Mix-it-Up Monday: Advent Calendar

The countdown to Christmas has started at our house. (Of course the kids have been counting down since before Halloween...)

In order to quell some of the incessant questions about how many more days are left, I decided we'd try our hands at an advent calendar. In all the ideas I looked at, this one seemed the most suited to the age and skill levels of my kids (let's be honest, we're really talking about MY skill level, aren't we?).

I started with some left over cardboard boxes we had in the garage, cut the longer sides off, and measured to get 6 rows of 4 columns that were roughly equal. Then poked a hole at the intersection of each set of lines and covered the whole thing with paper. (We used tissue paper, but only because I couldn't find the wrapping paper.)

Then we poked holes in the bottom of Dixie cups, put a brad through them, then through the hole in the cardboard and fastened them in the back.


I had the girls put candy in each cup (leftover Halloween candy we're getting rid of, yay!) making sure that each one fit below the lip of the cup.

Then we cut out small squares of tissue paper, wrote numbers on them (couldn't find my number stamps...) and secured them to the lip of the cups by rubbing glue stick all around the rim.


We got to poke open the number 1 tonight after dinner. The girls loved it!

All in all, it was pretty simple and inexpensive to put together, and wouldn't have taken much time if I had been able to find all my supplies that are currently buried in boxes somewhere.

Now I at least have something to point to when they ask me how many more days are left!

Mix-it-Up Monday: Bead Bracelets

We did this project on Saturday and the girls had lots of fun with it. (Mom and Dad not so much, but that mostly had to do with the number of times we picked tiny beads up off the floor.)

I purchased some inexpensive beads (a different bag for each child - no fighting!) and stretchy string, all for under $5. We put each bag of beads in a small bowl, tied a bead at the bottom of a length of string for each of them and let them go to it.

(I'm sharing pictures only if you agree not to judge me for the fact that they still have their pajamas on and it was like...3 in the afternoon when we did this.)

Lyssa showing off her final product.

It was easy, cheap and entertaining.

Liam suggested push-ups for next week's activity. We're still in negotiations...

In which I realize how fast two weeks passes...

Has it really been two weeks since I posted last? That sure went by fast. I have been absorbed with snuggling sick and/or cranky babies. Try as I might, I just couldn’t pull myself away from them. (Okay, I didn’t try that hard because seriously which is better: sitting at a computer or kissing their chubby little cheeks?)

But now they are feeling better and don’t need mom’s attention quite so much, I can give a run down on what we’ve been up to.

• Voting: What a wonderful opportunity to participate in an historic election! I was lucky enough to get to the polls when there were absolutely no lines. (I tend to take my time voting so it was really nice not to have someone oozing impatience breathing down my neck this time.) I must say that overall I’m impressed with the general public and their interest in the races. I think more people actually took the time to educate themselves, not only on the presidential candidates, but the candidates for their local offices as well. Although my candidate didn’t win, I am always grateful that we have a chance to cast our vote. (And I am grateful that we can hear about something besides politics in the news now. Two years is an AWFUL long campaign season.)

• Anniversary: Matt and I celebrated our EIGHTH anniversary. (Although my dad keeps asking me if I’m sure it’s really eight years and not five. When I remind him that I have a five year old and I had her AFTER I had been married for a while, he just shakes his head like he thinks I’m crazy.) We went out of town for a night while my parents took the kids. I forgot what sweet BLISS it is to be able to sleep in as late as I want to, and what wonders a full night of rest can do for the dark circles under my eyes. We didn’t get to do the things we had planned because of the inclement weather, but it turned out better because of it. Matt surprised me with a trip to the jewelry store to pick out a new ring. We couldn’t find exactly what he had in mind, but found these that have some sentimental significance.
  
  
  We had a nice lazy, relaxing time. It was honestly probably one of the best anniversaries we’ve had. I love him more everyday.

