Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Caterpillar Monday -- When Play Turned Around our Day

I've been devoting my morning quiet time to a series by Erika Dawson called Pray and Play (begins here) with the premise for me being not so much focused on playing with W. I honestly play plenty already, but I love the idea of thoughtfully directing my intentions for my family to God.  One particular verse grabbed me first thing last Monday morning, and as it turns out, I'd need to cling to it all week long.


“Real wisdom, God’s wisdom, begins with a holy life and is characterized by getting along with others. It is gentle and reasonable, overflowing with mercy and blessings, not hot one day and cold the next, not two-faced” (James 3:17 MSG).



Hot one day and cold the next! Gosh, how often do I let my own emotions, whether driven on my own account or in reaction to the behaviors of those around me, guide the way I respond to my family.  My goal as a mother is to model my parenting on God's own love and wisdom.

So that Monday I chose to respond with mercy and blessings. I deemed that Monday to be Caterpillar Monday as we weren't leaving any time after the hour long fit that left us both a mess.



Thanks to Eric Carle and some creative projects seen on Pinterest, we cut up some egg cartons that I've been hoarding for just the occasion and painted early in the day after breakfast.

When the paint dried we gave them eyes and antennae and had new pets for the day!


They crawled everywhere.




But the ball pit was quite the hit.


We took the guys outside to eat grass and leaves between rain showers and even up the street to see the fountain.  Because of all the rain, our caterpillars couldn't go out for grass, so fuzzy balls would have to work. It turned out just fine when someone spent some quality minutes by himself filling the egg cartons with them.


And what's Caterpillar Monday without themed food?

Babybel cheese still in its wax, raisin antennae, carrot eyes, and toast covered in Whollly Quacamole body.


We even expanded our lego aviation repertoire to include these creepy crawlers:



Someone didn't let go of these things all day.


And I wasn't surprised when both ended up in pieces before bed, nothing a hot glue gun couldn't fix for the morning.


My poor child just might need therapy from being the guinea pig for all of these crafty ideas I come across. Oh well, I guess there could be worse reasons!

6 comments:

Unknown said...

too cute!

Am I Really Grown Up? said...

Super cute! I love when a pinterest idea actually works out lol!

Danielle said...

Adorable! W's a lucky boy to have such a creative Mama!

Erin said...

I may just have to recreate this whole day with Jack!

Nicole said...

We've made that guy too. And I felt so bad throwing it away. Is that bad?!

Kat said...

too too tooooo cute