Imagination Station

a new use for old colouring books, Valentines activity and yep she's SOLD!

2012-02-02T20:57:00.000-08:00

While packing things up this week we also are sorting everything in the house and have come up with a neat idea to reuse a favourite colouring book that all the pages are coloured in. Both my girls love dot to dots so this is what we came up with to extend the life of a favourite book (as when I suggested tossing them in the recycle bin I was faced with very teary eyed girls).

This is simple to to do just take a sheet of white paper and lay it ontop of the desired page. Draw dots along the main outline of the picture, draw in the features, then the kids can do the dot to dot and then colour the picture again :) Brilliant if I don't say so myself! A great pre-writing activity to practice fine motor skills too!

We've started making some Valentines this week as I am sure the 14th will sneak up on us quickly. While packing I came across this book...Things to Make and Do for Valentines Day by Tomie de Paola published in 1976.

I remember as a child making all kinds of Valentines out of heart shapes so when I found this printable (can be download from HERE)

it reminded me of those heart creations from my childhood. I showed Sierra and she was all for making some for her friends at school. Her and Aayla both made 2 each tonight...these might end up being teacher gifts as they might get bored of them before they make 20 each! But so far they are looking pretty cute :)

And yes seven (7) hours after our first showing we had an accepted offer and all subjects were removed tonight so our house is

SOLD! It's dark and late here now so no picture of the gorgeous four letter word on our sign but it's done! I am happy to not have to try to keep the house immaculate for showings...we can concentrate now on selling off the furniture and preparing for our move to Ontario.

It's official...

2012-01-23T22:02:00.000-08:00

We've been very busy getting the house ready to sell and now it's official! Our house is finally for sale!

We've been busy cleaning, and selling off stuff, and organizing the house in preparation to sell. You can see my post about about our preparations HERE.

We've been so busy here that we have let Chinese New Year pass us by but as Valentines Day approaches we will have a few things to share...until then I've a few walls to wash but can barely wait to get back to crafting with my kiddos. They've been so patient as we do SO much prep work!

I find it amazing just how quickly "stuff" accumulates. Have you seen the video for the "Story of Stuff"?
It's quite interesting.

With packing, and thinning out and selling off you realize just how much "stuff" we have...I am sooOOooo looking forward to building our Earthship and living a simpler life...full of love, happiness, wonder, creativity, imaginations, nature...and way less "STUFF"!

Happy New Year!

2012-01-01T23:45:00.000-08:00

We wish you all a very Happy New Year! Filled with love in even the most least expected places :) Here's where we found our unexpected love this New Years eve...inside a walnut :)

We stayed home tonight and had a couple of local friends come over and two friends flew in from Toronto, for a "quiet" night at home. All the kids were having too much fun to make their new years shakers so we skipped the activity :(

We did enjoy a lovely turkey dinner again (we really enjoyed our Christmas dinner with Gordon Ramsey's help and could barely wait for New Years to do it all over again).

All the recipes for the delicious dinner we had can be found by clinking the titles below. We enjoyed Gordon Ramsey's delicious roast turkey with lemon, parsley and garlic, roast potatoes with Chili and Tumeric, and pancetta chestnut brussel sprouts (which we substituted for walnuts). It was all delicious!!! For those of you saying yuck to the brussel sprouts...give this recipe a try. I am the only one who actually likes brussel sprouts but everyone loved these and even asked for MORE!

Liz who detests brussel sprouts having seconds by request!

For desert and because it was New Years we had Strawberry Margarita jello shots in real strawberries...they were yummy! I got the idea HERE and the recipe is there too. They are a little time consuming to make but OH so good!!! Even for those who said no they didn't want any Tequila, tried them and gobbled them all up! I made two dozen and they didn't last long!

We had some insides from the scooped out strawberries left so...

we had to make regular Margaritas...can't be waste after-all and we always jump at a chance to pull out the Vitamix ;)

Mmmmmm me and my Margarita

We had a wonderful quiet evening at home...and we hope you enjoyed your evening as well! Happy New Year everyone!

Tobogganing at Hemlock

2011-12-27T21:12:00.000-08:00

Today we headed to Hemlock to go tobogganing.

We've never been to Hemlock before but we had a great time. It's $12 per person over the age of 5 so for us we paid $24 for our family of 4. Sierra and Aayla were both free! Hemlock also provides tubes for you so you don't need to bring a toboggan. Since it's a one time thing for us this winter we didn't need to go buy anything to go and have fun. Biggest plus...you get pulled back up the mountain.

Sierra getting pulled up the mountain

Aayla and daddy on their way up.

Sierra coming down by herself for the first time

Let's go again!!!!

Fun! The nice thing about living in British Columbia is for someone like me who doesn't really like the cold and the snow...I can go to the mountains and get a little fix of it then say goodbye and go home :)

Merry Christmas everyone

2011-12-25T22:51:00.000-08:00

We had a wonderful Christmas eve at my mom's, set out our cookies and milk and wrote our letters to Santa.

Then we said our goodbyes to Elfie...hopefully he'll show up again next year and headed to bed :)

In the morning we awoke to stockings full of goodies :)

Santa brought Aayla an IPad...lucky girl! She loves it of course but we love it since she has Apraxia and there are so many apps to help her with speech.

Since Aayla got an IPad, Sierra got a new 3DS and she blew us away. The first thing Sierra said was, "Aayla you can have my old DS now that I have a new red one just like Nana's". WOW we were impressed with her generosity as although we hoped to encourage her to do that...she came up with the idea on her own and that is a major accomplishment for Sierra :)

{FYI normally we wouldn't encourage such extravagant computerized gifts but with our travelling and moving and downsizing we told everyone that DVD's and DS games and perfect for the girls this year since we will be selling off alot of our possessions to start our new chapter in our lives this Spring so I guess Santa heard us}

Bluebell got some new bones.

Daddy got a new book called The Joy of Hobby Farming from the girls. It will be very helpful as we build our Earthship and start our own hobby farm :)

Both Sierra and Aayla received knitted skirts from Grammy Sue.

Aayla's top gift (after the IPad) was probably her Thomas boots. She had an old pair she outgrew and wore into the ground. These boots proved to be hard to find and Aayla was extremely happy to receive them :)

Nothing beats laying in a pile of paper
and starring at new Thomas boots :)

Daddy helping Sierra to learn a new DS game.

The floor after the hurricane :)

Aayla loving her new mushroom house and play set! I actually bought these for the girls for Easter last year, but never ended up giving them to them so Christmas was the perfect time. I also ordered some wooden goodness from Mamakopp but they didn't arrive in time so we will save them for another day :)

Sierra giving Grammy Sue her bouquet of flowers we made for her.

Aayla modelling her dress Sissy meadow sent her...it goes perfect with her Thomas boots :)

Mom gave me a feather from a Blue Jay. I love Jay's and these Blue Jays are only from the other coast so we don't have them here in BC. I had the perfect way to display it which I saw on THIS blog! Unfortunately for that blog owner you can't see her pictures as she has an issue with google friend...you can read about the issue on her blog. If you'd like to see her ornaments you can still see a picture on Crafty Crow HERE.

