christmas countdown: Day 11, 12, &13

**we have been hit by the violent, vomit flu monster all weekend until today (thurs)

so that is why these posts are all together, we've still been doing activities,

just haven't had time/energy to post them. **

Christmas Countdown:

DAY 11:

make gingerbread houses at Grandma's house

it takes sheer dedication to cram as much candy as possible onto one lil' gingerbread house,

u go Piper...u go.

Belle did well,
 ate as she went but was slow and methodical in her candy placement.

Presley, "helped" everyone by sitting and eating the candy out of the bowls

stinkerface...

Lily made hers pretty perfect and aesthetically correct.

as it should be, ahem.

candy overload!

but they loooooove putting these things together

and the days of nibbling afterwards. figures. ;)

DAY 12:

Make Paper Snowflakes

Fold and cut and fold and cut

these are a few that they did but by the end of the night we had

like 500 bajillion. no joke.

hooray for simple paper & scissor crafts. :)

DAY 13:

Polar Express!

There is a railroad about an hour away from us, up in the mountains that does a 
“Polar Express” ride.

Kids wear jammies and ride the train to the North Pole where u pick up Santa!

On the way they serve you cookies and hot chocolate and sing Christmas carols.

Then Santa gets on board and goes to each child and asks what they want for Christmas and hands them a jingle bell, to "believe" just like the movie!

It’s really sweet and the girls had a lot of fun and were SO EXCITED to do this activity!

Definitely an activity to remember!!

I’d have more pictures but my phone doesn’t have a flash,

and it was dark in the train.

My mother-in-law took some pics so I’ll post those when I get those off her camera. 

i’ll post day 14, 15, & 16 tomorrow! 

christmas countdown: Day 10

Christmas Countdown

DAY 10:

church party & handprint christmas tree canvas

ok, so i forgot to put in the envelopes the church Christmas party.

so we did that this morning

and it was awesome!!

they totally made it magical this year

they had sit with Santa, cookie decorating station, craft station, make toys station, breakfast, a slide,

games, face painting, and all the kids wore their jammies!
the girls had such a fun time!

this is hilarious of Lily w/ Santa,

are they bowing their heads to pray for her parents cuz of all the $$ we'll be spending??

they best be prayin' hard.
(no she wasn't really praying with santa, it was just weird timing)

I love Piper,

she was just grinning ear to ear the entire time

she was probably imagining every single gift under the tree...

and Belle,

precious Belley...she was basically a statue the entire time.

didn't really speak.

pretty sure no eye contact was made.

and if her body language doesn't speak loud and clear,

u must not be listening, haha!!

oh, Miss Presley didn't even get on his lap. she started to walk over to him and then turned and bolted, never to return.

at least there was face painting! ;)

Lily got a Christmas tree

Piper got a yellow stocking

Belle got a star

and Presley did too 

(and a pink snowflake on the other side, babies, psssh always get what they want)

the young men in the church decorated some wagons

and pulled the little kids around and around like it was a holiday train

it was pretty cute actually.)

note to church peeps:

a linoleum slide

at that angle/degree of incline

makes for lightning fast slide experience and kids skidding into tables. 

mmhmmm.

  all in all they had a blast though!

i so hope they do it to this scale every year, cuz it was quite delightful!

Now onto the handprint Christmas Tree!

easy peasy!

paint their hands green

have them each do a row of handprints, starting with biggest, ending with smallest

and you got yourself a tree, pretty much!

ha!

it doesn't end up looking exactly like one

but it's cute.

i do recommend getting the bigger canvases

i think we kind of ran out of room with all our 500 kids prints to do. :)

make sure you put the YEAR on the bottom,

so you can remember how big/small they were.

alrighty friends, onto Day 11!

christmas countdown: Day 9

Christmas Countdown:

DAY 9

Felt Craft Ornament (Reindeer)

I got these felt ornament crafts at Michael's

and there were 3 in each package

so the girls got to choose which one they wanted to do.

Lily and Piper used the leftover ones to make an ornament for their teachers!

It comes all separated and cut, with embellishments & everything

so it's really just up to the child to put it together how they want to!

Lily and Piper did the Reindeer

Belle and Presley did the Christmas Trees!

somebody decided they were going to be Scrooge-ish

and threw a fit when i wanted to capture the gloriousness of their art.

good thing the tree came out in focus, the rest is best left blurry...

simple, fun, easy, creative, and can put on the tree after.

waz not to love?

