A Mothers Nest

This year for my birthday, I told the boys (husband included), not to buy me a thing. I wanted them to have fun and make something for me. We spend Easter at Scott's parents home, and while I was away for the day, they made this awesome nest out of paper mache with their Dad. The eggs are my "Boys"...top left is Scott, top right is Luke, bottom right is Zach and bottom left is Tyler. Zach has brown spots all over because he recently had chicken pox, and Tyler is green because his jacket was green that day! How sweet. They hid the Nest in a large tree, and I had to find it. They were so excited to give something they spent so much time working on...and not one of them gave away the secret. I was so proud of them, and so touched to see their work. There is no better compliment they could have given me on my birthday then to say I make them a wonderful nest.

FHE - Setting the Table

Each Monday night, Scott and I set aside time to be with our family. It is called Family Home Evening. This night can be used for all sorts of different activities, from games and fun, to spiritual messages we want to share with them. We have decided that this would also be the best time to teach our kids some life skills, like stranger danger, manners, saving money, etc.
This week we tackled how to set the table properly.
Mom brought out the china.
It has been 11 years and we have only used our china dishes twice.
Well, that has changed. We are going to use them regularly at dinnertime with our family. Why waste such beautiful dishes, and keep them stored away...and how are they going to learn to treat things with respect if we never give them a chance?
For dinnertime, I set out the table as shown in the blog Classy and Fabulous.
It looked like this, minus the wineglass:


We ate dinner, and the kids asked why there were so many forks and spoons. HAHAHA!
We finished, cleaned up, and then went to our living room to discuss Easter and the Last Supper. It was nice to share with our children why we celebrate Easter, and who we can remember during this time. The Easter bunny is wonderful and visits our home to bring them goodies, but we also want them to understand the amazing gift of the Atonement, and that Jesus died for all our sins.
We took them back to the table and showed them the picture of the place setting that I printed out. I gave them each all the items they needed to complete the picture. The first time, they did exactly what the picture showed...the second time I took the picture away and they did it from memory. We talked about what each utensil was for, and about eating from the outside in...soup and salad come first..that sort of thing..then we challenged them this week to take turns to set the table and to remember how to do it properly.

The boys...
Zach set the table with renewed passion...placed everything perfectly...and asked if he could make the salad, so that he could put on the salad forks. Nice!
Tyler saw that there was no dessert spoon or fork, and was upset that we were not having dessert. I assured him that dessert was still being served, but he would not need a fork or spoon to eat it..so we did not set it on the table. Such a smarty pants!

Now when we sit down to Easter dinner with the Grandparents, I hope that they will remember their table manners, and volunteer to set the table...then they can surprise them with how much they have learned.

I am so glad we have evenings like these to help us remain close, and to let us take natural leadership, as parents, to teach our children the things we feel are important for them.

Martha Stewart has an article...Teach Your Kids to Set the Table

Another Trick...from Squidoo
Name - then spell - the Silverware's names and spell sides of the plate.
They are knife, fork and spoon - right and left,
3 of those words have 5 letters each - and it just so happens, that those letters all work together. The knife and spoon go on the right side of the plate.
2 of the words have 4 letters - and lo and behold, the fork goes on the left side of the plate.

Have fun with your kids, teach them a thing or two, and watch them grow!