Sierra sporting her new dress from Sissy Meadow.

TV head...part 1

and part Two!

We had a wonderful Christmas dinner as well. Ian tried something new this year after watching a Christmas show by Gordon Ramsey and we had the most delicious turkey and gravy and roast potatoes EVER!

Wishing everyone a Very Merry Christmas!!!

Tradition sausage rolls

2011-12-23T18:42:00.000-08:00

A family tradition...making sausage rolls... just like Ian used to do with his dad.

Daddy made them himself this year as we had company pop in and Sierra was too busy playing with Max to help daddy. She did however take a few minutes to make our jingle bell bracelets. Max did too :)

Afterwards we put on some Christmas music and they had fun dancing around the Christmas tree.

This morning we found Elfie huddled in the fridge with the whipped cream :) mmmmmm!

Peak of Christmas: Grouse Mountain

2011-12-22T21:21:00.000-08:00

We finally made it to the Peak of Christmas as Grouse Mountain and had an afternoon of snowy fun.

We saw Santa...Sierra wasn't impressed...she said Santa looked different. He did sound different but I think it was because he had a cold :)

Then the girls had fun skating...with just their boots and that was funny enough let alone trying skates on them :)

Sierra made snow angels

Has a sleigh ride...pulled by a tractor :(

Then we found a hill to slide down.

Santa's reindeer were resting up for the big night ;)

We then warmed up by the fire and headed for home.

I can't believe we were on top of Grouse Mountain and I didn't take any photos of the view :( I tried to in the gondola on the way down but we were packed in like sardines so it wasn't possible.

Woodwards windows displays and our gingerbread house

2011-12-20T21:56:00.000-08:00

We've had a busy few days around here...celebrating a friends 60th birthday and another friends 1st birthday and lots of Christmas preparations :)

Yesterday we went to Canada Place to see the old Woodward's window displays (Please excuse the photos as some have a great deal of reflection!).

We planned on going to a couple other window display locations but Sierra wasn't in the mood.

Doesn't she look so impressed
with the window displays???

We didn't even get a reaction from her when we played I Spy for her name down town!

Nor did she get excited about seeing the water planes take off like she usually does.

She did however like her book she found about BC Ferry vacations...and carried it everywhere while she pouted away.

From here we went to Granville Island to look for a special pair of boots for Aayla for Christmas. We have been looking everywhere for a pair in her size and we got lucky today :) Yeah!!!

Then it was time to go home to make our gingerbread house. I had high hopes of actually baking the gingerbread this year but we will have to save that one for another year! The girls had lots of fun none the less.

Aayla declares our gingerbread house is "finished"

Proud of their creation :)

Tonight we were supposed to go for a drive to see how many spectacular Christmas lights displays we could find but would you believe it...neither one of them wanted to go!!!

It's hard to believe that there are only 5 days left until Christmas! Somehow I will need to give up my new addiction to pinterest and get the rest of my gifts made...somehow...

FYI 3 nights ago Elfie didn't move and we thought he was sick still but then we found him laying down here...travelling every night must still be hard on him.

and this morning he was sleeping in the gravy boat

so he must still be recuperating!

I Spy Ornament gifts

2011-12-17T22:54:00.000-08:00

I recently got a bag of 15 clear glass baubles at a thrift store so we have been busy making all kinds of ornaments. There were a couple plastic ornaments which I was just going to donate back but then I saw this I SPY Ornament idea and I knew my girls would LOVE them.

They were so easy to do and the girls love shaking them up. They made one each to keep with their ornament collection and we will make more for a couple of their little friends.

Here is what you need: clear plastic baubles, pellets (I got mine at the thrift store too not sure where else to buy them...the tutorial above used epsom salts instead), small beads, buttons and trinkets to add to the ball, ribbon and a glue gun.

The girls chose 20 items each to add to their balls.

We laid them all out and took a picture of them.

We printed out this picture so they know which items are in it and can search for each item (they also have been playing together one at a time searching for something the other suggested).

To begin, fill one half of the plastic bauble with pellets.

Fill the other half with the items of your choice. Now for the tricky part...placing one half on top of the other.
NOTE we didn't add more pellets before placing the top on and had a tricky time opening the bauble again to add more pellets. It would be much better to top off the bauble with pellets before placing it ontop of the other half.

Now for the fun part...shake, shake, shake to mix them all up.

Here Sierra is searching for one of her treasures.

Happy that she found it :) So fun!

We were shaking a little too much and one burst open before we glued the ribbon around the seem where the two halves meet. So you may want to do the ribbon before you start your shaking too!

We also made some glitter globes... You will need a glass bauble, glitter glue and someway to stabilize the bauble while they decorate (we stuck a sharpie marker in the open end and stood it upright in a glass).

Now just cover the bauble with glitter glue, allow to dry and hang...it doesn't get much simpler then that!

I really want to make some of THESE!!! I have some feathers we have collected on our walks and I think this would be a perfect way to preserve them :) These are great to keep out all year too!

Beeswax Candles: travel tins and rolled Day 17 countdown to Christmas

2011-12-17T22:11:00.000-08:00

Todays countdown to Christmas activity was to make beeswax candles. I have wanted to make them for awhile and bought beeswax before we went on our 4 1/2 month trip this summer but never got around to doing anything with it :(

Today was the day to give it a try and I must say I LOVE the smell of melting beeswax!

I purchased some travel tins from Micheals last year and they have been sitting quietly waiting for me to get busy with the beeswax!

I actually have way more beeswax then pictured here. I bought this chunk at a craft show last Christmas and then in the spring found a local beekeeper that sold me a dozen coffee cups full of raw wax (He said I'd need to purify it but all we did was melt it and be careful when we poured it so most of the black bits stayed in the pot). The chunk above just looked prettier for the picture :)

To melt the wax I bolied a pot of water then cut off the top from a milk carton. I chopped up the beeswax into smaller chunks and placed it into the milk carton. I then put the milk carton into the water so it melted the wax from the heat of the water instead of the heat of the burner.

While the wax was melting the girls decorated 1 inch strips of paper to put around the outside of the travel container (they used rubber stamps and then coloured in the images). We also punched out a circle to cover the lids.

When it was time to pour the melted wax we had to stabilize the wicks until the wax hardened (we just used a couple of the kid utensils).

The wax smells so pretty when it's melting and looks so nice when it has cooled.

When the wax was completely cooled we glued on the decorated paper and then Sierra added some glitter glue to hers.

We made a couple tea cup candles too in vintage thrift store mugs.

Travel candles are all done but we weren't finished with the beeswax...I also have a box full of beeswax sheets that I was saving forever. I tried to use it once but it kept cracking and breaking and I got frustrated with it so it just sat around for about 8 years!!!

