December 1st is the day that we traditionally begin to celebrate the red & green season of Christmas. Here are a few things we did today:
The kids started opening their Advent calendars. This year, JediBoy has the hard-to-find Lego Castle Advent Calendar, which started with a smirking knight, and BabyGirl has a wooden open-the-door variety with a Hershey kiss in each cubby.
This weekend, I wrapped 24 picture books about Christmas from our collection, and the kids will open one each day. It’s a $2.99 roll of wrapping paper that makes the holiday books seem exciting and new!
This morning, since today is also Jan Brett’s birthday, the holiday book was the fantastic Jan Brett’s Christmas Treasury. We adore this collection of seven great picture books, including The Mitten, The Wild Christmas Reindeer, The Trouble with Trolls, The Christmas Trolls, The Hat, The Twelve Days of Christmas and […]
Original post by piseco
* * * * * * * 10 Ways to Make Today Special… Holiday Style * * * * * *
1. Decorate a tree for the birds using strands of popcorn, pine cone bird feeder ornaments (roll in peanut butter or sunbutter and then bird seeds), edible seed pods from the garden, etc.
2. Make cinnamon applesauce ornaments for a scent that will fill up the house (about one part applesauce to two parts cinnamon, leave to dry overnight or bake in a slow oven). Shape into dreidels, stars, letters, trees, you name it. Hang in windows and scatter throughout the house for a lovely scented decoration. Paint with clear nail polish or shellac to make more permanent (though I’m not sure if you’ll keep the scent).
3. Put jingle bells everywhere! Sew them onto the kids’ socks, hang them on doorknobs, even put a couple on the pets […]
Original post by Alicia
Thanksgiving was fun, but I think today was better. DH had the day off work, and we decided to spend it together as a family going out and doing things the kids would like. We had lunch together at a 50’s theme, but local and independent, diner, eating greasy burgers to the sounds of Elvis and Johnny Cash.
Then we visited a “Christmas Tree Forest”:
And then we all went to our local Children’s Museum and played for a couple hours:
And then we came home and watched Wall E, made a simple dinner out of leftovers, and enjoyed an evening of legos and working on some craft projects I need to get done before Christmas. Since we don’t see much of DH now that he has his new work schedule, this was a very special day to get this much of his time.
Original post by learningumbrella
We’ve had a lot of fun..and some learning around here! Be prepared for picture overload..again!
Declan and Ziah have been working on Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel and doing a lapbook from HOAC that goes with it.
Even though Noah is no longer homeschooled a good amount of his work comes home with him ( I didn’t miss this for certain):
We decided to melt down some old broken crayons last week:
Brock and Caleb came over to play and they did some big ole muffin tin ones. Here’s Brock and Taejan arranging the crayon bits:
Coloring fun:
Ziah helped Daddy fix the leaking shower…well it’s almost fixed..turns out we need a whole new shower/tub unit..Bath Fitter is coming next week!
Isn’t that hole in my wall pretty? Hey at least I get to repaint and redecorate!
Fun Boxes for the week!
While Daddy was working on the plumbing ,Taejan and I put together a new bookcase:
We got […]
Original post by justakrazymom
It’s another cozy day at home for us today, which I really enjoy. Here’s some thoughts I had for ways to fill it. Feel free to join in!
1. Silly similes. Teach the kids what similes are (sim-i-lees– comparison words that use “as” or “like,” as opposed to metaphors which say something is something like “all the world is a stage” or “a sea of faces”). Brainstorm together and list a bunch of predictible ones that everybody knows (black as night, quiet as a mouse…). When you have a nice list, have each child make up a new simile for each phrase. Try to be silly and creative, but still accurate. Then share your lists.
2. Make winter collages and cards from old magazines. We’ve been doing this to make our holiday cards this week and it’s lots of fun. I ripped […]
Original post by Alicia
I’ve been rather lackadaisical in posting lately, huh? :) We’ve been busy with little things– company on Saturday (and the return of the kids’ computer), ice skating and shopping yesterday, library books, Netflix movies, art projects and general life.
I didn’t even post an Unplug Your Kids project this week, even though we did a thankful project (watercolor leaves with thanks on them for hanging). It seemed rather predictable anyway! Doesn’t everybody do that project several dozen times over the course of motherhood?
It has been dreadfully cold but snowless, leaving us in a sort of winter limbo. It’s too cold to want to go outside but it doesn’t look at all like winter. I am not a fan of snow, but if it has to be this chilly I wish it would just dump a few feet on us so at least the kids could play and it would […]
Original post by Alicia
About the book:
It’s back! The Story of Christmas, the innovative Advent calendar, story book set, and tree-trimming keepsake.
Wonderfully illustrated and brimming with holiday spirit, the calendar features 24 jewel-like miniature board books nestled in a three-paneled, stand-alone backer. The books are numbered 1 through 24, and, like the peek-a-boo windows on an Advent calendar, are meant to be opened one per day from December 1st through Christmas Eve. Read in sequence, they capture the magic of the first Christmas, from Gabrie’’s visit to Mary (Book 4) to the Three Wise Men gazing at the star (Book 9) to Jesus’ birth (Book 24). Each book is one of four different trim sizes and features a gold thread loop so that after it’s read, it can be hung on the Christmas tree.
About Mary Packard:
Mary Packard is a freelance writer who also wrote The Nutcracker Story Book Set & Advent Calendar.
About Carolyn Croll:
Carolyn […]
Original post by carrie
I ordered a gift from Amazon last week and when I unpacked it I found this massive length of brown paper inside as packaging. What fun! We turned it into a canvas and the kids happily drew all over it for hours. You gotta love packaging that’s environmentally friendly AND is fun to draw on.
Notice what it says by the tiger striped bells?
Original post by Alicia
Hello, Mr. Murphy, and welcome.
Just as we had regained our emotional balance and returned to “normal” around here, we were hit with a stomach bug. BabyGirl, JediBoy and PisecoDad were all up sick from 2:15 am last night, sometimes in shifts and sometimes in tandem. Naturally, the Mom was up the whole time through, cleaning up, holding heads & fretting. Lots of laundry today.
Fortunately, they all seem to be improving already, though certainly worn down and still needing to rest. The boys are playing through a favorite video game a second time, trying to unlock secrets and hidden treasures. BabyGirl is unusually sedate, mostly just sitting with the boys and watching the screen.
That gives me, finally, a time to sit and catch my breath. Tonight I’m looking ahead, in a general way, to the next month and a half - Thanksgiving week and then […]
Original post by piseco
Why have a simpler Christmas? From The Hundred Dollar Holiday by Bill McKibben:
Since we live with relative abandon year-round, it’s no wonder that the abandon of Christmas doesn’t exite us as much as it did a medieval serf. We are - in nearly every sense of the word - stuffed. Saturated. Trying to cram in a little more on December 25 seems kind of pointless.
We’re encouraged to make Christmas about us - or, more accurately, encouraged to make Christmas about our children. We are encouraged to buy them stuff. But if we make that the center of the holiday, we help school them in the notion that transcendant joy comes from things.
We are, in fact, stuffed. If I could have one perfect gift for Christmas, it would be a clean, simple house. Buying my kids more toys is directly counter to that dream. I am actively sorting and dumping more […]
Original post by learningumbrella
1. Natalie and I went to see High School Musical 3: Senior Year Saturday night - and loved it!
2. The Seahawks’ season is a constant source of depression. You may wonder why I keep watching every game. I’m nothing if not loyal.
3. I can’t believe it’s time to start working on the Christmas program for church already! I’m singing in the choir at our new church, and we’re doing some fun music - Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir style.
4. I’m very. very. angry at NBC for cancelling My Own Worst Enemy.
5. Life is one of the best shows on television right now. Are you watching it?
6. A woman came to look at our house today. First person interested in months. She seemed very interested, but we’ll see. If she is, we have no idea where we would move to - right now there aren’t any 4-bedroom houses available in our […]
Original post by carrie
Does anybody have plans yet for neat holiday gifts for their kiddos? Daryl and I talked about it today and brainstormed some things we want to get for our kids. Some ideas– a marble run, bristle blocks, a tea party set, art supplies, earring trees, magazine subscriptions and art supplies.
We really want to go for quality over quantity.
Not just clutter. Not just stuff. And within a pretty small budget, too, of course.
I may make up coupon books for each child, good for things like a movie date with mom and one-on-one craft time and getting out of chores for the day.
I was also thinking of making up a photo album for each of them. I think they’d really like a special book of favorite memories.
And chocolates. Daryl sometimes brings me fancy chocolates that he has to drive to the florist in Mt. Lake to get. The kids are always jealous. […]
Original post by Alicia
My dad is a veteran. He served two tours in a war that many in the government still consider a “police action.” He went to fight for a country that he loves. He came home to a country divided. He was called a “babykiller” when he went out in uniform.
