Jesse Tree cont.

So here is my Jesse tree setup.  Actually I used three little trees that I picked up from my mom in her massive Christmas decor downsizing.  I think she got them from Hobby Lobby.

As you can see I put a bit of a woodland theme spin on it.  The felt mushrooms were a quick addition...

This is a reindeer my husband made when he was kid- he never wants to pull it out with the Christmas decorations, but I think he is super cute.  So he is living in our little woodland tableau...

 Each Jesse tree ornament is wrapped in it's own lidded box.  I wrapped the lid and the bottom separately so the kids don't actually unwrap any of the boxes, they just slip off the ribbon and open the box.  That way we can reuse all the boxes again next year. 

We've been reading from the Jesus Storybook Bible for as many of the ornaments as we can. 

Here's the list of the readings we are using:

Day 1: World - "The beginning" p. 18

Day 2: Apple & snake - "The horrible lie" p. 28

Day 3: Arc & rainbow - "A new beginning" p.38

Day 4: Camel & tent - "Son of laughter" p. 56

Day 5: Lamb - "The present" p. 62

Day 7: Colorful coat - "The forgiving prince" p. 76

Day 8: Ten Commandments - "Ten way to be perfect" p. 100

Day 11: Slingshot - "The young hero and the horrible giant" p.122

Day 15: Crown & dove - "Operation 'No More Tears'" p. 144

Day16: Sheppard crook - "The Good Sheppard" p. 130

Day 17: The Cross - "Operation 'No More Tears'" p. 144

Day 20: Fiery furnace - "Daniel and the scary sleepover" p. 152

Day 21: Brick wall - "Get ready!" p. 170

Day 24: Angel - "The Light of the whole world" p. 184

Day 25: Nativity - "He's here!" p. 176

 

Felt Jesse Tree Ornaments Continued

So here are the rest of my Jesse Tree ornaments.  Overall I like the way they turned out, though there are a couple I might change out in years to come.  For now these will do just fine.  I've included verses to read with each ornament that I have found online.  I haven't read through each day's verses yet, so I don't know if we will follow these verses exactly.  For example last night was day three for us, Noah's arc and the rainbow.  We read the story of the arc from our Jesus Storybook Bible instead of regular scripture.  I think I'll try to use that version when we can for better understanding.

Still to come... our Jesse Tree(s) setup- trees, boxes, etc.

 

 Day 7: Coat of Many Colors - symbolizes Joseph - read Genesis 37:3-4, 12-24, 28

 Day 8: The Ten Commandments - symbolizes Moses - read Deuteronomy 5:1-22

 Day 9: Grapes - symbolizes the Promised Land/Canaan - read Genesis 17:7-8, Numbers 13:1-2, 17-18, 20, 23, 27

 Day 10: Sheaf of wheat - symbolizes Ruth - read Ruth 1:15-2:3

 Day 11: Slingshot - symbolizes David - read 1Samuel 16:14-23; 17:12-51

Day 12: Scroll - symbolizes God's forgotten scroll - read 2Kings 22:2, 23:1-3

 Day 13: Stump - symbolizes shoot from Jesse - read Isaiah 11:6-10 

Day 14: The Lion and the Lamb - symbolizes the New Creation - read Isaiah 11:6-10 

 Day 15: Crown - symbolizes Prince of Peace - read Isaiah 9:2, 6-7

 Day 16: Shepard's crook - The Good Shepard - read Ezekial 34:2b, 4-5, 10-12, 15a, 16a, 23-24

Day 17: The Cross - symbolizes the Suffering Servant - read Isaiah 53:4-7, 9, 12b

 Day 18: Heart - symbolizes The New Covenant - read Jeremiah 31:31-33, Hebrews 9:13-15

Day 19: City - symbolizes Bethlehem - read Micah 5:1-5a, Luke 2:4-7

Day 20: the Firey Furnace - symbolizes exile and persecution - read 2Kings 17:23, Daniel 3:19, 21, 28

Day 21: Brick Wall - symbolizes return to Jerusalem/ prep for Messiah - read Nehemiah 1:3, 2:18, 6:15-16, Revelation 21:10-14

Day 22: Star- symbolizes Jesus/ star that lead the Magi - read Numbers 24:17-19a, Matthew 2:1-6, 9-11

Day 23: Candle - symbolizes the Light of the World - read Psalm 27:1-3, John 1:9, 8:12

Day 24: Angle - proclaimed miraculous birth - read Matthew 1:20-25, Luke 1:26-38, 

 Day 25: The Nativity - symbolizes the birth of Christ - read Luke 2: 1-21

Felt Jesse Tree Ornaments

Last year my friend Mandy posted her beautiful set of Jesse tree ornaments on her blog, Everything Beautiful.  They are truly gorgeous, don't you think?  This year in my continual attempt to bring more meaning into Christmas I shamelessly copied her ornaments for our own little Jesse tree.  I thought briefly about trying to come up with my own Advent tree curriculum and ornaments, but it made my head hurt.  Thanks to an early Thanksgiving I had a whole week to whip these up, and now on December 1st I am almost done. 