I learnt a little secret about beeswax sheets...it likes to be warmed up when you use it. We picked out a piece of red and a piece of green and set to work.

First we cut off a rectangle that was about 4 inches long.

Then we gave it a quick blow dry to warm it up.

I placed the wick onto the wax and rolled the lip up as shown below and then Sierra did the rest. Aayla was able to make one too but hers is not rolled quite as tightly.

At the end, we warmed up the edge of the wax and pressed it down firmly to secure in place. Sierra also added some green holly leaves we cut out of the green beeswax sheet with a small cookie cutter. We heated up the tip of the leaf and pushed it on to secure it in place.

The girls tried to heat and roll some red scraps to make berries but it proved to be too difficult for them so they gave up and use red glitter glue. They look nice but I am bot sure what happens when glitter glue burns...I guess we will find out soon enough.

Sierra finally discovered Elfie tonight too...he was hiding amounst a cluster of Santa's...very tricky!

Reindeer beer gift for guys

2011-12-17T12:23:00.000-08:00

I can't remember where I first saw these (sorry) and I have seen versions of it done with root beer as well if you think they are cute but don't want to use beer.

You need a six pack of brown bottled beer or rootbeer (we chose some Irish beer because our friend we are giving them to likes Irish Beer and the bottles were brown).

You can whip these up in a few minutes. Along with the 6 pack you just need 10 brown pipecleaners, 6 red pom poms, 12 google eyes, glue and some string or ribbon.

First take one pipecleaner and bend it around the top of the bottle. Next you will use approximently 1/3 of another pipe cleaner and twist it around the main pipecleaner to make the antlers. Bend to shape them a bit so they aren't just straight.

Next glue on two google eyes and a red pom pom nose (I used a glue gun). Tie on a piece of ribbon or string to be a scarf and voila a sweet gift for the beer drinkers on your list!

FYI Yesterday Elfie returned...he got enough strength from our grow a candy cane elf help kit that Santa sent us and left to go back to the North Pole to get completely well. He returned yesterday and Sierra spotted him here

So far today they haven't found him...I guess Elfie is trying to be a bit more tricky ;)

Gift bags recycled from store shopping bags

2011-12-16T16:30:00.000-08:00

Have you ever gone shopping and come home with your purchases in bags full of the store logo's? Perfect little bags that aren't good for much and seem like a waste to throw out because they are perfectly usable?

Well I was out doing a little Christmas shopping and came home with a few small bags which normally I give to my girls to trapse around the house with them for a week or two. Then when they rip I would just toss them out. Today a light bulb went on (I'm sure some of you have done this before, it can't possibly be original but I don't recall ever stumbling upon this idea before).

To recycle bags like these below

I used some left over wrapping paper on the white one. I glued on a candy cane, filled the bag, added one of the scrabble tile ornaments we made (incase you missed them to see how we made the scrabble tile ornaments and the wrapping paper click HERE).

For the other bag I cut a piece of construction paper slightly smaller then the bag so there was about 1/4inch trim of the bag showing through. We cut paint chips into triangles and glued them on to the red paper to be Christmas trees. Then the girls decorated the trees with sequins and glitter glue. Easy! (FYI I got the paint chip tree idea from HERE)

A wonderful way to reuse and recycle those store shopping bags! Great for birthdays and other gifts too!

See THIS post to see how I recycled manadarin boxes last year

We've got a nice litte collection of these again this year :)

Our candy cane grew and Sierra's Christmas concert

2011-12-15T18:52:00.000-08:00

Can you believe it? Our magical peppermint grew. We woke up in the morning and there was a full size candy cane and no Elfie to be found anywhere!

I guess Elfie got enough magic to get himself back to the North Pole. Hopefully he will be able to recover soon and return before Christmas :)
Today was Sierra's Christmas concert at school. The school did a great job and all the kids did too! Sierras class sang S.A.N.T.A and they sounded wonderful. I am so proud of Sierra for doing such a great job and keeping herself under control all day even though it was such an exciting day!

Aayla happily played with my phone and sat very quietly for the whole concert too :)

All in all a wonderful concert. I am so happy Sierra's school still celebrates as so many school now adays do not.

Making soap our Day 14 of our countdown to Christmas

2011-12-14T23:59:00.000-08:00

Our activity today was to make gifts for our family and friends. I saw THIS post last Christmas and have spent a whole year wanting to do it :)

Mine are NO where near as cute as hers and we had to overcome a lot of little mishaps along the way but in the end most of them turned out OK.

I bought a soap making kit at Value Village for $5.99 shortly after I saw the post mentioned above which was my source of inspiration.

This kit had scents and colours included but no clear glycerin soap so I bought a chunk from Micheal's with a 40% off one item coupon.

Getting ready to start making our soap

First mishap...I can't find the bag of miniature toys I got at Value Village months ago in preparation for this activity.

Second mishap...discovering our ice cube trays are really small (that or they toys I randomly grabbed to use now since I can't find the other bag are just too big)!!!

We started by grating some white soap. I did this first as in the tutorial I read it sounded like a wise idea to have this all ready to go.

The tutorial didn't mention how much soap to melt so I guesses and melted 8 one inch squares of the clear glycerin soap in a Pyrex measuring cup in the microwave. I let it go for 40 seconds at first, stirred it and then melted on 15 second intervals and stirred each time. I only had to do that twice.

After the soap is melted it's time to add the soap dye. I neglected to check the colours of the soap dye in my kit previous to starting tonights activity. As it turned out I had no blue all I had was green and red.

Third mishap...no blue dye :(

At the last minute I decided I really wanted them blue so I added a drop of food colouring instead...too big of a drop as they are really blue! Fourth mishap. I am hoping the food colouring doesn't affect the soap or dye skin :(

I did get lucky and have peppermint scents and added some in with the colouring and stirred until I had an even colour.

Next it was time to pour the melted soap into our ice cube tray. Be sure to leave about a 1/4 inch space in each compartment as you need to add the toys and have room for the shavings and top coat. I was only able to fill 11 of the trays compartments with soap before I ran out...Fifth mishap.

Next the girls placed the small toys (which were really too big for our small tray...6th mishap) into each compartment after the soap was just beginning to solidify. You have to do this quick as once it starts to solidify (approx 3 minutes) it continued hardening very fast. Make sure you put your toys in upside down as the top of the tray will actually be the bottom of your soap.

Alot of our toys stick out as they were too big for our tiny trays

Next the girls covered the tray with the grated white soap. Be sure to pack the soap down so you have room for the top coat.

Next I melted 3 more 1 inch squares and poured a thin layer over the whole tray as a top coat. This holds the grated soap in place.

When the top coat was evenly spread over the tray I popped it in the freezer for about 20 minutes. Make sure not to remove it until the soap is cold to the touch.

When solid, I gave the tray a little twist and popedp out the soaps. Easy peasy :)

Here are some of our soaps. I still need to carve the edges a bit to clean up the rough edges and then wrap them. I plan to do them in clear cellophane so they will be visible through the packaging. We will tie them onto the top of packages as a nice little decoration.

