God's Eyes

My youngest son and I recently hosted a Bayit Cham (literally 'a warm house') afternoon activity in our home. 'Bayit Cham' sessions are popular in many Israeli schools. Basically your child's class is divided into small groups and each child who has offered to host some classmates at home receives a list of five or six kids to invite, the important thing being that they are not necessarily their good friends. This gives all the kids an opportunity to mix with some other children and have a little fun outside of their normal circle.
After a number of e-mails and phone calls to the parents of the kids on our list (goodness me, these kids have busy social lives!) we finally fixed a date that suited everyone and my son and I sat down to think about what we would do with his 'new' friends.

Decorating cupcakes was high on the list, as well as the obligatory game of Bingo (we always play Bingo at our get-togethers!) and then my son remembered something that we had made on a Kibbutz outing two summers ago that he really wanted to do again. Something that even my eldest, and let's just say rather artistically challenged, son had fun with. God's Eyes. A yarn weaving craft from the Huichol tribe of Mexico!
No, we didn't know the name of the craft activity until I did a little Internet research,  and, yes, it was a rather strange choice considering some of our visitors are religiously observant. But, I figured if the girls on the religious kibbutz we visited could do it, then we could too! So, God's Eyes it was and all the kids - boys and girls alike - seemed to enjoy it!
The collection you see here were the examples that my son and I made... and continue to make. Our visitors took theirs home with them of course. I want to work out a way of hanging all of these in my son's bedroom - I think they will make a gorgeous mobile - but in the meantime look how perfectly they go with this beautiful bunch of Kalaniot (anemones). The fields here in Israel, from the north to the northern Negev, are currently carpeted with these vibrant red flowers and, though these ones were shop bought, I love their amazing colour all the same!