Advent Countdown - Day 2

Today's book was 'Eloise Decorates for Christmas' By Kay Thompsen and others

We're big Eloise fans! Tonight our accompanying craft was to make snowman decorations of our own, with photos to give to friends!

 

Advent Countdown 2015- Day 1

Yup, It's official, I'm a fair weather blogger. Actually, since I seem to only be blogging our holiday fun, I guess that makes me a crap-weather blogger. But I digress.... This year we're doing our advent countdown a little differently. We're SO busy with dance, play practice, shows, homework, etc. that we just don't have time to do an activity everyday. So, this year "the elves" are bringing a new book everyday until Christmas, and some of those days (when we have more time), there are activities to go with the book. I'm really excited for some of them, particularly "N.H.Elf Hockey" to go with the book "Z for Zamboni."

Day One: 'Santa is Coming to Vermont' By Steve Smallman

I was delightfully surprised by this. I know they make these for each state, so I thought it would be totally generic, but it wasn't. There were some amazing illustrations of some of our favorite spots throughout the state!

Her activity was to write a Christmas list for Santa, which I assumed we would mail, but she thought it would be better to just have the elves bring it back to Santa when they came to drop off her new book the next morning. Good thinking kid!

Advent Day 14: Nutcracker Night

Since we had Viv's Nutracker performance today, the "elves" delivered her a ballerina ornament for the occasion. After the show we tried out the new build-your-own frozen yogurt place in town to celebrate, and we LOVED it! Between this place and the new Thai restaurant we're in food heaven lately!

Advent Day 13: Rudolph Movie Night With Daddy!

The Viv and Daddy movie night has been a tradition since the beginning, and so this year was no exception (and afforded me the opportunity to go watch a Tracy/Hepburn movie and wrap gifts  in the other room). Such cuties!
I used the FREE site Print With My Pic to make the tickets!

Advent Day 12: Snowflake Paintings

Advent Day 11: Wax "Stained Glass" Window Decorations

Advent Day 10: Family Reindeer Hands and Reindeer Cards

 

Advent Day 9: DIY Snowglobes!

We've had these strange little jars (I have no idea where they came from) for a few years, and thought they might be cute to use for making our snowglabes. I had originally intended to use mason jars, but the figurines we found were on the small side.

To  make these, all you have to do is:
- Hot glue waterproof figurines to the lid of a glass jar (make sure you can put the lid on the jar!)
- Add glitter and water
- After putting the lid on the jar, seal by hot-gluing around the edge of the lid

 

Advent Day 7: "I like warm hugs..." (and pancakes)

I was so exhausted when I typed the elf note for this that I didn't even register the awkward word spacing. Whoops. Errr... I mean, wow, those elves sure can't type! But I digress... since I knew we would have a bit of extra time this morning, I planned a Frozen themed breakfast for Viv and Nana J. Viv already told me that my Sven was not fantastic. Noted, I will work on my pancake artistry ;-)

Advent Days 4 & 5: Manger and Reindeer Games II.

This week is pretty light on activities because of play practices and performances. Between all of that and work and school, we had to choose things that were simple. 

We do this one every year, and Viv really loves it. She actually tried to get us to do this one about a week ago. This year we also read the book "Santa and the Christ Child" which is wonderful, and i highly recommend it.

Reindeer Games II: Holiday Memory game. She loved the Olaf!

Advent Day 3: Tree Day!

Advent Day 2: Snowman Slam! (Reindeer Games Part I.)

Today we played our first Reindeer Game of the year, "Snowman Slam"! This literally took 3 minutes to make and she played it for almost an hour after school!

Someone asked me where I made my photo layout from yesterday. I actually created it using a free design app called Canva. I created a template, so all I have to do is change the day number and drag in my (poorly taken, low quality iphone) photos. It takes about 2 minutes!

Advent 2013, Day 2

Advent Day 2: Family hand print reindeer antlers!