Most of our trinkets inside are lopsided (7th mishap) but for a first attempt they came out OK. Next time...I'll be more prepared and make certain I have everything organized before starting the activity...but we will definitely be making more soap soon!

An Elf on the shelf mishap

2011-12-14T22:56:00.000-08:00

The dreaded happened...our Elfie got touched and was knocked over! He was getting bold and we found him playing in the tub yesterday driving his ice breaker on the way back from the North Pole when the unthinkable happened...our girls were goofing around in the bathroom and Elfie got knocked over!!! Oh no will Elfie loose his magic???

We went to bed last night hoping for Elfie to still have his magic but this morning we woke up and found him still there...

BUT he had a small little letter in his arms...

At first Sierra didn't see the letter and she was so distraught. When she did notice it she used a pair of tweezers to get the letter out of his arms without touching him again and we opened and read the little letter.

Sierra thought it was pretty amazing that this paper was white on one side and red on the other.

"It has to be from the North Pole because this is magic paper... no one else but Santa could have this kind of paper" she says.

So we went downstairs and wrote a letter to Santa asking for Elf Help just like Elfie requested we do. Sierra did a great job starting to write the letter as daddy told her how to spell the words (but then she got frustrated that he was paraphrasing her words and we had to cross some out and daddy finished her letter word for word from her).

We dropped it into the mail box as we walked to school.

On the way home from school we stopped to get the mail and there was a parcel there from Santa!!! How's that for magical Airmail! I've never seen mail delivered so fast in ALL my life!

What can be in our Airmail?

Aayla was at daycare and we were going to wait to see what was inside until Aayla got home from daycare but Sierra was too excited so we took a little peak. Inside was a letter from Santa saying we needed to follow the instructions as soon as possible so Sierra and daddy got busy.

Sierra looking quite surprised as
daddy reads Santas note

(FYI I think Santa might have downloaded the patterns for this mail from HERE I saw it there and thought is was a super neat idea. I am so glad Santa used it even if it is a little different)

Opening up the package labelled as North Pole Fertilizer

Opening up the North Pole Potting Soil

Amazed to see the Peppermint Seed

Planting the Peppermint Seed

Adding the North Pole Fertilizer

Patting it all down

Happily waiting for the peppermint seed to grow

After setting the Peppermint seed safely on the counter we went about making our Day 14 Countdown to Christmas activity (but you can see that in the next post since this Elfie post is quite long).

Just before bedtime Sierra noticed our Peppermint seed had started to grow!!!

Here they are wishing for the seed to grow into a big candy cane so Elfie
can get back to the North Pole to regain all his magic and get strong enough
to return to us before Christmas this year.

So excited!!!

Then it was off to bed with our peppermint seed growing and safely guarded for the night.

I sure hope that the girls wished hard enough and are sorry enough for a big candy cane to grow and Elfie can return to the North Pole to get better.

Scrabble tile teacher gift ornaments and homemade wrapping paper

2011-12-13T22:44:00.000-08:00

Here are our countdown to Christmas activities for the last 2 days (since we failed to get anything done yesterday).

Day 12 Make teacher gifts
Day 13 Play games under the Christmas tree and make wrapping paper

Since we have been playing games in front of the tree almost everyday it didn't end up being a special activity today but it did allow for more time to get caught up on making the teacher gifts as the girls did some colouring on the floor under the tree as I got all the supplies organized. When I saw THIS idea I knew it would be perfect!

Sierra's kindergarten teacher, her principal and her school worker will all get desk name plates.

Her librarian, music teacher and the second teacher in her class will get tree ornaments. Aayla's daycare teachers will all get the tree ornaments as well.

I think they turned out super cute and were very affordable to make. I bought a scrabble game at the thrift store (so I didn't have to use my vintage scrabble tiles that I am saving for who knows what).

From the one thrift store game I had enough scrabble tiles to make almost all the name plates and ornaments (11 in total) saying either a teacher's name, noel or peace. I only had to use about 6 vintage tiles so that was good!

My vintage stash of scrabble tiles :)

We used a full wooden tile holder for the name plates and cut some in half to make the ornaments. This was easily done with a small saw (thankfully I kept some of the holders from my vintage sets so I had enough).

Next the girls painted all the wooden tile holders with red, glitter paint to add a bit of sparkle.

We set them aside to dry and then made the wrapping paper below while they dried. We placed them on a wire rack to dry so the paint wouldn't stick to the paper.

After they were dry we hot glued on the scrabble tile letters to spell the desired names or words. We also glued on some berry sprigs I had left over from last Christmas.

Originally I planned to add hangers to them all but I decided the teacher names would be better left as a name plate for their desks. The ornament hangers are just a loop of ribbon I got at Micheals from the $1 bin today and we hot glued them into place.

I have another gift for Mrs Gill I hope to get completed tomorrow if time permits.

We also made wrapping paper today so we can get these gifts wrapped and ready to take to school for the Christmas concert on Thursday.

Here are the two simple wrapping paper ideas we made:

Marble painted and twig painted
First put some red paint in a bowl with a small spoon and a marble. Roll the marble around in the bowl to give it a good coating of paint. Place a piece of paper inside of a box lid and roll the marble around. Scoop the marble out of the box and back into the bowl of paint to recoat the marble and then drop it back on the paper again and roll it around the box lid until you are happy with the coverage.

Next use a branch sprig with green paint and print the sprig onto the paper.

Cookie cutter paper
It is as simple as it sounds :) All you need to do is put some paint on plates, stamp a Christmas cookie cutter in the paint and then stamp it on the paper to make a print. Voila! That's all there is to it.

Both wrapping paper ideas are super easy and require little assistance and you should have all these supplies already at home :)

Here is how our gifts look all wrapped up and adorned with some red lace for ribbon and the gift tags we made last week (see that post HERE).

As for Elfie...since I missed yesterdays post here is where we found him yesterday morning...sitting in the blinds reading Christmas cards.

And this morning we found him in the bathtub boat. I hope it was an ice breaker so he didn't get stuck last night on his way back to the North Pole!

Candlelit bath play with Christmas carols and more Day 11 Countdown to Christmas

2011-12-11T22:37:00.000-08:00

I had to change around a couple activities on our countdown to Christmas as we were supposed to go to the Peak of Christmas today but we (mainly me) just didn't have the energy for it today. We were out all day yesterday and I wanted some time at home :)

The girls both really enjoyed their bath. Normally Sierra prefers a shower but as soon as she saw me getting the coloured ice cubes ready for the bath and turning on the Christmas carols she was all in!

(Excuse the photos please...low light pics with just the candles coming up)

Like Sierra's lips? She has a bad habit of
getting into my colourstay lipstick!

Of course there is a tub full of coloured ice shapes...and yep
you guessed it, they both go for the same one!

They both quickly scurried around the tub collecting the coloured ice shapes before they melted. By the time I lit all the candles, they were gone :( Oh well I brought out some red and green tub paint and they had a blast covering almost every inch of the tub.

Then they had almost as much fun with a wash cloth and wiping the tub paint off and creating many bubbles as they did with the painting.

Normally Sierra doesn't get bubble baths because they irritate her skin...(she is so sensitive) but she got to today. We just popped her in the shower to rinse off all the soap afterwards. We will have to wait and see how she is tomorrow...fingers crossed!

Elfie this morning must have been tired from his journey the night before as we found him getting a piggy back ride from one of my Santas...I wonder if he went with him???

(To see how we made the poinsettias in the picture with Elfie please visit THIS post.

The snowman candle holder was made by my eldest daughter (now 23) when she was about 5 or 6. I just love him! Missing you Meadow...wishing you were going to be home for Christmas!!!)

Historic Stewart Farm Day 10 Countdown to Christmas

2011-12-10T23:51:00.000-08:00

First off...let me tell you about our little Elfie this morning! He must really be missing the North Pole as he is starting to act out a little bit. This morning we awoke to find our tree covered in toilet paper!!! He was so reckless he almost knocked the star off of the top of the tree!

Elfie looks a little smug after toilet papering our tree!

Sierra was not impressed! She was quite concerned that Elfie would waste all that toilet paper and make a big mess. She did not like it on the tree and wanted to remove it right away so carefully we pulled it all of the tree making sure to not disturb Elfie as we surely didn't want him to fall and loose his magic.

When our tree was back to normal we opened our Countdown to Christmas match box which said we were going to Historic Stewart Farm. Today was their open house and admission was by donation. We arrived and took a tour through the farmhouse.

The parlor all ready for Christmas morning

Outside one of the bedrooms

We got to have some fresh baked cookies but the apple cider wasn't quite ready and my kitchen photos didn't tun out at all.

Off to explore the barn

Holly

Then it was off to do some crafts. First the girls made gingerbread cookies.

And Christmas angels

And even Pomander balls...daddy made one too...but they took a longggggg time!

Aayla making her pomander ball with the
remains of her cookie all over her face!

Sierra is very proud of her "pumpkin head pomander".
At one point he had legs as well as arms but they made him fall over so she took them off :)

Then we went to mom's for an early supper...she has all her decorations up too. Mom doesn't have a tree anymore as her apartment feels too crowded with one but you can always find the wonderful wreath my brother made for her one year...

A stinky sock wreath

His humorous note inside!

Ahhhh family memories of Christmas pasts :)

Countdown to Christmas Day 9

2011-12-09T23:10:00.000-08:00

A fairly quiet day today. We awoke to Elfie visiting with our gnome up on one of the wreaths we made the other day (see THIS post if you want to know how we made the wreath).

This morning it was off to Sierra's school to make gingerbread houses in her class.

Daddy helps to get the roof to stick on

Just one lick of the icing...

Proud of her gingerbread house

Sierra with a couple of her school friends and their gingerbread houses

can you say Candyland???

Our countdown activity was a Christmas movie tonight and we watched 8 Below...I know not really a Christmas movie but it was full of snow, was on TV and Sierra wanted to watch it. We enjoyed it together none the less :)

Red, Green and White Day 8 and our elf on the shelf

2011-12-08T21:30:00.000-08:00

Today's matchbox for our countdown to Christmas said it was Red, Green and White for dinner and nails.

We had green spaghetti (cook as normal and add green food colouring), with red sauce and a white cheese star on top and a little side of spinach and tomatoes.

Green milk with white whipped cream and a red cherry

Green and red pudding with white whipped cream and a red cheery for desert (again I used food colouring as I didn't think my girls would like pistachio pudding).

Then after dinner we painted nails with red, green and white nail polish.

Aayla wanted happy faces

Sierra wanted candy cane stripes with a pattern
of green on the top on every other finger???

I didn't take a picture but their toes are white with red hearts <3

As for Elfie our Elf on the shelf...he had fun building snowmen last night...

Elfie our elf on the shelf builds snowmen

Handmade Christmas Cards and Gift Tags Day 7 countdown to Christmas

2011-12-07T21:48:00.000-08:00

Our countdown to Christmas match box today said we were to make Christmas cards and gift tags. I hadn't thought about what to do when I made the activity list and after supper when we opened our matchbox (we usually open them in the morning and then I have all day to plan but we forgot this morning), I had a little panic attack as Sierra asked to use mommies rubber stamps for the cards. I wanted them to be more crafty then just stamps on the card so I am quite pleased with how they turned out since it was a last minute idea.

To make them we cut an 8 1/2" X 11" piece of cream cardstock in half and then folded each half piece in half to make a card.

I lightly drew a line across the card to divide the top from the bottom of the card (so light it's hard to see in the picture). Sierra then used red acrylic paint to put fingerprints on the top half of the card,

and then she painted lines on the bottom half with a paintbrush.

When she had about a dozen done we laid them all off to the side to dry.

While they were drying I used a Santa rubber stamp and black ink to print out Santas on cream cardstock. Then I used a 1 1/2" circle punch to punch out the Santas. I find these easiest to do by stamping the paper first, then turning the punch upside down so I can see the stamped image. This allows a more accurate Santa placement within the circle.

Next Sierra coloured the Santa suit in red with markers while I punched out red circles with a 2" circle punch. The coloured Santas were then glued onto the red circle.

Then we took a piece of ribbon and glue it across the dividing line.

Next we cut off the excess ribbon from the edges and glued the red/white/Santa circle to the right side of the card.

Voila! All done! We also made some snowmen gift tags in a few minutes flat. To make these we punched 2"circle out of white paper with a circle paper punch.

Then the girls drew on a carrot nose and button eyes and mouth.

We punched a small hole and added a ribbon to attach to a gift. On the back we wrote To: and Fr: and left them blank so they would be ready to use for our gift giving.

In other news we found Elfie on a Shelf this morning for the first time since he left his box. He didn't look very comfortable and I am sure he will be glad when we go to bed so he can move somewhere else.

Do you have an Elf on the Shelf? What has your been up to?

Create a Snowman bowling game from recyclables

2011-12-06T20:42:00.000-08:00

Aren't these cute little snowmen?

Every week my girls go through these Danimals smoothies like crazy!

And every week they make their way to the recycling bin...but not this week! This week 10 of them turned into a sweet little snowmen bowling game.

Simple to do...just wash, dry and use permanent markers to add on the facial features, buttons, colour the top for the hat, add on arms or any way you want to decorate them.

When finished adding the snowman features, set all 10 up by placing one in the front, the next row has two, the third row has 3 and the last row has 4.

Now crumble a large piece of paper up to be the "snowball" bowling ball and toss away.

You can also try stacking them. A different way to play and a great way to build fine motor muscles and hand eye coordination.

Tired of bowling? Line them all up for a fun math activity.

Try one of these poems to work on Math skills.

10 Happy Snowmen (Tune 5 little monkeys jumping on the bed...original author unknown)

10 Happy snowmen riding on a sled,

1 fell off and bumped his head.

Frosty called the doctor and the doctor said,

"no more snowmen riding on the sled"!

(Continue down to 0)

No happy snowmen riding on a sled,

None fell off to bump their heads.

Frosty called the doctor and the doctor said,

"Put those snowmen back on the sled"!

10 Little Snowmen (tune Mary had a Little Lamb...original author unknown)

10 Little snowmen dancing all around, dancing all around, dancing all around,

10 Little snowmen dancing all around, then the sun came out and one melted to the ground.

Continue until all the snowmen have melted. Then if you want for the last line you can say, "don't worry...they'll all be back tomorrow".

An improvised day 6...we made wreaths instead

2011-12-06T18:18:00.000-08:00

This morning our Countdown to Christmas match box said we were going to go see Santa but the girls decided they didn't need to go since we just saw Santa at the Northpole the other day. Instead we stayed home and made wreaths!

We painted some egg cartons red the other day. I wasn't sure what exactly we were going to do with them but we put them to use today.

Today we covered a straw wreath I got at a thrift store with green crepe paper streamers and secured the ends in place with a touch of hot glue.

Next we glued on three clusters of three red painted egg cartons (thinking they looked something like poinsettias). Then we glued a sparkly golden pom pom to the centre of the egg carton.

Next we glued various sized and shades of green pom poms over the remaining wreath surface. We added a couple sparkly green ones and a couple sparkly red ones to be holly berries.

I think it turned out quite cute. We hung it with a Santa at first resting in the middle then changed it to an elf my mom made a couple years ago.

The girls wanted to make more wreathes so we made paper plate wreaths by wrapping crepe paper streamers around a paper plate which had the centre cut out of it.

Then the girls glued on various collage items like crumpled tissue paper pieces, pom poms and sequins. We added a bow and they were ready to hang.

Since we had a collection of wreaths already on our tree I decided to brighten up a blank wall and put all the wreaths on display together.

The blue wreath Sierra made today too. She wrapped a grapevine wreath with blue tinsel then glued on the extra egg carton pieces, added her pom poms and a ribbon bow. I think it turned out very cute :)

The other wreaths were all made in past years. One was made by stringing buttons onto a pipe cleaner, one was made by painting empty wooden thread spools green and string them alternating with red bead. There is also a rice wreath. It was made by mixing rice with glue, glitter and green food colouring. Mushing it all together and forming it into a wreath shape.

So no Santa for us today but we sure were busy!

And our Elf on the Shelf...he hasn't been on a shelf much. Last night he must have taken his friend to the North Pole with him as when we awoke we found them having a nice HUG on the Christmas tree.

Life size elves Day 5 Countdown to Christmas

2011-12-05T21:08:00.000-08:00

Our day 5 matchbox contained the activity to make life size elves to decorate the kids door.

We bought a roll of craft paper from the dollar store and it was just enough to get both kids on one roll. The girls had to lie down on the paper and I traced around their bodies. They barely sat still long enough to do the tracing so no pictures of that...but you get the idea :) I started with the head by drawing a triangle point for the hat and added 2 pointy ears, the rest of the body I traced their outline.

We got out the markers first and drew on the faces and clothing details. Then out came the paints to fill in the body parts and clothing. We just used basic tempera water colour blocks.

After painting, set them aside to dry. When dry cut them out.

Before we could put the elves up on the girls door Sierra had a bit of cleaning to do. She's becoming a wonderful artist but the problem is, she sees the world as her canvas!

With the help of a magic eraser and a little elbow grease it all came off and up went the elves.

As for Elfie...this morning we must have caught him as he was finishing up a movie...(perhaps he was watching Elf since we taped it last night) as we found him perched up above the TV.

Beaded Candy Canes

2011-12-05T16:40:00.000-08:00

We just put up our tree last night and added candy canes like we do every year but I remembered a craft I did as a kid of beaded candy canes. I have none left from my childhood so I thought I'd get the girls to make some themselves.

They are super simple! All you do is string red, green and white beads onto pipe cleaners. twist into a candy cane shape, add a bow and hang!

And what a cute gift they would make to put ribbons on them and place them in the empty candy cane box to give away.

Day 4 Trimming the Tree and decorations from the past

2011-12-05T16:32:00.000-08:00

Today's Day 4 of our Countdown to Christmas was to decorate the tree and take our family portraits...well we got the tree up :) Portraits will have to wait until another day as we got carried away with the decorations and basically finished the house today! I love unwrapping each ornament as we decorate the tree.

Egg Carton Santa Meadow made
when she was little

Paper mache Santa Meadow made

Santa painted on a mussel shell
from a craft fair

Paper mache star Santa I made years ago

A vintage inspired ornament I made for
last years Christmas cards and you can
find for sale in my Etsy shop

Felted mushroom I made
and also in my Etsy shop

My gnome

Owl I made last year (In my Etsy shop)
and the Santa behind it is from about 15 years ago

One of my many snowbabies :)

This little guy was made by
Princessnimblethimble on Etsy...
I added a string to hang him on the tree

Driftwood Santa

Beautiful porcelain reindeer

Another Snowbaby

A Christmas walnut mouse I made when
I was a kid...must be an antique by now ;)

A spool wreath my 23 year old made
when she was little

A spark plug ornament I made for my husband
for our first Christmas together...he loved
to work on his truck back then

Family ornament I made for
Aayla's first Christmas

If you are interested my Etsy shop is HERE.

And now it's time to get some of those decorations on the tree :)

Aayla putting her first decoration on our tree

How do you like those bangs?

Lovin the snowmen decoration earrings :)

Nana Diana sporting a nice pair of decoration earrings too

Our finished tree :) Take note of the heavy branches on the bottom of the tree. The girls help to decorate the tree and LOVE to hang 4 or 5 or 6 or more decorations on 1 branch! Our tree isn't themed like some peoples trees but our decorations have been handmade throughout the years, or purchased on holidays...each one has a special memory with it.

So all done our tree is lop sided, heavily weighted in certain areas but full of love. I must admit, putting up the tree is one of my most stressful activities in the whole world (I am a little over protective of most of the ornaments and it has only been the past couple of years that I have allowed anyone else to help me decorate the tree).

After we finished the tree the girls helped decorate the rest of the family room too...not quite how I might have decorated myself but they had lots of fun with it.

Our mantle this year is a bit squishy as normally we set up the tree and most of the decorations in our living room / dinning room but since it is still full of stuff we are selling we had to shift things around for Christmas.

Ohh I almost forgot to tell you where we found Elfie this morning... he was hanging from the chandelier :)

Elfie, A Visit to the North Pole and ornaments Day 3 of our Countdown to Christmas

2011-12-03T22:35:00.000-08:00

See the end of this post to make these North Pole Ornaments

This morning Elfie surprised us with what daddy thought was a mountain. Sierra however yelled, "Look Elfie made us a Christmas tree"! I guess Elphie should have used all the Mountain Dew instead of Diet Coke and our our mountain would have really looked like a green tree :)

Elfie also brought a very special invitation with him for the girls.

