading to the kids.

 

Chris holding Miriam, Hannah’s baby.

 

23 weeks

19. Watch Seasons of the Heart, Make paper Holly garland and mini paper angels.

Mom & Michael

20. Christmas recital & give gifts to Nana & Grandad.
Michael played “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel”

I played a few sing along tunes for fun.

Gifts with Nana and Grandad

21. Instrumental Christmas program.

Our church has a large orchestra.

22. Read “The Christmas Owl” and do owl crafts.

We read the book but didn’t do any crafts. So instead here are some pictures of my lil snowman! 🙂

23. Read “Mortimer the Christmas Mouse”.

I let Michael start nibbling on his gingerbread house since Mortimer the mouse lived in one.

24. Christmas Eve, Read/watch The Nativity Story, living room camp out, & family games.

We set up a big manger scene.

Chris preparing the chicken. We also had leftovers from Thanksgiving.

Family game time

We each opened one gift.

Okay this was staged lol. They were not actually asleep ;). We all ended up in bed because my lil dog has a gas problem….sigh.

25. Christmas Day! Holiday breakfast & funny movie marathon.
It’s almost time!

Michael has been playing his harmonica all day, that Aunt Jenn got him.

I think he likes our present :).

Stocking time! (Annabelle)

 

Tessa

 

Chester

Annabelle…not cooperating.

The guys putting together a transformer and then…

the big Lego set. It took awhile.

But it was worth it.

Christmas decor etc…

So I was going to make this part a whole ‘nuther post but decided to keep this simple and put it all into one. It’s kind of late to show all our Christmas prep but what the heck.

Lights on the house

Outside the door…

Painting the Advent tree

Stockings are hung…

Christmas village on the piano

Christmas tree and Nutcracker forest

Chester modeling in his box

New Christmas bedding. Yaaa!

Chester…doing finances?

Tree chain on the homeschool room door

Michael likes to decorate his bedroom too.

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

Links:

Six Inspirational Christmas Books with Activities December 24, 2014

Hello dear ones! I want to share with you the inspirational Christmas books we read during Advent and the activities we did with them. Also a link to the free Christmas Around the World lapbooks we’ve been doing in homeschool.  Well, all but one of these Christmas books talk about Jesus’ birth. Enjoy and I hope you’re having a merry Christmas season!

1.The Gift of the Christmas Cookie

This delightful story tells how the tradition of Christmas cookies came about. It is a story about sharing God’s love with others. We made Christmas cookies to go along with it.

2. The Message of the Birds

This cute story uses birds to share the news of Jesus’ birth. For the activity I taught Mom and Michael how to draw cardinals. Then they used waterpaint and finger paint to finish.

3. The Candymaker’s Gift

This is one of my favorite Christmas books. A grandfather uses the candy cane to teach children about Jesus. We made a couple candy cane ornaments. Then we made candy cane hearts to eat! Links will be at the end of this post!

Crushing the candy canes

Before adding the vanilla almond bark

Sprinkling the crushed candy canes into the melted candy

Voila!

4. The Legend of the Christmas Tree

Why do we decorate Christmas trees? A tree salesman shares the origin of Christmas trees and how the church has used different trees to share God’s story through history. I learned something new myself when we read this. Michael made a picture ornament and a cornstarch ornament tree.

5. The Little Matchgirl

This is the only story that doesn’t mention Jesus. It is a bittersweet tale by Hans Christian Anderson. The poor matchgirl lights a match to warm herself as she sells matches in the freezing cold. But everytime she lights a match she sees a warm vision. This is one of my favorite classics. It’s sad but also happy…depending on your point of view. I would use this story to talk about helping others and also being thankful for what we have. We made mistletoe luminaries for this story.

We used mason jars, red & green tissue paper, modge podge, and epsom salt. The epsom salt gives it the snowy effect.

6. Mortimer’s Christmas Manger

This adorable story is about a mouse who finds a home in the manger. By the end of the tale he’s given his new home back to the baby Jesus. Then God provides Mortimer with another home, a gingerbread house. So I allowed Michael to start nibbling on the gingerbread house him and his dad made earlier this month. He has until New Year’s to finish it.

I hope you enjoyed this post. You can find these books on Amazon and Christianbooks.com (except my version of the Matchgirl. It’s from when I was a kid.) I believe these stories are worth reading every year. They’re fun and they keep the focus on Christ.

