Caroling at Park Club Nursing Home

We had a nice time singing a few carols for the seniors at the home.

Creative uses for holiday cards..

The hostess of this playdate had the great idea to re-use holiday cards and cut them out, arrange them like a stable / manager scene and add some fun decor.

Wonderful activity for fine motor skills.

I didn't get a picture of the final product,

but you can see Julian working on his above.

Open Ended Art - Christmas Stocking

I was in crunch mode yesterday studying for my final exam (ugh!) so their craft today was open ended art (Click here for an explanation of what open ended art is for kids).

Yesterday, I set out green & red paper, christmas scrapbooking paper, cotton balls, crayons, markers, paint dabbers, glue and scissors and I let their imagination take off.

I always like Open Ended Art because it takes them time to complete their project (thus giving me time to study).

Julian's stocking...so cute.

Candy Cane Lane

We went to a playdate called "Candy Cane Lane". It started off with the host reading a book called J is for Jesus (you can find it here on Amazon, I highly recommend it).

Then, the kids made a candy cane craft and had some cookies (candy cane of course).

Christmas Parade

We got our spots early and camped out like it was the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade. LOL

Cookie Cutter Kids

At this playdate, the kids had the opportunity to roll out cookie dough (and eat some too) and use Christmas-y cookie cutters.

Holiday Walkabout

The first activity in our Advent Calendar was to go to the Holiday Walkabout in Lakeland.

Holiday Walkabout is the official kick off to the Christmas season.

Julian standing in front of our house, which he is now calling candy land because of the candy canes.

Munn Park during Christmas

We couldn't leave the Holiday Walkabout without visiting the ponies and taking a ride.
We also rode this wagon pulled by two big beautiful horses.



Julian had a healthy fear of the grinch. LOL

O Christmas Tree

First off, let me apologize for the poor quality of pictures. I bought a really cheap camera on Black Friday and it produced cheap pictures! So I returned it and got a better one. (SORRY!)

Monday, the kids made a Christmas tree using our bingo dotters and then painted a star (cereal cardboard). We practiced singing "O Christmas Tree" to get ready for our Christmas caroling later this month at the nursing home.

The bingo dotters are perfect for Claire's hands to hold.

The finished product turned out very cute.

Advent - What is it?

I have never celebrated "advent" and this year, I decided that Julian is old enough to understand and really communicate to him why we are going to start celebrating Advent.

The meaning of Advent is a season of waiting and prepartion for the celebration of the nativity fo Jesus. To look beyond the commercial Christmas and find the true meaning of Christmas.

This year, I have lots of activities planned for Advent including ice skating, Holiday Walkabout, making Christmas cards together, baking cookies, giving a toy to charity, going to see the Christmas play at church, making Christmas playdoh, having lunch with Santa, caroling at the nursing home, Christmas party with PALS, make Jesus a Happy Birthday Card, etc.

My Advent Calendar looks like this:

There is one card for every day until Christmas. Attached to the back is a message with what to expect for the day. I can't wait to start.

Today we are heading to the Holiday Walkabout...I will post pics tonight.

Enjoy the season, give thanks for what we have beyond Thanksgiving and seek to help others all year long.

UPDATE on Thankful Tree

This is the progress our Thankful Tree has made so far.

Just in case you can't see the leaves, these are some of the things we are thankful for so far:

• Family
• Mom (Aww)
• Chanel (the dog)
• Food
• Light
• Internet
• Books
• Balloons (I give you one guess who that was)
• Step Stools (lol)
• Etc.

Update on the Bible Verse:
We are on the same one. They got the verse memorized and they love singing the verse song in the car. I catch them humming the tune of the song all the time! I love it.

This is our beauitful Thankful Tree.

Original Post about our Thankful Tree.

I got the wonderful idea of doing a Thankful tree from Brandy at Adventures of a Flake.

I remember she did one last year and I thought it was a great idea, so this year, we made our own. We used cardboard paper and I went to the library to cut out the leaves (using an old Ellison die cut machine!! LOL).

Everyday, every memeber of our home (including Aislinn on the days she is with us) will write something they are thankful for on a leaf and then we stick it to the wall. By the time Thanksgiving rolls around we will have a beautiful fall tree full of leaves.

I am also starting to incorporate bible lessons into my weekly lesson plans. Since we made our tree today, this weeks verse is:

Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good. Psalm 118:1

I taught the kids a little jingle with the verse in it so they can learn it and memorize it.

Every week, I will choose a new verse.

Deal of the Day!

Leap Frog Alphabet Pal will be available this weekend at Toys-R-Us for $10.49 during a special two-day sale on Friday and Saturday 11/11- 11/13/09.
Target will price match it according to their policy here. According to corporate, you can use a Target and/or manufacturer's coupon on a price matched item.
Use the Afullcup.com Target Coupon Generator to print a $10 off coupon here and then you need the Toys R Us ad to take to Target
Final Price: $.49!

Thanks to Clair for this tip.

Even if your child is too big for this or you already have one, maybe think Toys for Tots or adopting a needy child from an Angel Tree at your church.

Its been a slow week

I just wanted to update our week. We have done NOTHING in the way of learning. LOL. I took the week off. I needed to work on some major projects around the house. I am in the process of preparing my back bedroom. Not sure why, but I feel in my heart that God is preparing me for something and I want to be ready when the time is right. :)

I am starting to volunteer for an organization call Child of the King based out of Polk County. They are having a free thanksgiving dinner for homeless and needy persons on Sat. Nov 21st. If you can help in any way, please let me know. Thanks!

Cookie Monster

Today we celebrated Cookie Monster's Birthday. I put up left over birthday decorations and balloons and invited our PALS over. We read "Who stole the cookie from the cookie jar", made a construction paper cookie and decorated it and then decorated a real cookie.

This was Aislinn's sprinkled cookie. A little overboard with the sprinkles. LOL

And of course, they taste-tested the cookies.

Picnic at the Park

Today was a beautiful "fall" day in Florida so we had a picnic at the park.

Perfect gorgeous weather for it and we all really enjoyed it.

Lots of pics :)

This slide is really cool and it is small tubes so you slide down it really easily.

This round thing, goes round and round like a modern day merry-go-round.


This death trap, I mean, shape caterpillar is fun for the little ones, but injury producing contraption for bigger bodies (like mine).



I loved how A's is holding onto Julian for dear life!

This cute little bucket seat swivels round and round.

These kids aren't scared of anything!! Thats a pretty high ropes course.

This is kinda like a teeter totter but cooler, i guess. :)

All in all, we had a great day~