Tag - VBS

Tried It Tuesday: How to Dye Dry Pasta

September 12, 2017

This year our church’s Vacation Bible School was one of my favorite themes ever.

“Maker Fun Factory” was a very hands-on curriculum all about how we’ve been “created by God and built for a purpose.” Throughout the week, the kids were encouraged to be creative and inventive as they learned Bible points and stories focused on knowing God has a plan for each of us.

As a member of the VBS Preschool Team, I helped in the planning and preparations, and in the process I got to try out something I’ve wanted to do with my boys for a while: DYING DRY PASTA.

(And I got to try it out thoroughly as I dyed 6 boxes worth of pasta! :))

This dyed pasta was used for crafts, such as bracelets and picture frames and robot decorations, but you can also use the pasta for fun sensory bins or boxes, too. And while we only needed wheel-shapes that mimicked gears for our Maker Fun Factory theme, you can dye any size or shape of pasta that you want, all with this same simple technique.

Having never dyed pasta before I volunteered to do it, I had to get my Pinterest research on, and then make sure that I didn’t mess it up.

What I found was that there are lots of pins about dying pasta, but not many of them give you very specific details on how to do it. So, as I was undertaking this task, I made sure to get the details for you. (You’re welcome.)

HOW TO DYE DRY PASTA

What You Need:

Pasta – As I mentioned, you can use any type, size, or shape of pasta. Larger pasta noodles might require a little more liquid & coloring, though.

Food Coloring – For ours, I did 9 (yes, 9) different colors. We had a rainbow of options. I used your standard food colorings of red, yellow, blue, and green, in addition to the neon options of bright pink, purple, teal, and neon green. Then I also combined red & yellow for a fun orange.

Distilled Vinegar – You can also use Rubbing Alcohol, but since little kids like to put things in their mouths, I went with vinegar.

Plastic zip-top bags – Since I was going to be making so many batches of pasta, I designated a bag for each color. If you are only doing a few, you could try to use one bag for similar colors (For example, do yellow, then orange).

Baking sheets or trays – You’ll need to let the pasta dry after you dye it, so make sure you have enough trays ready to spread out the pasta.

Parchment paper or wax paper (optional) – You can line your baking sheets with parchment or wax paper. This just helps with clean up and transferring the dried, dyed pasta into storage bags.

What You Do:

: Using the napkin holder to hold my zip-top bag.

: Vinegar & food coloring added.

: Measured out pasta.

: Mixing, shaking, smooshing to coat the noodles.

: Letting the color set.

: Laying out the pieces to dry.

1. Mix Up Your Coloring.

Put 2 Tbsp. of Vinegar into you zip-top bag. *TIP: I used our napkin holder to support the bag so it was easier to add each item.

Add in at least 10 drops of your color. I found that for a brighter color, especially with the darker shades, I used up to 30-40 drops. (If I used 30 drops or more of color, I also used an additional tablespoon of vinegar to help get the pasta covered well.)

2. Add Your Pasta

I used 2 cups of pasta for each color. Pour that in on top of your coloring in the bag.

3. Mix It All Together

Seal up the bag, making sure to get most of the air out of it. Then shake, squish (lightly), and massage pasta in the bag to thoroughly coat it in the color. This can take a little while, especially if your pasta has some nooks and crannies. This is a great job to allow your little helpers to do.

4. Let It Set

Lay out the bag of pasta as flat as possible, and let it set for about 10 minutes or so. Be careful of letting it set TOO LONG – pasta sitting in liquid will start to get gummy and soft after a while. Flip it over a time or two during that time so that the liquid isn’t just on one part of the pasta.

5. Dry It Out

Carefully pour your pasta out onto the parchment –lined baking sheet(s), spreading it out into one layer. This part can take some time, as you want to avoid having the pasta pieces touching. Then set the baking sheets up and out of the way or outside to dry. Depending on how warm or humid the day is, your pasta should dry within 20-30 minutes. Give the trays a little shake every so often to help keep the pasta from sticking to the paper. *CAUTION: Beware of curious pets eating your pasta if you have it where they can get to it…such as outside on the ground. I speak from experience and from having lost half of my blue and pink pasta batches to a curious Labradoodle.

