Family Theme Night Blog

Do you celebrate Advent? As you light the second Advent candle (traditionally the Bethlehem candle), here are five fun activities to add to your celebration!

1. Bethlehem Scavenger Hunt

Do you have a kid-friendly nativity set? Hide the items around your home and have the kids "bring them back to Bethlehem" as they return the manger scene pieces to their rightful place. (This activity is a good reminder for us adults--as we feel scattered during the holiday season, we need to bring our focus back to Bethlehem too!)

2. Bethlehem Scripture Hunt

Do you celebrate Advent? If you do, enjoy this blog with advent ideas!

Our family celebrates Christmas.  We love all things “Christmas,” but we also want to remember the reason we are celebrating:  Christmas commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ.  As part of that remembrance, we will light the candles on our advent wreath.  Today is the first Sunday of advent, our time to light the first candle.

The First Candle

I love making memories with my kids!  In fact, I've been away from my computer doing just that—making memories; simple memories, ordinary memories and crazy memories.  Here are five of my favorite ways to make memories with kids:

1. Make the ordinary extraordinary.

Life gets very busy, and sometimes it can seem a challenge to fit fun into the day.  Yet sometimes the simplest thing can make an ordinary task memorable.  That's where "underwear balloons" come in!

It is spring cleaning time!  My kids just finished their spring break.  At first glance, our major spring break activity might not seem like the definition of fun.  In between play-dates and mini-trips visiting friends, we completed a family project (or perhaps I should say we started a series of family projects).  We enjoyed some "spring cleaning family fun!"

Yes, I did use the words "spring cleaning" and "fun" in the same sentence!  Here are three ways our family makes chores more enjoyable:

1.  Do Chores Together!

Friday is usually the day for my "faith-filled family fun blog," a series of weekly posts with fun activities based around Bible stories. In the days leading up to Easter, I will be posting additional faith-based family fun Easter ideas throughout the week.

Easter is almost here, so I decided to combine the last list of extension activities for  Resurrection Eggs into one post.  Today's post includes activities for eggs 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12.

Egg #8 (Dice for Gambling):

Friday is usually the day for my "faith-filled family fun blog," a series of weekly posts with fun activities based around Bible stories. In the days leading up to Easter, I will be posting additional faith-based family fun Easter ideas throughout the week.

Today I am posting my next installment of "ways to use Resurrection Eggs."  I am combining both days six and seven into this post.  The sixth egg contains the crown of thorns, and the seventh egg contains a cross made of nails.

Here are some ideas for the sixth egg:

Friday is usually the day for my "faith-filled family fun blog," a series of weekly posts with fun activities based around Bible stories. In the days leading up to Easter, I will be posting additional faith-based family fun Easter ideas throughout the week.

All week I have been posting ways to use Resurrection Eggs.  It has been pretty easy coming up with ideas so far, until I got to today.  The 5th egg.  The one with a whip.

Parts of the Easter story are just not very pretty.  When we reflect on the harsh reality of it all, it brings an unpleasant picture to mind.  And as much as  I want my kids to know the whole story, I have to admit that I struggle with explaining this part to them.  Children are so sweetly innocent.

Friday is usually the day for my "faith-filled family fun blog," a series of weekly posts with fun activities based around Bible stories. In the days leading up to Easter, I will be posting additional faith-based family fun Easter ideas throughout the week.

This week I have been posting ways to use Resurrection Eggs.  Today is day four, the fourth egg—the egg containing praying hands.  It reminds us of when Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane.

As you open the fourth egg, take the opportunity to teach your kids about prayer:

Friday is usually the day for my "faith-filled family fun blog," a series of weekly posts with fun activities based around Bible stories. In the days leading up to Easter, I will be posting additional faith-based family fun Easter ideas throughout the week.

Today is day three of fun using Resurrection Eggs.  The third egg contains a silver-toned chalice, representing the cup Jesus used during the Last Supper.

Friday is usually the day for my "faith-filled family fun blog," a series of weekly posts with fun activities based around Bible stories. In the days leading up to Easter, I will be posting additional faith-based family fun Easter ideas throughout the week.

If you have been following my last couple of posts, you know I love using Resurrection Eggs by FamilyLife Publishing.  Today's post includes activities for day two/egg two.  This egg contains coins, representing the thirty pieces of silver that Judas used to betray Jesus.