• November Family FHE: Every month my entire family gets together for a big family home evening. This month it was collecting the walnuts under a neighbors’ tree and cleaning them up. It was fun to get to see everyone, as always. We were able to put mom and dad’s new back porch to good use as a walnut cleaning station and cafeteria for the soup and hot chocolate. Dad and Liam took a little nap together on the couch. I wish I had had my camera there to snap a shot. They looked so cute together with their little bald noggins poking out of the blanket they were snuggled in. I love seeing the two of them together.

• Speaking of Cameras…a long time ago I coveted a camera that was just coming out on the market. I mean REALLY REALLY coveted. My sweet hubby suggested that I use it as a motivational tool to help me reach some goals I was in the process of setting. (I must apologize to him for my original hostility toward the idea. Sometimes that psychology degree of his gets really annoying when he’s right.) So guess what…I reached my initial goal and now I’m the proud owner of THIS baby. I took it out for a spin during my lunch hour at work one day and had a lot of fun trying out all the features. Here are a couple of the results:
  
  
  
  
  
  I’m still trying to figure it all out, but I’m hoping the quality of our family photos will improve (as well as the quantity) once I learn how to use it.

• Mix it up Monday: We made our tent:
  
  
  We turned off the lights and gave them flashlights to keep them entertained for a couple hours. Somehow every toy and activity seemed more intriguing to them if it was performed under the cover of a blanket tent. I think we’ll be doing this more often. I’ll also resume doing the mix-it-ups next week. We have a few projects in mind to try out.

• This week has found us shuttling McKenna to various birthday parties and trying to comfort Alyssa when she had the misfortune of having to stay home with mom. It has been good for McKenna to have some time with her friends. It's just hard for the little one left behind. While McKenna was gone last night she kept erupting in tears while saying, "I miss McKenna!" (Basically the same routine we go through every night except substitute 'Daddy' instead of 'McKenna'.) Funny how she doesn't seem to like her quite so much when she's home.

That's pretty much it for the most part. I'll spare you the details on the newest sickness that has plagued our house. I'm just hoping someday we will be able to go disease free for at least a couple of weeks in a row. We're all going stir crazy locked up in here!

Mix-it-Up Monday: Blanket Tent

The kids had lots of fun with the pumpkins this week. I didn't actually get pictures of us carving them though. OOPS. But that aside, our approach this year was a little more successful than years past.

The girls actually dove in and helped clean out their own pumpkins this year, something they have refused vehemently in years past. I don't know what magically changed about it this year, but hey, I'll take it.

The other thing we did differently was having them draw what they wanted their pumpkins to look like on a piece of paper for us before we drew the face on the pumpkin itself. Everyone was happier with the results (the Girls because their pumpkins were closer to what they actually wanted and Mom and Dad because there was less whining and crying).

All in all, really fun.

The only sad part was that we didn't get to eat Matt's amazing pumpkin seeds this year. They got a little more toasty than we had planned...like BLACK toasty.

So...the plans for this week. We're going to make a big tent out of all the blankets and chairs we can find. (And I'm not going to make a fuss about it or get after them to clean it up.) I've shown the kids how to do this a couple times in the past, but it didn't work out the best with the kitchen stools and the small blankets. This time we're breaking out all the blankets in the linen closet and going to town. And if they can handle it, I just might let them sleep there.

Mix-it-Up Monday: Carving Pumpkins

I'm going to have to post a report later on all the happenings of the party and the weekend...they were many and I don't have time to write them all up at the moment. I'm still recovering...

I do have to say one thing about it now though and that is a big ol' THANK YOU to my sister-in-law Tanya. I could not have survived everything without her and her generous help in innumerable ways. She helped me clean, take care of kids, decorate (actually, she did that one single handedly), take pictures, organize and contain party goers, take the kids out for a fun day, and many other things that let me survive the crazy weekend we had. (The woman actually gave me flowers too after everything else she did to help me...how amazing is she? PRETTY DARN AMAZING.)

For now...there will be a lot of activities this week, seeing as how it is both birthday week and Halloween. But our activity of choice for the Mix-it-Up is going to be carving pumpkins since it's not obligatory, but will add to the festivities of both occasions.