**fyi--the girls ask me a couple x a day if we can do this every year

i think this is a winning tradition. ;)**

onto Day 10!

christmas countdown: Day 7 & 8

oopsie, missed posting a day

yesterday was craziness and today i had an MRI. wtc?

i know, stupid headaches, maybe it's my eyes.

let's just keep narrowing it down, shall we?

moving on...

Christmas Countdown:

Day 7 & 8

Tissue Paper Wreaths and Red Velvet Cake Balls

(the papers were thrown away before i could take pic, 

and we were doing so well! haha)

Tissue paper wreaths are beyond easy.

you buy the CHEAP, ridged edge paper plates.

cut the middle out.

cut tissue paper into little squares or rectangles.

squish/crunch the tissue square.

glue on.

voila'

Christmas tissue wreath.

we used glue sticks AND regular glue, 

they both worked excellente'.

u know waz fun about being the parent? 

you can make kids do dumb, cheesy stuff...just cuz you say so!

it's wonderful!

i can't wait for the day the girls say, "mom, omg, why did u have us put our faces in the middle of the wreath, that's like sooo lame!"

and i can say, "well, back then ur face was cute." 

whaaaaa??? u heard me. 

hahahaha.

if you want balls in your mouth this Christmas season, 

then these are it!

wait.

huh?

yes, red velvet cake balls!

you can find the recipe HERE

we decided to do white chocolate version, instead of milk chocolate so it could be more holiday-ish colors.

but oh my yumminess!!

Roll, Bam!

Dip, Bam!

Freakin' stuff ur face, BAM!

it was deeeeeelish.

alrighty, 

let's hope tomorrow we're more on the ball!

*pun intended* ;p

onto Day 9!

christmas countdown: Day 6

Christmas Countdown

Day 6 :

Today was write letters to Santa!!

i told them they could write down everything they wanted so Santa could choose a FEW from that list and they would be happy with whatever they got.

Santa doesn't need to give them EVERYTHING they want, do we?..he..does HE? ahem.

i like how Piper started hers out,

just making sure Santa knew it was really her, i mean..like duh.

(and this was the beginning, she wrote down many more)

so many things to think of...

Lily's list was the longest by the way, 

it's always the quiet ones.

i'm pretty sure Santa is well versed in hieroglyphics jibberish..right?

i hope she puts clothes on that list, lil' naked jungle baby...geez. ;p

and in case you thought all kids write only commercialized toys on their list,

this is what 3yr old Belle said at the very end of hers.

let's all collectively sigh, "awwwww"

now let's kiss her face off. ;)

These will be sent immediately to the North Pole so that

Santa knows waz up!!

Onto Day 7!

christmas countdown: Day 5

Christmas Countdown

Day 5:

i finished their tutus.

and we took pics.

i borrowed my MIL's camera.

after they got out of their clothes, i uploaded them and everything

i realized i had it on the wrong setting, so they wouldn't enlarge...sigh.

so i had them all get dressed again

and retook the photos.

this day has been long,

i've had a migraine

but it's finished!!

WOOHOO!!

here is a sneak peek:

I'll show more this weekend once i know people have received their cards. :)

onto Day 6, yes please! ;p

christmas countdown: Day 4

Christmas Countdown:

Day 4

Print Christmas Pictures and Get a Pin and Poke Holes Around the Picture
aka
poke hole art

this activity was suggested by Lily, who did this a few years ago in school.

Basically, a coloring page

(we printed ours off the internet)

lay it over construction paper

then you poke holes, tracing the whole picture with tiny hole punches.

it's fun to take out your frustrations whilst poking,

like imagining it's the irritating cashier's face who takes one look at you and all your girls and says,

"wow, u reallllllly have your hands full"

it's perfectly acceptable to pretend it's a voodoo doll.

i mean, be sure to have visions of sugar plums dancing in your head...

they poked away and then colored the pics afterwards,

when u hold the poked construction paper up to the light...

it's "SO COOL"

Lily:

Piper:

Belle:

Presley was in bed,

i figured it would be safer...for all of us.

so i did her santa for her.

this was a unique little activity, but the kids got a real kick out of it.

and it's great therapy,

if you're in need of that type of thing.

;)

onto Day 5!