Advent 2013, Day 1

For the past few years, instead of doing an Elf on the Shelf, we've had a Magic Holiday Mailbox! Everyday, Santa's "elves" leave our daughter fun activities and treats to do with family and friends. This year is no different! The magic mailbox made it's return yesterday with a letter from Santa, a snowman chocolate, and the activity of going to buy toys for the local 'Toys for Kids.' I didn't feel it would be right to take pictures of the outing, but here is her getting her letter from Santa, which she LOVED!

The Santa Envelope template was from www.mrprintable.com

Mommy-and-Me Do Together Craft: Photo Frame/Art Display

My kiddo loves to paint, and I'm always trying to think of cool ways to display her art. I was at the dollar store scoping out frames for an office-redo project I'm working on, and had an idea to make some mother's day frames that for interchangeable artwork and photos.

While Viv got to work crating some masterpieces, I heated up the 'ol hot glue gun and started by cutting a few pages out of an old photo album.

Measure and mark on a paper instert exactly where you will want to glue onto the plastic... this will save you from having a crooked frame.

I covered by photo frame insert with felt and foam frames... remember not to glue the top of the insert and frame if you want to be able to change the photo!

Ready for artwork!

Kiddo Craft: Chalk Driveway Paint

This was so easy to do....we have more large sidewalk chalk than one family (despite our numerous chalkboards) would ever go through in a reasonable amount of time, so here's what we did:

• Placed the chalk in thick-ish ziplock bags, and used a meat tederizor to crush it up (a regular hammer will do, I just didn't feel like searching for one that early in the morning).
• Combine with water in containers with lids that seal! 
• Enlist a petite helper or two to mix mix mix and shake shake shake!

Make sure you frequently mix each  color!

Kiddo Craft: Birdhouses and Butterfly Feetsies

When we moved into our house we were given an unpainted birdhouse for Viv to decorate. Since we're in the midst of mother nature's fickle 'is-it-spring-or-is-it-winter' dance (an as I typed this, it started to snow again), we decided that today would be the perfect time to do something to welcome spring!

 

And since we had some paint leftover... we made a fe spring creatures of our own :)

 

Bring on the sunshine!

Laughable Moments AKA "$hit My Kid Says"

Viv is Unimpressed

The other day our darling daughter approached me and asked “What did people even TALK about before I came out of your belly?” [insert guffawing mama here] This led me to think about so many of the funny conversations she’s had with Mike and I. While there was certainly never a loss for topics before she “came out of my belly.” She certainly has brought a whole new level of unintentional humor into our home :)

Here are some of my faves, which, thanks to Facebook, I had a running record of! I knew all those status updates would come in handy one day!

Viv: "Daddy, I have to tell you something."

Mike: "What?"

Viv: "You're a boy, so you have a penis!"

Mike: "Um. thanks for letting me know…"

Viv: "You are VERY welcome!"

"My foots are dancin'!"

Viv: "What does 'car' start with?"

Me: "It starts with a 'C'"

Viv: "NO! It starts with a KEY!"

(Discussing preschool that day)

Me: "did you make sure to share?"

Viv: "Why, what did you hear?

Me: "Um, *should* I have heard something?"

Viv: "uhhhhh... no?”

Viv: "Thank you for the grape juice, mommy."
Me: "Thank You for having such good manners."
Viv: "Don't thank me, thank daddy."

(When asked about her art at the pretend art show we set up):

"Look at all the arts you see'd! If you believe what you believed, then you will see all the dance."

Viv: "I'm Princess Ariel!

Me: "Oh, whatch'ya doing Ariel?

Viv: "Nothing, just sittin' on my clam!"

Viv: "You have to say 'excuse me' when you toot?"

Me: "Yes, you do."

Viv: "Aaaand when you burp?"

Me: "Yes, and a variety of other things."

Viv: "And a variety of cake!"

Me: "Um..."

Viv: "Daddy's pooping"

Me: "Oh yeah?"
Viv: "Yeah, that means he's in the bathroom, so don't try to talk to him, okay? He wants privacy, and the door shut."
Me: "Is that what daddy says to you?"
Viv: "Yeah, a LOT”

After Viv asked me to "make her a word" with the alphabet chicken nuggets: 

Viv: What'sit say?

