bff adventures: making palm leaf crosses

 today molly had a little gift for emily and deedee. she made them beaded bff bracelets.

emily's and deedee's have their names on them and "bff." molly made hers with both deedee and emily on it because she wanted one bracelet with both her besties' names on it.

molly + emily + deedee = best friends forever!

yesterday was palm sunday which is a very important day in the christian faith to celebrate when jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey and all the people and children cheered and waved palm leaves and laid them down for him. palm sunday is also the beginning of the holy week which is when we remember all the events that lead up to easter. yesterday at church everyone got palm leaves and instructions on how to fold them into a cross. we thought you might like to give it a try! if you don't have access to palm leaves you can use another type of long skinny leaf or even buy artificial palm leaves from a hobby/craft store or you can try to use a really long skinny piece of paper or pipe cleaner. 

here are the instructions we were given at church: 

lets get started!

step 1: fold the palm about 1/4 of the way up. 

step 2: using the longer end (which should also be the skinny end) fold it to the side at a right angle. the fold should start where you think the arms of the cross would go.

step 3: now fold it back to the other side making one arm of the cross. 

step 4: and now we fold it back again going the other way, so now you have both arms. try to get them as symmetrical as possible. 

step 5: wrap the skinny end to the front and cross the intersection of the cross diagonally. 

step 6: wrap it around the back crossing the vertical bar under the arms.  

step 7:  come back to the front and wrap diagonally so now you have an X over the intersection of the cross. 

step 8: wrap it to the back and slide the skinny end into the loop made when you wrapped around the vertical bar in step 6. lastly, finish it by trimming off any excess that hangs beyond the bottom of the cross (we had enough excess that we were able to make a little one with it, but it varies on the size of leaf you use). 

this is what it looks like in the front when you are finished: 

this makes a beautiful and meaningful easter decoration. the best part is the palm will dry and harden so it will last as long as you treat it with care-- you can even keep it out all year round!

happy holy week from deedee, molly, and emily!!