Here are the links for the craft and food ideas:

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

PS: Here’s the Christmas Around the World lapbooks we used.

Free passport:
http://www.guesthollow.com/homeschool/lapbooks/lapbook_country_and_culture.html
Lapbooks:
http://www.homeschoolshare.com/christmas_around_the_world.php

I used the above link for all but Asia. I wanted to explore countries besides the Phillipines. So I used three other links for Russia, China, and India.
http://www.123homeschool4me.com/2012/10/christmas-around-world.html
http://perciousperks.blogspot.com/2011/12/christmas-in-russia-free-mini-unit.html?m=1
http://www.whychristmas.com/cultures/

We did not make any of the crafts or food this year. But the nice thing about lapbooks is that you can save them and pull them out next time. Maybe next Advent season we will have time to do more.

Michael stamped his passport each time he learned about a country.

I apologize for the poor quality of these photos. My camera hasn’t been the same since I dropped it.

Also Michael learned how to play “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” on the piano. We looked over the lyrics to the song and watched several versions online. I used several Susan Paradis worksheets to go over his notes. They all had a Christmas theme. You can find them at this link:

How to Train Your Dragon 2 Movie & Toothless Cookie Pops Review July 21, 2014

Hello dear ones! Michael and I saw How to Train Your Dragon 2, a couple of weeks ago. I made these cookie pops inspired by Fiction Food’s blog.

http://www.fiction-food.com/2014/06/toothless-cookie-pops-for-how-to-train.html

I didn’t use jelly beans or lime tootsie rolls though.  I used mint M&M’s for the eyes and chocolate almond bark.  It would’ve been better for me to have used vanilla almond bark because I had to add an insane amount of black dye to get the right color. Brown plus black dye equals purplish. The dye stained Michael’s tongue and fingers.  Chris said they look like Gollum. Anywho, I tried.

Now, onto the movie. It’s been forever since I’ve done a movie review. Let’s see if I remember how.  How to Train Your Dragon 2 was a great movie in my book. It’s a little intense  for a kid’s movie. I rate it as being more intense than The Lion King, ya know, when Simba see’s his father die. I don’t want to give anything away but there is a wicked twist that’s just wrong. How to Train Your Dragon was never a movie about marshamallow hugs and rainbows in the first place. Still, I didn’t expect the movie to get so intense. I may have teared up a bit.

What I like about the HTTYD movies is how they explore family relationships. In the first movie, we see Hiccup develop a better relationship with his dad. In the second movie, Hiccup meets his mom. My favorite part is when Hiccup’s Mom and Dad get back together. They totally could’ve had Hiccup’s Mom declare her independence and stay in her own little world. Instead she chose to return to her family and that was beautiful. She was willing to love again.

If you have concerns about dating relationships, well Hiccup does share a kiss with Astrid. It’s pretty clear that everyone expects the two to get married. Also, the twin girl, Ruffnut,  has some youthful lust issues. It’s supposed to be funny but it really annoyed me. None of it was a deal breaker for me though. It’s just an opportunity for discussion.

Ultimately, How to Train Your Dragon 2 is about friendship and forgiveness. Sometimes love is hard. Sometimes the people you love the most, hurt you the most. You have a choice. Become bitter or forgive and let love empower you. Hiccup faces several challenges as he journies into manhood. I think he handles them well and overall, is a good role model for boys. Plus, Toothless is just adorable. Enough said, four stars :).

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

Once Season Finale Party May 23, 2014

In this post: Mom and I celebrate as we watch ABC’s Once Upon a Time season 3 finale. Come join our Once party! We’ve got food and fun!

Hello dear ones! Once Upon a Time (on ABC) had it’s season 3 finale on Mother’s Day. So Mom and I had a girl’s night. We stuffed our faces and pampered ourselves (pedicures of course).  Here’s all the details:

The Set

• Once backdrop~ I took a blue plastic table cloth and painted it. Then I hung it up in the living room. It’s simple but it took hours to paint.
• Once table~ I reused the black and white table cloth from our Marie Antoinette party. We also reused the plates and the clock napkin holders. I switched the napkins though, red for Regina. I also made the clocks say 8:15 (fans know why).  An apple and a silver platter were a nice touch.
• Once project board~  I modge podged black and white tissue paper over an old project board. Then I glued pictures of Hook, Rumbelle, & the Storybrooke clock tower.
• Food label props~ I took fairy tale scrapbook paper and stuck it to boxes so they’d stand up. I printed the labels in a nice font and glued them to the paper.
• Emma’s Bug~ This BMW model is actually mine from highschool. It looks a lot like Emma’s.