When my parents graduated from high school in 1966, our military was already fighting in Vietnam. The young men leaving high school were told that the United States was helping to stop the spread of communism in the world. They were protecting our freedoms. They were not told that they would be expected to fight the war with the figurative arm tied behind their back. They weren’t told that the Viet Cong used young children, women, and old men to do their fighting, or that you would never be sure who the enemy was.
In order to avoid being drafted into […]
Original post by carrie
~Well, today is my mom’s birthday. Happy Birthday, mom! I am going my Grandma and Papa’s house for the weekend and the boys have a slumber-party birthday for a friend. So I am excited!
~I am going to get my own cell-phone (you probably already know that) I am not going to get it until probably after Christmas because my parents might do something special
~Awana has been going good. I am on my second book. The verses are getting a lot longer. Like 2 paragraphs! I can do it though. I am working really hard to finish my second book by the end of the year so I can go ahead and get my third book. I made a calender!
~ Also 13 more days until Twilight comes to theature! I am so excited!!! I marked the calender!
~ Nothing much is going on this week. I think you already know […]
Original post by natalie
…so have you, you, you. You came too, too, too. You’ve been to the zoo, zoo, zoo.
At least you can imagine you were there!
Today was BabyGirl’s second birthday, and we celebrated by meeting friends at a zoo between our homes - about an hour’s drive for each of us.
We did the entire zoo twice, had lunch, watched all kinds of animals, ran and played and wore ourselves out. We were at the zoo for almost 6 hours. It was a great treat, and the kids loved seeing all the “elimals” (it sounds like a cross between Elmo and animal). Especially the monkeys, the “elimunts” (you can figure that one out!) and the penguins. Oh, the penguins.
JediBoy was the first to figure out, by accident, that if he walked along the glass holding a graham cracker, one particular penguin would follow him, trying to get […]
Original post by piseco
…and now we’re waiting on the edges of our seats.
JediBoy was thrilled to help me vote and high-fived me after I made my official selection for president. BabyGirl just liked being inside the curtain and playing in the main part of the library afterwards.
We watched this:
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flashObject.write(”fo_targ_FaPlIcQw_dg1897292532″);
and several others on our Schoolhouse Rock dvd, and the free Brain Pop movie here.
We read some books: So You Want to be President?, Grace for President, Duck for President and Barack Obama: Son of Promise, Child of Hope. (We found Duck for President in our cereal box this morning. Love that!)
Now I’m finding it hard to sit still. Hey, I really thought Gore was going to win when I went to sleep in November 2000. I don’t think I can sleep tonight until all the results are in. Are you waiting too?
Original post by piseco
Here’s my stack of picture books for celebrating this month of Thanksgiving.
Over the River and Through the Wood by Lydia Maria Child. A classic poem about heading to grandma’s house for Thanksgiving, written by the same Unitarian who wrote the lyrics for the Battle Hymn of the Republic. There are lots of versions out there with illustrations by different artists.
Merrily Comes Our Harvest In: Poems for Thanksgiving selected by Lee Bennet Hopkins, illustrations by Ben Shecter. This book is out of print, which is a shame. These are some amusing little poems.
The Thanksgiving Door by Debby Atwell is a favorite story of mine. An elderly couple burn their dinner and head down to a new restaurant on Thanksgiving - not realizing the restaurant wasn’t open. A very sweet story of hospitality.
Nickommoh! A Thanksgiving Celebration by Jackie French Koller, illustrated by Marcia Sewall
Giving Thanks! A Native American Good Morning Message by […]
Original post by learningumbrella
Let’s get this straight: my post this morning was a belated post about Halloween, written two days after the fact about events that happened on time. This post that you’re reading right now, scratching your head and heaving a sigh because I won’t get to the point, this post here is about belated carving, written on time about events that happened two days after the fact. Is that clear? Okay, then, read on.
JediBoy had his pumpkin last week but wanted to carve it on Halloween. When Halloween arrived, he decided he wanted to carve it with Pappy. When Pappy arrived on Halloween, JediBoy decided he’d rather play Legos after all.
When Pappy came back to our house this morning, JediBoy asked if he was ready to carve a pumpkin! Pappy was surprised but game. Pappy cut the top and I helped scoop out the […]
Original post by piseco
With all the excitement of Halloween and BabyGirl’s birthday party, I’m late uploading my Halloween photos. Here are a few glimpses of our Halloween.
The kids were wildly excited all day, from the moment they got up and opened their presents from The Great Pumpkin til they collapsed, exhausted, into bed that night.
They couldn’t wait for the dressing-up part to begin, so they tried out two other sets of costumes. In the morning, they were a vet and his poodle patient:
In the afternoon, they were a farmer and his pumpkin. JediBoy acted out the whole story of the farmer growing his pumpkin, harvesting it, and carving it into a jack o’lantern - several times!