Since our Day 3 for our countdown to Christmas match box said the North Pole I had to improvise and say we were going to make Christmas Decorations tonight instead when Sierra opened the number 3 matchbox.

Daddy had to return to the emergency room this morning to get an ultrasound so we all had to get ready to go to the North Pole without him, in the hopes that he would be able to join us when he was finished.

We arrived at the North Pole early

and played around with the puppet theater,

the dress up clothes,

and then daddy arrived just in time for our 12:00 tour. The girls were all dressed up and went running to him as he signed in. We were so happy he could make it!

Before getting into our tour I must tell you that despite the fun the girls had I think this day was very over priced for what we got. I have no problem paying the close to $22 per child but paying $22 per adult was a rip off for the 4 adults that attended. There was also a lot of waiting around and the elves all seemed a little disorganized and showed up late for our guided tour. The worst was having to wait 20 minutes from our schedule time to get pictures with Santa. The girls were getting very restless. Luckily Santa did a great job and was worth the wait.

The North Pole had many different cabins all decorated. Some you visit on the tour and some you are free to visit after your tour.

We started our tour off with a visit to Elf School. Here the girls learned how to guide the reindeer during take off and landing, how to elf dance and smile like an elf :) After leaving here they gained magic in their fingertips for use late in their tour.

The girls learning the commands to guide the reindeer

Practicing their elf smiles

Next we headed off to the Sym-Funny where the kids all got to play with musical instruments and do the reindeer pokey.

Then we went off to the inventors station where we disturbed a very tired elf but she quickly woke up to show the kids some of her inventions. Here is where the kids had to use their magic elf fingers to create the static power below.

Next we headed to the post office to mail the Santa letters Elfie left for them this morning. The girls got their letters stamped at the post office and then were able to mail them directly to Santa.

Next we were off to see Mrs Claus. She had been busy doing the laundry but took a break to read everyone a story.

Sierra sneaking a stir of Mrs Claus's cookies

Then it was our time for pictures with Santa. Luckily the girls and Grammy Sue had the dress up clothes to keep us entertained again for 20 minutes while we waited for our scheduled time for our picture with Santa.

Who is that silly looking elf?

Finally we got to see Santa :) He did a great job. He recalled the girls names and knew a little about each child and gave the girls a gift (that cost $5 per child to have him deliver the gift we wrapped and brought...your other choice was having a $35 bear delivered. Had I realized we would have been in the room with Santa a lone I wouldn't have bothered even with the gift delivery. I just didn't want to answer the question, "why did that girl get a gift from Santa and not me"? I caved to the pressure). Santa was really good but did they really need to charge for that???

After seeing Santa our tour was complete and we were free to walk around to some of the other cabins we didn't see on the tour. Our first stop was to decorate cookies.

Grammy Sue, Daddy and Nana Diana decorating their cookies with the girls

Aayla is all finished hers...doesn't the elf look impressed?

Sierra is very proud of her cookie

Next we were off to the gift wrap station where the girls got to use stamps and ink pads to make a piece of wrapping paper to take home.

The last cabin was a toy making cabin where they had build a bears for purchase to build. They did have a large stuffed toy that everyone could help stuff for those who didn't want to buy a build a bear...thankfully! We quickly gave it a try and left before the next child came in to purchase a bear!

Then our day was over and it was time to say goodbye to the North Pole. The girls had a lot of fun and the North Pole was nicely decorated but as I mentioned...paying $44 for the girls would have been worth it but paying close to $132.oo for us, Grammy Sue and Nana Diana to come was WAY over priced!

We went home to make our countdown to Christmas activity which was switched to making ornaments. I saw THIS cute ornament yesterday on a new blog I stumbled across and decided to make them.

Here is ours and how to make them:

All you need is some paint/brushes, 2 tounge depressors, a Popsicle stick, permanent marker, scissors, pipe cleaner or string to hang and a hot glue gun.

Follow the drawing below and cut one tounge depressor and Popsicle stick as shown.

Paint everything white, allow to dry and paint red stripes on the uncut tounge depressor.

Next with a permanent marker write "North Pole" on the large arrow piece. On the two smaller Popsicle pieces, write home on one, then school or daycare or Grammy's house etc on the 2nd one. Add the distance to get there and an arrow showing which direction to go. We added pipe cleaners for the hangers but you could use any ribbon or string.

We also made some Christmas tree decorations out of Popsicle sticks tonight too. You just cut some Popsicle sticks into 5 different lengths and paint them green. Paint a tounge depressor brown. Allow to dry. Glue the green pieces to the brown trunk from smallest at the top to the largest piece at the bottom (I like to use the hot glue gun for this). Glue on a star to the top, and then sequins to decorate the branches. Add something to hang.

My girls enjoyed making these trees a lot :)

Elfie, Winter Sensory Box but no out door fire on Day 2 of our countdown to Christmas

2011-12-02T23:57:00.000-08:00

This morning when we awoke the first thing Sierra said to me was,

"let's go see if Elfie is in his box and if he's not, remember we can't touch him or his magic will disappear"!

So we walked downstairs to discover that Elfie had broken out of his box during the night... Oh how exciting....where could he be?

Sierra took a quick run around the house but couldn't find him anywhere so she decided to sit down for breakfast and a few seconds later she let out a screech...she found Elfie!

He returned from his nightly visit to see Santa at the North Pole and found himself a nice little resting place on our family wreath I made a few years ago. It has been hanging for a few years and has lost a few of it's pictures :( but the icicles must have made Elfie feel like he was back home at the North Pole.

Sierra was so excited! She almost forgot about our countdown to Christmas matchboxes...almost! Today was Aaylas turn so she opened the number 2 box, picked her sticker and shared the other.

Day 2) Winter sensory box and enjoy some hot chocolate outside by the fire.

Here is the sensory box I put together for them for today's activity.

I used a large tub so they can both have room to play together. I added some rice, some opalescent glitter flakes, some arctic animals, some fake ice cubes, cotton balls and white foam letters they can search for the letters to spell their names.

I didn't get any pictures of them playing in it this evening and we couldn't have our hot chocolate by the outside fire because I spent all day/evening running back and forth from the ER! My husband has had a reoccurring abdominal pain every few months for the past 7 years and it usually lasts an evening and is gone. This time it's lasted almost 2 weeks so after a visit to our doctor this morning she sent us to the hospital where we waited away most of the day. I ran back and forth to pick up Sierra from school, then later again to get Aayla from daycare, fed the girls, got them to bed and back to the hospital I went. Thankfully Nana is visiting and could stay with them tonight as we just got home at 11:50pm!

So the girls enjoyed the winter sensory box without me, and we didn't have our fire but we do get to get up at 6:00am to go back to the hospital for an ultrasound! At least something came of our day in the ER.