Food

• Belle’s American Burger~  Burgers and home fries were the main course. Belle has her first hamburger in the second season.
• Emma’s Swan Cake~ More like a big brownie with powdered sugar on top. I used a swan stencil that I cut out.
• Regina’s Apple Streudal~ Regina loves apples and so do we!

Activities

• The Season 3 finale! It was perfect…except the ending. I was a little mad. I’m excited about next season though.
• We didn’t have time for a marathon of previous seasons but I did catch up on them while I was crafting.
• The Once Family tree~ If you are a Once-er, then you know the characters of Once are almost all related to each other. The Evil Queen Regina’s adopted son is the birth son of Snow White’s daughter. Oh and did I mention that Rumplestiltzkin’s father is Peter Pan?! Mom and I tried our hand at making the family tree from memory. Then we checked it with a nifty one I found online.
• Charm Bracelets~ I made these for Mom and I. The bracelets are based on “ships”. If you are a fan of a couple then you “ship” them. Like I ship “Captain Swan” (Hook and Emma Swan).  There’s also Rumbelle (Rumplestiltzkin & Belle), Snowing (Charming & Snow White), and Outlaw Queen (Regina & Robin Hood). Mom and I both like Regina. Yes, she was evil but she has changed :). So I made us both charm bracelets. I found the charms at Michael’s Craft store; a  heart that opens. a red jewel, a picture of Outlaw Queen,  and a royal key. I made the Captain Swan bracelet for me; an anchor, a blue jewl, and a picture of Captain Swan. I found the pictures online and modge podged them on craft scrabble pieces.
• Once necklaces~ I took glass flat stones that you use to decorate vases and I modge podged different pictures on them. I added two pretty jewels to my Captain Swan necklace. As you can see in the pictures, I made a ton of these. This way Mom and I can switch out our necklaces. I’m also a big Rumbelle fan, so I’ve got several pretty necklace stones for that. They’re not the quality I’d like but they are cheaper than all the necklaces on Etsy. And I have variety.
• Pedicures

I hope you’re inspired! Links after the pic…

 

Once on Pinterest:

My Parties:

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

Hobbit Marathon Party May 17, 2014

In this Post: A mishmash of Hobbit parties with my own flare. Also an original  homemade board game. Come with us from the Shire to Mirkwood all the way to the Misty Mountains!

Hello dear ones! I am so excited to share our Hobbit marathon party with you! As you may know, the second Hobbit movie, The Desolation of Smaug, just came out on dvd. We are big LOTR and Hobbit fans here. I took two parties and mashed them together. Then I threw in crafts and snacks that I found here and there. Add a homemade and original Hobbit board game and you’ve got Amber’s flare ;).

I do want to thank the two main bloggers that inspired me. The other ideas are on my Pinterest, which is listed after the picture.

Though I did not use them as intended, I did use several of the printables from The Dating Divas. I love how they inspire me continually.

http://www.thedatingdivas.com/just-the-two-of-us/the-hobbit-date-night/

The Given Life has the coolest Hobbit party I’ve seen. I did my own version of two of their activities.

http://welivethegivenlife.blogspot.com/2012/10/hobbit-party-or-what-happens-when-both.html

So here’s how I did it.

The Set

• Bilbo’s hobbit door~ green tissue paper cut into strips and brown package paper. I fit it onto our doorway. The tissue strips are much easier to get into as opposed to a door.
• Mirkwood spiders~ white crepe & paper spiders.
• Mirkwood Forest~  I took brown package paper and twisted it into tree branches. I taped green tissue paper leaves. I wound it around our entertainment center and put up cheap Dollar Tree lights (leaves & fireflies).  I found beautiful pictures of the main elves and taped them to the doors.
• Gollum’s Cave~ trash bags, a fan, and a printable of Gollum.
• Smaug’s domain~ I put red tissue paper below the entertainment center and I taped a picture of Smaug above. This is where I kept our dragon crafts.
• A table fit for a Hobbit~ I was going for prissy yet still masculine. Bilbo loves his mother’s dishes :). I found a blue checkered table cloth at the Dollar Tree. I also found the plastic pink dishes there. They look so real and dainty. I did take out my good china mugs for breakfast and then glasses for dinner. I made a simple paper banner that says “The Hobbit” and I attached it to two straws that I put in moss lanterns.
• Moss Lanterns~ I saw this idea on Pinterest and loved it. I put green moss in mason jars and either taped fake candles to the lid or left them on top of the moss.