6. Store It /Use It

Once it is COMPLETELY dry, you can transfer the pasta to a zip-top bag or a lidded container until you are ready to use it. Store it somewhere cool and dry. (One of the ladies at church stored some in her car for a few hours…in the middle of summer…and it got really soft and squishy.)

: Purple drying

: My slightly reduced batches of turquoise & pink…thanks, Vinny.

: Neon green drying.

: All the colors!

Need ideas for what to do with your pretty dyed pasta? Honestly, your kids will probably come up with some amazing ideas on their own, but if you need a place to start, here are some fun pasta projects:

Make jewelry by stringing pasta together .
Create artwork by gluing pieces onto paper or paper plates (check out these LIONS & these FISH).
Dump it all into a fun sensory bin & use a variety of pastas for different textures & shapes (More on sensory bins)
Make pasta sculptures.
Create beautiful mosaics with pasta & clay.
Slide together one of these wiggly pasta snakes.

WHAT WILL YOU MAKE WITH YOUR DYED PASTA?

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Tried It Tuesday: Homemade Blackberry Muffins

July 12, 2016

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Life in Lape Haven: Tried It Tuesday: Homemade Blackberry Muffins. Delicious, quick, and easy homemade muffin recipe using fresh blackberries and a secret ingredient to give you tender, fluffy muffins.

One of the many things I love about summer and this time of year is that you can get all kinds of fresh fruit and veggie. I especially look forward to all the berries – blackberries, strawberries, raspberries, and blueberries.

There are so many yummy ways to enjoy fresh berries, but the down side is, if you don’t eat them or make something with them, they will go bad quickly. (Booo.) Sadly, this week I had to throw out some once-upon-a-time beautiful strawberries that I had only had for a couple days. It was so disappointing. Looking around at the containers of blackberries and blueberries nearby, I was determined to make good use of those other berries that I had purchased at the same time as the strawberries before they, too, got mushy, moldy, and yucky.

The blackberries were my first concern because they tend to have a shorter shelf life than blueberries. Plus, I already have a great recipe for blueberry hand pies.

So, the hunt was on for a new blackberry recipe that would use up my 12 ounces of tasty blackberries and one that wouldn’t be too involved. (It’s VBS week here, so our days are busy.)

Thankfully, I found one quickly, and before long the boys were anxiously awaiting their first taste of homemade blackberry muffins.

This recipe was very easy to put together – mix your dry ingredients, mix your wet ingredients, combine them all together, add your berries, fill your tins, bake, EAT. Plus, muffins are perfect anytime of the day – breakfast, snack, dessert, or anytime this expectant mommy is hungry…again. 🙂

According to Simply Recipes, where I got this blackberry muffin recipe, the secret to these muffins being tender and fluffy is the sour cream. However, for my version, I used plain Greek yogurt instead of sour cream because it’s what we had, and it worked out wonderfully. I also used a bit more cinnamon.

I found that my muffins could have actually come out of the oven EARLIER than 17 minutes, which was the shortest cook time given. I would say maybe 15 minutes would have been perfect. Since my muffins overcooked just a smidge, they were a little drier than I had hoped once they cooled. But they are still yummy. Oh, and just a reminder: expect some seeds since you’re baking with blackberries. 🙂

: Combine dry ingredients, & combine wet ingredients.

: Mix them all together, then fold in berries.

: Fill your muffin cups.

: I could have put more in mine to have bigger muffins.

: Bake at 400 for 15-20 minutes. Enjoy!

Overall, these are definitely some muffins I’ll be baking again. I may even try them with blueberries instead of blackberries, maybe in the next few days since I have some blueberries that I don’t want to go bad.

Here’s how I made Homemade Blackberry Muffins.

Delicious, quick, and easy homemade muffin recipe using fresh blackberries and a secret ingredient to give you tender, fluffy muffins.

What I Learned (or was reminded of) at VBS

July 17, 2015

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What I Learned (or was reminded of) at VBS - Life in Lape Haven. Serving and teaching at our church's vacation Bible school is always a blessing, but it's also a lot of time and effort. One year we were reminded of how even our smallest contributions in ministering to these little children is important.

For the last few years, Brad and I have had the honor of ministering to all the precious little hearts during our church’s annual Vacation Bible School. We absolutely love it, even though it makes for a busy week (and few weeks beforehand with prep and decorating, honestly).

The below post was originally written in 2015, after a great week of fun and ministry at our VBS. I like to revisit this one every year right before a new vacation Bible school begins, just to remind myself of why we put all the time, effort, and love into these quick few days each summer.

WHAT I LEARNED (or was reminded of) AT VBS

Our theme this year was “Thailand Trek,” which allowed the children to experience a different culture and learn about how God loves all of us, no matter where we live or what we look like.

Brad and I were in charge of teaching the preschool groups in their “Bible Adventure” sessions. If you know anything about 3-, 4-, and 5-year-olds, you know that every day was a true “adventure” for us just keeping their attention and responding to those random questions and answers that children like to throw out. (Best, most random answer this week was when we were talking about the best gift that was ever given. I asked the kids what they thought it might be, and one little guy replied, “A mustache!” Haha. The actual answer is Jesus, by the way)

Having worked in children’s ministry in some way, shape, or form since junior high (It’s kind of my heart), and since I’m one of the regular Sunday school teachers for the preschool class, I did the actual teaching while my husband worked alongside me as my assistant. He’s wonderful that way, and he’s gotten pretty good at anticipating where I need him next. He’s my echo when I’m teaching a new verse or rhyme, he makes a great prop manager and effects guy, and he’s never embarrassed to be silly or goofy with the kids. Together, we make a rather good team.

At the end of each night of VBS, we gathered all the preschool groups into the main room for a closing session of a few songs and review while we waited for parents to arrive and pick up their children. I stayed near the front with the other preschool leaders, singing with the kids and greeting parents, and Brad was in the back of the room, running the sound.

The first three days went really, really well. While our days were a bit more hectic than usual, the joy of serving and seeing children respond to the love of God and the love of all the volunteers definitely made it beyond worth it.

: Our boat for “Thailand Trek”

: More room decorations

: Crafts are always big at VBS!

The last night of Thailand Trek, our family had a half-hour before we needed to be out the door to get to church when Brad and I realized that Josiah was sick, mostly because he threw up all over himself, his bed, and Brad.

Knowing that I had to teach, Brad agreed to stay home with Josiah. I was sad leaving two of my guys behind and disappointed that they wouldn’t get to be there for the last day of VBS.

At the start of each class I let the kids know that “Mr. Brad” had to stay home because our littlest boy was sick, and for the most part they accepted it, and we continued on with our lesson. However, one little boy’s response was one of the best lessons of the week.

When he heard that Brad wasn’t there, his expression clouded with genuine concern, and he asked, “But who will do our music?”

I glanced to their group leaders, who had the same reaction that I did – we were surprised, encouraged, and humbled at the same time.

Realizing that this little boy noticed the person who ran the sound every evening for the final session in the noisy, chaotic preschool class, even though no one ever brought attention to that fact, reinforced to our hearts that every little thing we did to make this VBS happen, it mattered. It was important. And it was noticed and appreciated.

Looking at the group leaders who’d corralled as many as 10 energetic children from activity to activity four nights in a row, I hoped they knew that this time of pouring themselves out for these children wasn’t in vain. I thought about the ladies who faithfully ran the registration every day, keeping track of all the children who’d come through the doors, and those volunteers tucked away in the kitchens, plating hundreds of “Thai Treats” for hungry children who would never even see them. Imagining the mess our kids made of snacks and crafts, I know there were people coming in after all the children were on their way home or the next morning, straightening, tidying, and making things ready for the next onslaught of fun.

I was privileged to be a part of this giving team. A team who did whatever was asked of them to create a memorable week for so many children and show them God’s love in so many different ways.

There are a number of scriptures that come to mind at this point: “Whoever receives one of these little children in My name receives Me” (Mark 9:37), “And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men” (Colossians 3:23), “For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ” (1 Corinthians 12:12), and “He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much” (Luke 6:10).

One little guy reminded us that God saw and was blessed by everything we gave in His name – every hug, snack, helping hand, and silly act.

And the children, who we could barely get to sit still sometimes, were paying way more attention than we thought, too.

Get more ideas & encouragement from this real-life mom as I experience God’s faithfulness through the joy and chaos of motherhood.

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