The excitement really kicked in when Pappy and Nita arrived in the afternoon, bringing with them books and candy.
At dinnertime, we made our way over to Leigh’s house to meet up with friends and family […]
Original post by piseco
We’ve had a busy week! The kids and I did lots of little things all week to celebrate Halloween, which meant we weren’t following our typical routine and so I wasn’t on the computer much to blog for all my adoring fans. I do apologize!
Today’s fun, besides JediBoy’s basketball game in the morning, was the wild and wacky 2nd birthday party for BabyGirl. (Her actual birthday is next Thursday.) We rented a party room at the local children’s museum for an hour, and then stayed to play for two more hours on the museum floor. We had so much fun dancing to a cd of BabyGirl’s favorite songs and eating snacks and ice-cream-cone-cupcakes in the party room and then trying out all the fun displays in the center. The ride-on bikes, ice cream cone stand, water tables, tunnels and ramps were the biggest […]
Original post by piseco
So, it’s a holiday today. And I told my son, “sure, we can have a halloween party and invite your friends”. And I told the kids “sure, you can be Darth Vader and Princess Leia and I’ll put together those costumes”. And I told a friend “sure, I can watch your daughter, no problem”. And then Hypatia freaked out when I put the Princess Leia costume on her, so I said “sure we can make a last minute switch and you can be a witch”.
So I’m putting together a last minute costume, cleaning the house, cooking all this “freaky food”, decorating, watching the kids +1, and trying to create some party games. But, sure, it’s no problem.
But then my MIL called to ask if we could take the kids to trick-or-treat at the home of an elderly neighbor from the neighborhood where my husband grew up. That’s a sweet idea, […]
Original post by learningumbrella
The trickiest part of Halloween for me has always been the candy.
We always end up with so much candy and much of it is cheap JUNK that isn’t even tasty (several hundred 10 year-old cherry tootsie rolls anyone?). I don’t want to be a grinch about it but I also hate the idea of my dear children filling up on red dye #40, wax and high fructose corn syrup every night until May. And since after Halloween night I limit how much they can eat at once, it could last that long!
And that Halloween fairy business? Don’t even ask my kids.
So I love this idea from Mom’s Marbles…
The kids can eat as much candy as they want on Halloween night. After that, it’s a one-treat-per-meal rule. Sure, for a few days they’ll be having candy bars after breakfast, but after that they tend to forget to ask, and […]
Original post by Alicia
We went to the Halloween party sponsored by the Betsy and Tacy Society yesterday. Here’s some pics!
Singing songs and listening to stories…
Here’s the lyrics. The songs are really cute!
Mug shots with Mr. Pumpkin…
Coloring, playing pin the nose on the pumpkin and so on…
Anna’s superpower is making friends in under 3 minutes flat.
It was a beautiful day and a great time.
Original post by Alicia
JediBoy woke during the night last night, long enough to listen to all of Jim Weiss’s King Arthur and Patrick Stewart’s Peter and the Wolf, so once he got back to sleep today he slept until a few minutes after ten. That scooted all our meals off by a bit, so instead of our muffin tin as mid-morning snack, we’ve just finished it mid-afternoon. This week’s Muffin Tin Monday theme is Halloween, and I’m definitely going to use several of the great Halloween food ideas I’ve seen in other tins.
We decided to make a witch for our muffin tin:
The witch’s hair is spaghetti dyed green (I thought I had spinach pasta, but we were out), her eyes are carrot chunks with cream cheese and olive slices, her nose is a chunk of green pepper, her mouth is an apple slice with a section cut out and sliced almonds […]
Original post by piseco
Last night I wanted to set up a fun, easy craft for the “big” kids so I had them make ghosties. It cost next to nothing, required 30 seconds of instruction on my part, helped decorate my house for Halloween and occupied them for nearly an hour.
You need:
White napkins, toilet paper, yarn, markers, scissors
Instructions:
1. Unfold the napkin and lay it flat.
2. Tear off about 3 squares of toilet paper and loosely crumple it in a ball. Put the ball in the middle of the open napkin.
3. Cut off a length of yarn at least 12 inches (or longer, depending on where you want to hang them).
4. Gather the napkin around the TP ball to form the ghostie’s head. Tie with the yarn, leaving one end short and the other long for hanging.
5. Use markers to give your ghosties faces.
6. Hang! Or conversely, drag them around by their “leashes” and make […]
Original post by Alicia
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