Here's my version of the first six...

Day 1: The World - symbolizes Creation - read Genesis 1

Day 2: Apple and Snake - symbolizes the Fall - read Genesis 3

 Day 3: The Arc and the Rainbow - symbolizes Noah - read Genesis 6:9-8:22

 Day 4: The Camel and the Tent - symbolizes Abraham - read Genesis 12:1-7

Day 5:  The Lamb - symbolizes Isaac - read Genesis 22:1-18

Day 6: The Ladder - symbolizes Jacob - read Genesis 28:10-22

 

I will post the rest after I finish them up, hopefully soon! 

 

In reading a bit about Jesse Tree/ Advent traditions on the Internet I found that the Jesse Tree is actually an older tradition and there are a lot of variations of the theme of following the lineage of Jesus through out Advent. 

Chevron Fabric Basket

I saw this little basket made out of fabric on Etsy awhile ago.  So cute! So I tried my own version.  The result was too short, too wide, and my interfacing not stiff enough.  Matching up the chevron pattern on the seam was more of a challenge than I expected, too.  It looks good sitting at the end of my bed, though!

Thankful Tree

I saw this Thankful Tree on Pinterest earlier this year.  This is our version:

I put it on the wall next to the landing halfway up our staircase.  We put leaves on it every night on the way upstairs for our bedtime routine. I used faux bois wrapping paper from Target's dollar section for the tree trunk and branches.   The leaves are mostly silk leaves I've picked up here and there over the years.  I write what we are each thankful for on slips of paper and tape it to the leaves.  The kids love sticking the leaves to the tree every night.  Last year I had the kids write down something they were thankful for every night, but it took forever to get them to do it.  This goes much quicker...

We even put a little owl in our tree...

Brave Party

This is my Merida.  Isn't she cute?  There was talk of a Rapunzel party this year, but then D decided that she HAD to have a Brave party for turning five years old!

 

 I loved going to see this movie with D.  Pixar really knows how to make a movie, right?  And since it was all about the mother/ daughter relationship it was special for the two of us to see it together.

  This was D's first party with friends- it was fun to throw a party for little girls!  Unfortunately my time management skills the day of the party where lacking, so I didn't get around to taking photos of everything.  Most of my inspiration came from Pinterest finds- check out my party board here for more ideas.  Most importantly D had a great time at her party!  Here's details-

Invites...

My second attempt at pinata making.  This time I made an old school paper-mache over balloon kind of pinata.  This is supposed to be a wisp from the movie, but D said it looked like a squid.  Either way it turned out a lot better than I was expecting.  It came apart just as the last party goer got a good whack at it so I'll count it as pinata success...

 

 

 I filled the pinata with Merida fruit snacks and set them out for the party, too...

I was going for a medieval/Scottish feel for the birthday banner...

 

This is another paper craft printable from Spoonful.com that I used for decoration...

Arrow cupcakes...

 

I didn't want to go all out with Scottish food that the kids wouldn't eat, so this was my only themed offering- prosciutto pinwheels to look like archery targets.  The rest of the food was very run of the mill party food...

Activities: decorate your own princess crown.  I found the template here...

More Brave printables...

Thanks for coming to my party "goody bags"...

 Sources for goody bags-

metal pails- Target (dollar section)

Merida stickers- Wal-mart

star wands- Target (party section) - dressed up with purple tulle and teal ribbon

butterfly rings- Target (party section)

blue wisp lollipops- covered with squares of tissue paper and tulle

Not So Sweet Halloween Treats

Every year I am dismayed at how much candy my kids bring home from school on Halloween.  Trick or treating yields plenty of sweets in our house- enough for my kids to have a piece or two and then I gobble up the rest.  I am always trying to think of non-sweet goodies to send to school on Halloween, Valentine's Day, birthdays, etc.  This is what we did this year. 

I made up these little cards for D and printed them on card stock.  She colored in each one...

and we attached it to this little tissue paper bundle...

 filled with a little individual Play-Doh.  I think I found these at our local supermarket this year, but I have bought them at Wal-Mart, too.

For I's friends I printed up these cards, and we cut slits for glow stick bracelets (from the Target dollar section.)  I thought I had enough for two sticks for each kid, but I must have lost some along the way

 I used two fonts: Halloween Spider for the lettering, and MTF Sweet Halloween Dings for the little pictures.  I loved all of the images in this font- it was hard to pick just a couple.  Here is the whole set: