I’m a tad late here posting about Easter but I wanted to share pictures of my sweet Mac and get some more ideas for outside “crafts with a purpose”. My husband and I are lucky to have a fairly large yard – perfect for accommodating a wild toddler who seems to enjoy having a mama who will follow him for countless laps around the house. Most satisfying about our property (to me) is the view we have of the “field” that butts up to the willows in the backyard.

We don’t even own it!!

According to my husband, the land is in a low-lying area that frequently floods so not great for a home or business. Lucky me ☺️ thankfully, the individual that owns this field/lot has chosen to let the wild thrive in it. The grass never gets knocked down, our discarded Christmas trees can remain as shelter for little critters or insects, and our family gets to watch first-hand how the land that God created was intended to look. You may be wondering how it is that someone could actually find peace in watching grass grow tall then wither and die for the winter months… I get it, I’m not doing this piece of land any justice by trying to describe it. As someone who grew up in the city vs farm/open land, I find the field to be extremely calming and love that the land naturally takes care of itself.

The beauty of nature at its best, or something like that.

Back to the point here. My two yr old son, Mac, loves to be outside and I mostly enjoy being out there as well. He usually bounces between the sand box, slide, running down the grassy hill, climbing on the leftover stumps in the front, trying to “drive” the tractor (ride-on mower) and breaking into daddy’s truck to blast the stereo while pushing as many buttons as he can reach. The weekend of Easter was actually fairly nice weather-wise so we were able to get outside again and I wanted Mac to be involved in creating something simple. It came to mind to find sticks in the yard and tie them together creating a cross. The only thing I had on hand to tie the crosses was some thin shiny Christmas ribbon so that is what we used. I tried to get Mac to sit on the ground with me and put these together quick, but it took more than 10 seconds to arrange the right sizes of sticks and get the ribbon wrapped around securely…

So his attention wandered elsewhere.

I found a couple larger sticks laying right next to each other so I took that as a sign and got to work on making our big stick cross for the Lord. I used Mac’s favorite color ribbon (blue 💙) to tie the sticks together and planted the cross right next to his favorite wooden playhouse. Mostly All, this cross-building activity was for me to feel more connected to the Lord during Eastertime but it also provided some pretty lovely picture opportunities!

Something about the simplicity of that cross and the love I have for that wild little boy captured in one image – it’s humbling and reminds me to keep life’s joys simple ✝️

Share your toddler’s favorite outside activities or crafts! ☀️ 🌳 🐞