Advent Activity - Let it Snow!

We were busy today. Lots to do, little time to do it in. I didn't want to let an Advent day slip by so I kinda came up with something quickly in my head. I had been promising to paint the girls' nails with a new paint pen I picked up on clearance at Justice the other day. Awesome. Have you ever used one? I may never go back to a bottled polish again.

Anyways  ... the color is blue and I thought it would be cute to paint white snowflakes on their nails. That's where my Advent idea comes in. In the Bible we learn that through Jesus' death on the cross, which is the reason that he came to earth as a little baby, we can be whiter than snow.



Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.

Isaiah 1:18

Happy Advent!

Advent Activity - Christmas Trees

We started our Advent celebration today (I know it officially started on Sunday but I'm still getting used to this whole Advent thing!) using The ADVENTure of Christmas. We usually skip around in the book and do whatever is convenient for the day. Today we talked about the Christmas tree. We focused on how the tree represents Christmas ... how it points to the cross which is the entire reason behind Christ coming to this earth in the first place.

I Peter 2:24

Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye are healed.

We talked about how the triangle shape of the tree represents the trinity - The Father, The Son and The Holy Spirit. We talked about how we should be like a tree that points toward heaven and should, by example, be pointing others to heaven (insert massive dose of conviction here).

The we listened to O Christmas Tree and read The Legend of the Three Trees.

I bought cranberries with the intention of making cranberry play-doh, cranberry jelly & cranberry bread. But, let's face it, no one in my house is going to eat cranberry jelly or bread. We still could have made the play-doh but I found a better use for our cranberries.

To incorporate a bit of science into this activity we made ornaments and garland from our cranberries to hang on the evergreen trees out front for the birds. The ornaments are made from floral wire. I shaped a star, heart, wreaths and candy canes and the girls threaded the berries onto the wire. While they did that I strung the cranberry garland. Some of the berries were squishy which led to juicy being squished out onto their hands. They tasted it but neither girl cared for it. We also got some good counting in as we made sure the garlands had an evenish number of berries.



Don't let that pretty sunshine fool you. It is FREEZING out there!



(Yes, I am aware that I need to remove the fall pumpkin decor from the banister!)

Happy Advent!

A New Stocking

I am so excited about this month's Create With Me Project! I was so thrilled when Kari announced that we would be making a stocking or tree skirt (or both!). I had come across the girls' stockings at Strausburg while I was pregnant with each of them. I went in search last year for Haden and found out that they no longer made them. I didn't want to have to replace their stockings but wanted them to all "go" together. I decided to make one and Kari was just the motivation I needed!

Haden's stocking is a dark red corduroy with a flour sack cuff and lining. I traced Aubrey's stocking onto newspaper (easier than printing out the template provided) and then cut out my pieces.

The little gingerbread boy is made from felt with ric rac icing and french knot eyes, nose, mouth and buttons.

Brown jingle bells adorn the cuff

I was really surprised at how well the stocking turned out and how easy it was! It fits in nicely with the other stockings!

 

Black Friday Decorating

I didn't shop this year for any Black Friday deals. I'm not anti-Black Friday shopping. I've done it in the past but just didn't have it in me this year and I've already finished my Christmas shopping so there was no point in going out and getting a deal just because its a deal. I tend to do that.

Since I didn't stay up all night, or get up in the middle of night, to shop I have more energy to get the best part about Black Friday done - decorating for Christmas! I hung our wreath on the front door last night.

This was my first Christmas project. I am supposed to be making a stocking for Create With Me. It what I asked for! I had so much fun doing Thanksgiving stuff though that I haven't gotten to it yet. Hopefully today. Gotta hang the stockings!

I was going to do a step-by-step tutorial on this but thought it might be a bit degrading considering it was so easy. I wanted to make one of those ornament wreaths with a wire hanger but it just wasn't working out for me. I went to Target and bought the $4  pine wreath, used the shatterproof ornaments from the dollar stop that I had bought for the other wreath, some floral wire, fishing line and a star ornament from TJ Maxx.

I threaded 3 inch pieces of floral wire through the loops on the ornaments and wrapped it around the back of the wreath, spacing the 12 ornaments out evenly. Hung the star from the top with fishing line and then tied ribbon to the wreath hanger and hung it on the front door. Super easy, except for tying the fishing line. That was hard.

How fun is this?!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

This Thanksgiving we are thankful for the pilgrims who came to America in 1620 and set up this great nation!

We are thankful for these two precious girls ...

Who are thankful for gooey, chocolate-covered marshmallows and fudge-striped cookies

And for Chronicals of Narnia ..

We are thankful for this little guy, too!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Plymouth Rocks

I finally got around to making Plymouth Rock cookies with the girls today using the recipe found at Almost Unschoolers.

They were really easy and fun to make. The recipe said that it would yield 8 cookies but we had 13. One for each of the original 13 colonies ~ we did that on purpose  it just worked out that way. Kennedy helped me form the rocks, I carved the date 1620 (Aubrey kept wanting me to put a 4 for her year), and then they baked at 375 for 8 minutes. Easy peasy. I then mixed up the glaze. The recipe said to use a drop of black food coloring and a drop of green. Well, apparently my green is pretty potent stuff because it looked way more green than gray. I added more black then more sugar/milk to lighten before coming up with a rock color.

The girls painted the glaze onto the rocks using my silicon basting brush. We let them dry and then everyone got to eat a rock!

The verdict ~ it was split 50/50. Kennedy and I didn't care for them. Adam and Aubrey loved them. They were very soft and cookie like, but really sweet. I might not add the almond extract next time. Taste aside, it was a really fun project! And for that reason alone we give it 2 thumbs up!

Tomorrow we're making pilgrim hats! And cranberry bread! Yay for Thanksgiving!

If We Went on the Mayflower ...

I saw this over at Happy Home Fairy and thought it was a splendid idea! It took a while to come up with this list. Kennedy was the most practical saying she would take things she knew the pilgrims needed like a screw, Aubrey was planning to take a Christmas tree, and Adam wanted to take a car and a spacesuit. After reiterating that we are going on the (very small) Mayflower and that these are things we possibly couldn't live without we narrowed down our list. The Bible is a given.

Kennedy would take ~
A map, money, an extra skirt, a book, and teddy.

Aubrey would take ~
A Barbie, a scooter, an umbrella, a princess crown and a Dr Seuss book.

Adam would take ~
A guitar, a hymnal, a photo album of family, portable dvd player (for the ride, y'all), and a journal.

Haden would take ~
A paci, a blanket, a ball, a rattle and something with a tag on it.

I would take ~
Diet Coke, chocolate, Stepping Heavenward, a phone, and an mp3 player.