Puzzling...

Church. Church with children. Church with 4 young children. 'Nuff said.

On Sunday my husband and I traded places. I had to be at the church early for a meeting. He was left at home to feed the kids, dress them, wipe faces, place appropriate shoes on appropriate feet, load them in the car, drive them to church, then corral them into the chapel. I, of course, saved us a row and welcomed them with a happy smile. He sat down, looked at me, and said, "I'm sweating." I said, "Welcome to the 'hood...motherhood."

Yet, we do it week after week because it's important to our family.

But keeping my young ones quiet and happy during that hour of church can be a lot of work. So when I saw this idea this week, I wanted to try it out in church. Busy Minds = Quiet Children. Being Father's Day, I made several different puzzles using pictures with dad. It worked. It worked beautifully...until my 8 year old complained that she did all of them and wanted more.

Here's the share:

Materials Needed: popsicle sticks, pictures, tape, craft knife, brush and mod podge

I placed 9 sticks together (larger size - enough for the picture). I used tape on the backside to hold the sticks together while I glued the pictures down.

I brushed mod podge onto the back of the picture, then placed the picture on top of the sticks. Wait to dry.

After it was dry, I cut the picture. As suggested, I used another popsicle stick and placed it on top to use as a guide when cutting apart.

I then brushed mod podge on top of the sticks to seal the picture to the wood.

Because I made several puzzles, I labeled each of the sticks with a symbol to be able to sort them. On my youngest daughter's puzzle (used above) I labeled hers in numerical order to help her put it together correctly.