Invitations

• The invites come from The Dating Diva’s. I left them and the fake tickets on the table with breakfast.

Food

• A Hobbit Breakfast~  Bilbo most likely drinks English hot tea. It just seems proper, with cream and sugar of course. Sausages and scones are delightful! We should eat like Hobbits more often! 🙂
• Second Breakfast? Lunch? Whatever!~ We had the same delicious turkey meatballs from our Narnia party. We also had slices of cheese.
• Dinner~ fish and chips (homemade fries).  Cream Soda and Rootbeer for drinks.
• Dessert~ blueberry or peach cobbler muffins. We definitely ate like dwarves!

 Activities

• Hobbit movie marathon~ An Unexpected Journey & The Desolation of Smaug.  Along with breaks in between, this took all day.
• Shire Craft~ This was supposed to be a Hobbit card but we made it a prop. The directions are on my Pinterest but I used foam and construction paper.
• Hobbit drawing tutorial
• Dwarves printable~ this helped us figure out the name of each dwarf.
• Troll Freeze Tag~ I got the idea from The Given Life. Basically one of us played the sun and the others played the trolls. If the “sun” tagged us then we became stone.
• Riddles inside Gollum’s Cave~ I pulled up a riddle game on my tablet. Each of us went into the cave. If we solved the riddle then we held out Sting (Bilbo’s sword. I have a replica.) If we lost then we hollered because Gollum was eating us. That’s my morbid twist on this idea from The Given Life.  Ha! We had fun though.  Those riddles were hard! But Chris did defeat Gollum in the end.
• Dragon Eyes~ You can find directions on Pinterest. I used tin foil, paper, and glass stones. This awesome craft doubled as game pieces later.
• Dragon Slime~ This was fun but icky. Starch, glue, and glitter.
• Hobbit Music~  Michael pulled out music from the first music to play on his keyboard.
• Our homemade Hobbit board game~ I found a printable blank Monopoly board game and used it for my Hobbit game. I drew part of the Hobbit map in the middle. The four corners were places like Mirkwood and the Misty Mountains. They each have conqequences if you land on them. I used a plastic jewel for the arkenstone. The dragon’s eyes are game pieces. I printed off trivia questions and fun facts for the cards. I stole dice from another board game.  It was fun and we learned a lot.

I hope you’ve found this post to be inspirational for your own Hobbit party. Links at the bottom!

 

 

Pinterest link: (email sub. come to my blog to see it)

You can find all my parties here:

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

 

St. Patty’s Day 2014 March 29, 2014

Hello dear ones! One of my favorite holidays is Saint Patrick’s Day. I love the story of how Saint Patrick brought Christianity to Ireland. I love how he used the 3 leaf clover to explain the trinity.  I’ve got some great resources on last year’s post: https://amberdover.wordpress.com/2013/03/11/crafty-monday-st-patricks-day-celebration-with-the-homeschool-group/

I found cute St. Patty’s decor at the Dollar Tree, like the huge leprechaun on my door. My Mom got me a St. Patty’s purse for my birthday.  Mom and Michael put together a rainbow chain and I added the cloud. Our leprechaun from a couple years ago came out but he didn’t get caught in the trap this year. Last year, we had a fun leprechaun hunt: https://amberdover.wordpress.com/2013/03/25/my-family-rocks-sundaydates-with-our-son-hunting-for-leprechauns-pet-parade/

Michael and I wrote a limerick & put together a 3 leaf clover with the Trinity on it. We listened to Irish music and did a leprechaun jig. We had some amazing corned beef pies for lunch, along with green veggies and fruit.  For supper we had our traditional Irish beef stew (I couldn’t find lamb) and Irish soda bread. I added “leprechaun” brownies to the mix.

Do you have any St. Patty’s traditions? If so, please leave it in my comments. God bless & remember the High King lives! ~Amber Dover

 

 

St. Patty’s on Pinterest: