Christmas Countdown 2011 - Day 15

Christmas is over, but there is still so much to share! I guess you could say I got a little behind in posting my 25 Days to Christmas activities...let's make Christmas last a little longer!! ;)

Day 14 - Plans got changed! In their place, a fun visit with out of town friends! No pictures...what was I thinking?! :(

Day 15 - Reindeer Fun with Friends

My good friend Sarah and I decided to get together for a fun afternoon with the kids and make our time together reindeer themed!! Little did we know just how "fun" it would be...with me forgetting half of the supplies for the craft, Austin being afraid of their cat, Jilian using her outside voice inside, and Mikayla wanting to just play with the bunny all afternoon. It truly was a comedy of errors, but a great memory was made! Next time we really should take a picture of each other to show off the frazzled mess we were! ;)

Let's make clothespin reindeer ornaments!

As we soon discovered, a craft suited best for older children...

Mikayla & Jilian
Austin giving me the "just one more picture, Mom" look!
Isn't he cute?!
And, aren't they even cuter?!


Let's whip up some reindeer food for Christmas Eve night!

A little oatmeal and sprinkles...

Stir it up...

Reindeer food!!

And, finally...

Let's make reindeer brownies!
(inspired by Pinterest, of course!)


Such a crazy, but FUN afternoon!!

just down the road

A little over a week ago, the kids and I had the pleasure of visiting some friends of ours who have recently moved an hour and a half away. We were so saddened to see them leave at the beginning of July because Mikayla & Ava have been good friends for the last 5 years and went to pre-school together this past year. And I am so blessed to have a friend in Kareena, (Ava's mom). She is the kind of friend that will always listen, love, and support! It crushed me to know she was going to not be as close (in distance) anymore, but I have confidence that the miles between us will not get in the way of our friendship! I see many more times together in the future...we just have to make more of an effort for it to happen!!

The Beasley girls graciously hosted us for an afternoon of playing together and chatting. Their new house is BEAUTIFUL and the setting is even more beautiful as they are nestled back in the woods. We arrived to lunch ready to enjoy...but first I had to have a quick tour! After lunch, we headed to the back deck where Kareena had planned an activity for the kids to paint some rocks. Who would have thought that painting rocks would be such an enjoyable activity, but the kids loved it!

{Ava & Mikayla after collecting their rocks}

{washing them up to get ready to paint}
Capturing the concentration of a child...

HAPPY FACES!!

{after rock painting, the kids enjoyed a frozen treat!}

{One last picture before saying goodbye!}
Of course, Austin had to show off why being a boy is so much fun!Ava (almost 6), Mikayla (5 1/2 yrs.), Austin (almost 4), Alina (3 1/2 yrs.)
Little Miss Anna (1 yr.) was taking a nap during all the picture taking!

We already can't wait to go back to visit our friends!

more Christmas fun - join in!

Yikes! Can you believe we only have 1 week until Christmas?!

I must admit we've been having a blast with our 25 Days of Christmas activities and it has truly helped us enjoy the holiday season just a little bit more. However, there still seems like there's so much to do, but a lot can happen in 7 days, right?

As part of Liz's Countdown to Christmas,
I'm sharing this week's activities...
{click on each collage to view larger}

On Monday (Day 14), our activity was all about trees! We made paper stand up trees and the kids got to use my circle punches again to punch out patterned papers. We even punched out some stars to add a little bit extra. This wasn't anything too complicated and it actually didn't last long, but they had fun nonetheless.
After dinner, the kids got to decorate sugar cones with green frosting and sprinkles. The perfect edible Christmas tree!

On Tuesday (Day 15) we spent the evening with some dear friends of ours, the Newton family. We enjoyed spaghetti & meatballs for dinner and the kids had ice cream sundaes for dessert! The kids exchanged books...a tradition we started last year. Earlier in the day, Mikayla and Austin helped wrap Ellie & Claire's books...boy did they have fun with the tape!
On Wednesday morning (Day 16), we headed over to my friend Sarah's house for a little play date with the kids (and the moms). We thought it would be fun if they did a little craft, so the kids made reindeer by painting their hands and feet, which they loved! It was a pretty simple activity, but we had fun.

Yesterday (Day 17), after dinner the kids decorated some coffee cups with stickers and then we made some "hot-cold cocoa" that the kids could take with them in the car while we drove around to look at lights. We didn't go anywhere too spectacular...just drove around the neighborhoods in our town. At this age, the kids are excited over any kind of lights!
That's us! How about you?
Hope you're soaking in all of the fun of the season!

Ryan has all of next week off, so we're looking forward to that. My sister and family are in town starting today, so I'm sure we'll be spending lots of time at my mom and dad's. Christmas card to be sent, presents to be wrapped, more gifts to make...and the list goes on. But most of all lots of fun to be had!

Holly Bloggy Christmas Bash - Christmas crafts!

Welcome to Day 3 of the Holly Bloggy Christmas Bash! I'm super excited to be chosen to host the Christmas Crafts portion of the event! (Thanks, Jeri for thinking of me!)

So...what kinds of Christmas crafting have you been up to this season? I know it's a busy time of year, but there's always time for a little Christmas crafty fun!

Maybe you've created Christmas cards...

Or cute packages to put a small gift in...

Did you make your own gift tags?
Maybe you've had a few extra minutes to make some Christmas decor...

{this is a brand new decor piece I just finished!}
~ visit HERE for the "how to" ~
Have you had a little Christmas crafting fun with your kids?

Please feel free to link up below so that we can all see your beautiful Christmas creations that you have worked so hard on. The linky will be up until Sunday! Don't forget that if you link up on this post you'll be entered to win some fun prizes over at Simply Sweet Home. Hope you join us! And, tomorrow go visit Jeri to share some of your favorite Christmas recipes!

candy cane Christmas

We have really been enjoying our 25 Days of Christmas activities. The kids are SO EXCITED each day to eat their chocolate candy from our Hershey Kiss Countdown we made on Day 1. Why wouldn't they?? It's chocolate!! Mikayla asks at least twice a day to move baby Jesus a little bit closer to December 25th. And revealing the activity for the day is always anticipated. Earlier in the week, I shared some of the activities we had done over last weekend, so go take a peek if you want to see what else we've been up to!

On Day 8 (Tuesday) of our Christmas countdown, we had a little bit of fun with candy canes!

Activity of the Day:
Make candy cane ice cream and enjoy it
while reading "The Candymaker's Gift".

After bath time, each of the kids were given a candy cane, a Ziploc bag, and a hammer (kid toys worked well!).
Then it was time to whack away!

Next...stir up some vanilla ice cream to get it nice and soft. As Mikayla said, "Like a milkshake!" Happy faces -- they love ice cream!!

Time to pour in the crushed candy canes...

{Notice the mess of candy canes everywhere!? That's my boy!}

READY TO EAT!!

While the kids ate their yummy candy cane ice cream, I read "The Candymaker's Gift" to them.

This is such a great book! I purchased it at our MOPS Bazaar at the beginning of November. The authors were the ones selling the books, so they even signed the inside for Mikayla & Austin. It was so special to be able to read this to them for the first time. The story is about the legend of the candy cane and shares about the true meaning of Christmas and how much Jesus loves and cares for us.

Good to the last drop...wouldn't you say?!

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On Day 9 (Wednesday) we had the special treat of going to visit Kim, Kenneth, Elizabeth, and Bradley. Our activity for the day was to create a gingerbread house with the Caldwell family. All four kids did surprisingly well sharing and enjoyed being together.

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For more Countdown to Christmas activities, go visit Liz @ Sugarplum Creations.



P.S. I'm so happy to share that last year's neighbor Christmas gift was featured on Tip Junkie yesterday!