Me: Lets sound it out together..

"Puh" "Iiih" "Nnn" "Kuh"

Me: What does it spell?

Viv: INDIGO!"

Viv: "what's that?" 

Me: "a new toilet brush" 

Viv: "what's it do?" 

Me: "It cleans the potty!" 

Viv: "I thought daddy cleans the potty?"

Viv, pointing at a funnel at the Pick and Shovel: "haaaaaat!!"

Me: "That's called a funnel honey."

Viv(skeptically): "Well who's it fun for?"

"It's called a Christmas tree skirt so people know the tree's a lady."

(Looking at one of our photo albums):

"Is that the day I hatched out of your belly?"

(While playing office):

"Well mommy, we did it again... there's no business like work business. And at the end of the day, we get a sticker."

("Reading" a book to me):

"You should always put away toilet paper. There once was a girl who wanted to put away toilet paper. Her daddy said 'okay.' And then her mommy said 'alright.' So she did. And then there was a thing with feetsies that crawled BACK to the house. It was a baby. It growed to a big girl and lost aaaalll it's energy. And then lost her bones. She couldn't stand. She couldn't sit. She couldn't do anything without her bones. Her daddy said 'What happened to your bones? They were orange when I saw them in the sky.' She found her bones at a museum with a kookie slide. Oh wait, I skipped a page. So she found her bones and then she looked for her dream where she was princess. The end."

Viv: "When I hatched out of my egg, was I little?
Me: "What? Honey, remember we talked about how people-babies grow in their mommy's tummies until they are ready to be born."
Viv: "Oh. And *then* they hatch out of their eggs?"

Me: "Viv, Cinderella;s stepsisters are named Drizella and.... what is the name of the other one?"
Viv: "Latisha"

Viv: "How's the apples get mashed?" (applesauce)
Me: "It gets cooked and mashed in the kitchen at an applesauce factory."
Viv: "Who mashes up the milk?"
Me: "No one honey, milk comes from cows."
Viv: "It comes from a COW?! Does he mash it up, like, in his bum?!"

(As I arrived home):

Viv: "Hi mommy, can we play?"

Me: "What should we play?"

Viv: "Castle!"

Me: "Okay, I just need to change into some sweatpants or something first."

Viv: "How about something more princessy?"

Me: "What, like Lululemon?"

Viv: "is she a princess?"

Viv: "Why those boys have that doggie?"

Me: "Well, I think they own him honey."

Viv: "What's 'own' mean?"

Me: "You know how we have kitty cat? Well, that means they have doggie."

Viv: "AND we have a daddy!"

"What's a 'tough noogies'?"

Ahhh, I look forward to many more smile-worthy moments :)

KIddo Craft: Melted Crayon Madness With My Little Lady

Have I mentioned how much I love doing artsy-craftsy projects with my little lady? Well, I do. In fact, you could say I *luff* it even..We have an abundance of crayons (and were inspired by the Sofia the First episode 'A Royal Mess), so I decided today's craft would be the 'ol wax paper-and-crayon "stained glass. My husband claims to never have done this, and I'm kind of in awe. I thought it was a childhood rite of passage to have to iron leaves and crayon shavings between two pieces of wax paper! But, I digress...

You know I remember this being MUCH less messy to do as a kid... :)

Fighting Cabin Fever

Totally needed, especially after all the chilly weather and being stuck inside sick all week! So I decide that before anyone went  all Jack Nicholson, it would be good for all of us to get outside for some Vitamin D. Mike got called into work early (I am dreaming of Spring when his schedule won't be so brutal and he can spend more time at home!) so Viv and I bundled up and headed out.
What a stunning day! We are so fortunate to live where we do! Today's weather reminded me that winter in Vermont isn't really all that bad :)

Action shot!

About 40 seconds later she bowled me over, which resulted in snow.down.my.pants. Boy was she amused by that!

More snow down my pants, but oh well ;-)