Primary Music Mascots

(It's kind of hard to tell, but there's a princess puppet and a knight puppet by Melissa & Doug, and then

a three headed dragon Folkmanis puppet)

Last Christmas, my wonderful brother and his fantastic wife sent my children three puppets for Christmas. I love puppets. When I saw these I knew I had to figure out some way to use them in primary during singing time. So one Sunday I introduced the children to a friend of mine, who would come out if we sang beautifully. Her name was Princess Primary. The kids loved her. She sat on the podium and listened to them sing, and blew them kisses when they were especially reverent or sang especially good. The next week Princess Primary told them that they sang so beautifully she brought one of her friends to hear them also. His name was Sir Sunday. He talked in a low voice and gave the kids high fives in the air for their great work. Over the next few weeks, Princess Primary and Sir Sunday were frequent visitors and helpers. Then one Sunday, awakened from his slumber by the angelic singing, the Dastardly Disruptive Dragon emerged from his cave and carried off Princess Primary, in hopes of stopping the singing. Each time we sang a part of the song we were learning, Sir Sunday came closer and closer to the tower (piano) where princess primary was held captive, until finally at the end of singing time we were able to rescue her. The kids love when the Dastardly Disruptive Dragon comes to singing time. They love to see him get angry at their reverent singing.

Obviously not everyone likes to use puppets, but I've found that they work really well to get the children's attention and make singing time fun for them. So I'll probably be posting a lot of my singing time ideas that use the puppets, and just thought you ought to know where they came from.

Molasses Sugar Cookies

Here is a recipe for molasses cookies that I really like. It came from my mom, and I don't know where she got it. I made them for a church activity and got some requests for the recipe, so I just thought I'd post it here and force my friends to read my blog (hwaa ha ha)(that's my evil laugh, in case you couldn't tell)

1/2 cup butter + 1/4 cup shortening (that's the combo I like to use. do whatever you like)

1 cup sugar

1/4 cup molasses

1 egg

2 1/2 cups flour (the recipe I have calls for 2 cups, but I find a little more flour is good.)

2 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 tsp. cloves

1/2 tsp. ginger

1/2 tsp. salt

Cream butter and sugar. Beat in molasses and egg until fluffy. Stir in dry ingredients. Chill. Form into balls (I just use my cookies scoop) and roll in granulated sugar. Bake on parchment paper lined pan at 325 degrees for 10 - 12 minutes. Cool. Makes about 2 1/2 dozen.

frog birthday party

My little baby just turned 1, and since the kids call him "frog legs" due to his jumpiness, we thought a frog party would be appropriate. We had some family over and I planned games for the cousins. First we played "frog, frog, tadpole" which was a favorite with the younger cousins.

Then we lined pillows across the floor and had the kids jump across the "pond" from one lily pad to the next. They had to watch out for uncle alligator! Last we played frog tongues with "icky poo" ropes I got from a Klutz book. I lined up black paper "flies" on the ground, had two children stand on their own lily pads (aka construction paper) and they tried to pick up as many as they could with the sticky tongues in 1 minute. They really liked this game. Finally we enjoyed a nice frog cake. I had made it from a wilton ball cake pan. I cut off the rounded tops of two cupcakes and added slices of a large marshmallow with chocolate chips to complete the eyes. Every time I looked at this cake it made me smile, because he just looks like such a happy frog. This was a good low-key birthday party, easy and fun.