I'll get updates on last week's "project" as well as our busy and fun weekend posted later.

Mix-it-Up Monday: Birthday Party

I am the kind of person that composes all these FABULOUS blog posts in my head...and then promptly forgets them as soon as I sit down to the computer.

So BELIEVE ME, I had a bunch of amazing and witty things ready to write. They were all phrased perfectly and would have rocked your socks. Except that I couldn't get them out of my head and into the computer before they disappeared. (Once your kids grow up, do you get your brain back?)

Just use your imagination and I'm sure this will turn out great...

Last week we painted planets...here's what it looked like:

Getting Started

Works in Progress

This is what Liam did while we painted

Mostly done

They are now in the garage with some layers of clear coat added. Once they all dry, I'll put up another picture of them in their final resting place - on the girls' bedroom ceiling.

What we learned:

• This should be common sense, but cover EVERYTHING. Especially if you have a younger child participating. McKenna did okay, but Alyssa got paint on the kitchen chair. RED paint. Thankfully Matt got paint that came off fairly easily.
• We got wooden balls instead of Styrofoam. If you do this, drill a hole in them before trying to screw in the little eye-hooks. The wood is too hard for eye-hooks this small and the tips just end up twisting off.
• Have something that can hold the ball while you paint and while the paint dries. Matt used to paint miniature statues, so he had a lot of do-dads that helped with this. The larger balls had a small flat spot on top, so if you weren't able to find anything you could set them on this for most of the painting.
• Glow in the Dark paint makes them even more fun. After the kids finished painting the main part of the planets, we went back and touched them all up with glow in the dark paint. It will make them a little more entertaining, especially since they will be hanging from the ceiling in their room.

This has a been a really fun way to teach the kids more about the solar system. It has helped them to recognize each planet by the color and size and to know their proper order.
Thanks to my awesome hubby for coming up with such a great idea.

This week's activity: a BIRTHDAY PARTY. (Have I mentioned how much I hate parties?) This is a big deal for us, we've never really done one before and we actually have cousins coming this time. We have a lot to get ready, so I'm going to have the kids help me out with all the little things we need to do. Hopefully after helping pitch in with the work, they'll appreciate the party a little more!

Mix-it-Up Monday: Planets

This is how the week 'o sidewalk chalk went:

We spent nearly every afternoon outside drawing away. It was awesome - and it was a good low key sort of option for a week where all of us have been feeling a little crappy.

Not really a whole lot to report here. Basically just give the kids the bucket of chalk and let them go to town.

Unfortunately, all the drawings got washed away by the SNOW that feel Saturday night and most of yesterday. (I'm SO not ready for Snow. Let me enjoy FALL first please!)

For the activity this week, we are going to paint planets. The plan is to get small Styrofoam or wooden balls, some inexpensive paints and brushes, and some little hooks so we can hang them from the ceiling in their room. (My kids are kind of obsessed with planets and whatnot, so Matt came up with the idea.) This one should be something they will really enjoy, even if it's a lot of work for mom and dad!

Mix-it-Up Monday: Sidewalk Chalk

Is it possible for snot to find it's way up into your skull? Because seriously...that's the only logical explanation for how stuffed up my head has been for the last few days. Ugh. So please excuse me for being absent. I've actually had stuff to write about, but I haven't been able to form a coherent thought due to the abundance of SNOT.

We finished our Clean-up Cards from last week and they WORK LIKE A CHARM. Here is what we did:

• The girls and I sat down together and decided what we needed to have cards for. We picked toy "groups" (i.e. Books, Balls, Ponies, Stuffed Animals, etc.), but you could do it by color, shape, anything that would help your munchkins and be fitting for their ages. (I could even see doing multiple versions of the cards by the different categorizations, just to keep things interesting.)
• I drew pictures of some representative items on one side of the index card (I SUCK at drawing so don't judge!) and wrote the toy group on the other side. (I thought about finding some coloring book type pictures on the internet for this part, but our printer is attached to the computer that doesn't have the internet. This was easier.)
• McKenna and Alyssa colored all the pictures I drew and as they colored we talked about what they would need to pick up for each card they colored.

