For God So Loved the World

In our "school at home" times, we have gotten back into the swing of things a bit. Spring and Easter occupied much of our time at home in March. Now that April is here, we are back to Susan Hunts "ABC's of God's Word." We did the letter "E" last week, and I didn't get any pictures of it. So we'll just jump to letter "F".

F - "For God so love the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life." John 3:16

This was neat to study right after Easter, since at Easter we celebrated just what this verse is speaking about. God giving His son, Jesus, to die for us so that those who believe in Him will not perish but will have eternal life with God. Does it get any better than that?! It was neat to touch on the first part of that verse too - the LOVE of God. And that that love is so great and so big and so personal. And that through His love, He accomplishes our salvation! Not based on anything we have done, but solely on what He has done. Now if only those truths can remain in my heart and on my mind each day, and sink deeply into our children's hearts and minds as well.

We made a FFFlag that has our Bible verse on one side and a big F next to a heart with a cross in it on the other side. I think that I found this more clever than O did. Oh well!





On another day, O and B did some gluing. I cut out the pieces, and as we walked through the verse, they each glued (B with lots of help, O with just a little) the pieces on. The pieces I used were:

- a BIG heart (God so loved)
-a world (one piece blue, one piece green...the world)
-a cross (gave his Son)

I'm sure you could add more parts to get the whole verse in, but this is where I stopped. I also saw a neat mobile for this verse at a neat website called Impress Your Kids.

Cousin Love

We got to spend a few days in Harrisonburg last week for Spring Break. My brother Brett and his family came down for most of the week since they were also on Spring Break. We enjoyed time with the cousin's playing, celebrating Matt's bday at our favorite Mexican place from college (El Charro), Carolyn and I were able to get pedicures :), and chatting. It was a treat to see them. The biggest treat by far was to see Owen and Anna play together. They are 6 days a part and just LOVED being together this visit. They have always been very fond of each other, but this trip they seemed most fond of each other. I think they are over some of the sharing issues that were more of a part of our other visits (which Baxter and Jake are now wading through at 14 days apart.). Here are a few pictures from some cup cake decorating with Gramma. We can't wait for Cousin's Camp 2010 this summer where ALL of the Gillan cousins will be together!

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Matt turned 30 last week - we enjoyed celebrating with a few days in Harrisonburg with my parents and my brother Brett and his family. Before we left, we made him this yummy BIG cookie and gifted him with some homemade cards AND tickets to a Richmond Flying Squirrels baseball game. Yes, I said Flying Squirrels. They are our new minor league baseball game. Happy Birthday Matt/Daddy! We love you very very much!!



Here is the recipe I used for the BIG cookie. (Thank you Blair!)

BIG Cookie Recipe:
6T butter, softened
1/2 C Brown Sugar
1/4 C Sugar
1 egg
1 t vanilla
1 1/2 C flour
1/2 t baking soda
1/4 t salt
1 C chocolate chips

Cream the sugar by mixing both sugars with the butter. Add the egg, vanilla, baking soda and salt. Add the flour slowly. Stir in chocolate chips. Press all of the cookie dough onto a cookie sheet or pizza tray into a circle about 1/4 inch thick. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes. Add whatever icing words you like (Blair said they help hold candles in AND look fun!). ENJOY!

Happy Easter!

The Lord is Risen! He is Risen INDEED!

"Him Came Out"

This morning, B woke up and came downstairs to see the Easter mountain. For the whole weekend, Jesus had been in the tomb, with the stone covering the entrance. This morning, He is out of the tomb, the stone rolled away with an "angel" on top. Immediately B said "Him came out!" with a little giggle. So precious! Owen is more concerned with HOW did Jesus come out.

Happy Easter!

(Here is a video from one of our favorite Bibles about Easter morning. CLICK HERE)

Sandbox

SO...Owen and Baxter got this sandbox 2 years ago, right after B was born. We have just NOW set it up in a good spot (until now it was near the woods and always had spiders near it. No good for the Purdy Family!). It's nice to have it right on the deck. We just need to teach B that the sand needs to stay in the box. That is why these pictures only have O in them :)