Some of the finished cards

After that, I explained one more time (for the benefit of the three year old, mostly) and turned them loose. Guess what? IT WORKED! No crying and complaining. No, "I'm too tired to clean up" or "MOM, can you come clean this up". It was AWESOME. I highly recommend this activity - it's the gift that keeps on giving! Thanks Suburbiamom!

This week: SIDEWALK CHALK. I am going to let the kids thoroughly COVER the driveway and sidewalk. They love to draw and we all need to get out and enjoy the fresh (FALL!) air.

Mix-it-up Monday: Clean up Cards

I have been reminded again this week of how incredibly uncooperative kids can be sometimes. Remember how I talked about putting together a poster this week as our activity we were going to try? Um...yeah. This is how far we got:

Please note that the drawings haven't been glued to the posters yet. *sigh*

So while we (or at least I) tried really hard to get the posters finished, it just didn't happen last week. We're going to keep working at it this week though. Hopefully we'll have finished products to show in a day or two. A couple of pointers if you decide to do something like this:

• Give them something specific to draw. When we first started out, I told them to draw pictures of some of their favorite things. I got whole sheets of paper back with tiny little drawings on them. In the end I gave them half sheets of paper and told them to fill it up with a specific favorite thing (favorite color, food, animal, toy, etc.). It worked a LOT better.
  
• For smaller kids with short attention spans, do one drawing and then come back to do another one later. I just could not keep Alyssa focused on drawing for any length of time (even though she will sit and do that by herself ALL DAY long). Plus, I wanted it to be fun so I wasn't going to tie her to her chair and force her to sit there until they were all finished (even if I wanted to at times...)
  
• Keep the magazine pictures to a minimum if you choose to use them. I really wanted the girls to be able to draw out their own items rather than just look them up in the books. For some things, we will come back to the magazines, but I feel like they are getting more out of the activity if they actually get to draw the items themselves. Plus, it's difficult to find all the right items in the magazines, depending on your supply.

It really has been a fun activity though. It's a good way to get to know your kids' likes and dislikes, even if you think you already know. I was surprised with a few of the things they picked, and a few of the things they didn't pick.

Although we didn't finish...at least we didn't completely tank. With Saturday's trip to the Zoo, we still managed to fit in an activity that we haven't done for a while.

This week's activity: Making the clean up cards described on my friend SuburbiaMom's blog, HERE (scroll down to: #2 Toy Card Game). I'm looking for anything to get the kids excited about cleaning up. Hopefully this will do it!

Did you try something new this week? If you did, let us know what it was and how it turned out!

Mix-it-Up Monday

Matt made some bread with the kids while I was at Church yesterday. (Really...can they PLEASE get over all these illnesses already?) It was so nice to come home to the smell of nice warm bread and the girls loved being able to do something new and show off their handiwork. It kind of solidified an idea I've had bouncing around in my brain for a little while.

A little while ago I brought up how extremely boring I am as a mom. As we have been trying harder to plan more activities and projects for the kids, I have noticed how much we are all enjoying the extra FUN time together. It has been so good for all of us to get out of our comfort zone and try some new things.

So here's the idea...Every week, I want to do a project or an activity with the kids. On Mondays I'm going to be posting our activity/project idea for the week in an effort to make sure I follow through due to the threat of public embarrassment. If you want to come along with us we're always happy to have company. If you have any ideas you've tried or want to try, we could certainly use some of those!

This week we're going to let each child make a poster about themselves...with pictures, drawings, whatever they want to put on it that has something to do with them. I was able to get a bunch of old magazines from my sister that I plan on letting them go through and cut up to find some pictures, as well as letting them pick some of their favorites of themselves from the ones we've taken.

We'll post some pictures when we're done. Do the same if you end up doing the project as well, and let us know so we can come take a look!