Now I'm off to bed or Elfie won't have enough time to get to the North Pole and back again before we wake up :)

Elf on the Shelf and Christmas Pattern Blocks Day 1 of our Christmas countdown

2011-12-01T22:02:00.000-08:00

I'm thankful that late last night Frugal Family Fun posted on face book "Do you have an elf on your shelf?". It caught my attention right away...an elf on your shelf...does she mean decorating already for Christmas? I was intriguged so I read through all the comments to try to figure it out and was pleasantly surprised! I ran right out to buy one this morning as it fit perfectly in with out first countdown to Christmas activity.

Day 1) Dig out the Christmas books and music and make Christmas designs with the Pattern blocks

So we dug out all the Christmas books and sat down to read a lot of them right away.

and then I brought out the Elf on a Shelf and the magic and excitement just burst out of Sierra especially.

As soon as I told them briefly about what the story was about Sierra went running down stairs to tell daddy and nana and she was just bursting at the seams! We read the story together and afterwards (see picture below) Sierra bends over to the box that the elf comes in, leans close to the hole cut out in the protective plastic and tells the elf, "Elfie (our elfs new name) please don't fly away at Christmas...I want you to stay all year"

Us all pictured with Elfie...our newest Christmas tradition.

If you are looking for a new family tradition then consider the Elf on a Shelf! It's a fun way to make the magic of Christmas come alive in the weeks before Christmas instead of just Christmas Eve. The kit comes with a wonderfully vintage looking little elf and a story book about how Santa keeps track of who has been naughty and who has been nice. It also explains the rules...like don't touch your elf when you find him or his magic will disappear and Santa won't find out if you've been good! It's a sweet story and is wonderfully illustrated.

On your first night you read the story, name your elf, and put him on a shelf before bed (we left ours in his box up on the shelf).

During the night your elf will return to the North Pole and inform Santa if your kids have been naughty or nice, and then he returns to your house. However...elves can be mischevious...your elf may not got back to where you left him...he may find his own michief to get into (if finding your elf mishief to get into every night is too much of a commitment you could tell your kids that he may come back to the same spot some nights...or just incase you forget to do it one night).

One commenter on Frugal Family Funs facebook page left this link which immediately hooked me...oh how fun! Such wonderful ideas...how do you choose which ones to do...and how do you come up with your own any better???

Stay tuned here as each day I will post about Elfies michievious adventures in our daily countdown to Christmas posts.

Some of you may see the Elf on the Shelf as another bit of commercialism tied to Christmas but me...I see many years of fun memories in our future with this new Christmas tradition.

After supper we got out the pattern blocks and had fun making some Christmas designs (the designs were downloaded from HERE).

Sometimes our pattern blocks end up being stacked :)

All in all...day 1 of our countdown to Christmas was a huge success and I LOVE our new Christmas tradition! Do you have a favourite Christmas tradition?

Advent Calendar : Countdown to Christmas

2011-12-01T00:05:00.000-08:00

A couple days ago I posted a few wonderful ideas for advent calendars that every year I think about making but seem to leave it to the last minute. I really want to make one of these someday but I think my problem is that I have a hard time thinking about Christmas before December 1st and by that time it is too late.

Here is what I came up with

I got the idea from HERE. I like it because it was fairly simple and quick with my limited time and I had a way to make this easy activity even more easy.

Years ago I was a very active member on swap-bot. A site where people join swaps, make things pertaining to the swap, send them off to their partners and receive items back. I did a lot of matchbox swaps so I had a whole jar full of decorated matchboxes already.

I was wondering what I would do with all these when we move and this seemed like a worthy cause for these little pieces of art :)

So I emptied out all the contents of 24 matchboxes. I printed out a list of 24 family activities and cut them into strips.

I added a number to the bottom of each box and put the corresponding activity into the boxes.

Now they sit all filled with our family activities and little sticker treats in a little glass bowl waiting for December 1st.

My girls will take turns opening one each day. I chose to add 2 stickers to each box as well because I didn't want to focus on getting gifts or candies. I wanted to focus on the activities we will all do together as a family. However since the activities will be done for the most part after school, the little sticker is a small treat until it's time to do the activity.

Here is our 2011 activity list. Most are very affordable but there are a couple special days :)

1) Get out the Christmas books and music and play with Christmas Pattern blocks
2) Christmas sensory box and enjoy hot chocolate by the fire outside
3) Visit the North Pole
4) Decorate the Christmas tree and do family portraits
5) Decorate their bedroom door with life size elves
6) St Nicholas Day: Pictures with Santa (Free 5X7 Tuesdays)
7) Make Christmas cards and gift tags
8) Red, Green and White night (colour theme for dinner and nails)
9) Pizza night and Christmas Movie
10) Historic Stewart farm
11) Peak of Christmas at Grouse Mountain
12) Make teacher gifts
13) Games night by the Christmas tree and make wrapping paper
14) Make gifts for family and friends
15) School concert and put together a charity box
16) Pizza night and Christmas movie
17) Beeswax candles and ornaments
18) Christmas bath by carols and candle light
19) Make Gingerbread houses
20) Take a drive to look for Christmas lights
21) Jinglebell bracelets and Rock around the Christmas tree
22) Bake cookies for Santa
23) Make our annual sausage rolls with daddy
24) Watch the night before Christmas and write letter to Santa

My girls usually get to open one present on Christmas Eve. Something small but that will keep them busy as we finish up last minute preparations and they always get new PJ's for all the Christmas morning pictures.

Every year we try to cut back on the consumerism that runs ramp-id at Christmas and we try to focus more on family time and making gifts or buying homemade gifts. Gifts that are special. I also recycle gifts and sometimes even buy second hand gifts. To me it is the thought that counts and if I can recycle something to someone that I know they will love, what is the point of buying something new?

This year I will be recycling the girls Christmas dresses as well. I have made that decision because their dresses from last year will still fit them both, they were only used once, and spending another couple hundred dollars on new dresses for Christmas day just doesn't make sense as we try to simplify life and get back to the basics. I must admit it is hard to walk by all the dresses on display...but I can do it!

How do you countdown to Christmas? Any special holiday traditions? As well as our calendar activities we will be doing a lot of Christmas Book + Craft = FUN activities and making ornaments so December should follow the tradition of being a VERY busy month!

Golden Apple Rewards

2011-11-29T18:46:00.000-08:00

When Sierra was in daycare her support worker started using a golden apple reward system with her when she was having a rough time at nap time. Her idea was that since Sierra is very hands on that having a physical reward she could touch and place into something would be more tangible for her then a sticker on a reward chart which has never worked with Sierra. She tried the golden apple idea and it worked wonders!

Now that Sierra is in school there is no nap time and no support worker. There are however many transitions which she has a hard time coping with. We are very thankful that Sierra gets along with her teacher really well but they are having a hard time with the lunch monitor, the music teacher and librarian.

They have tried many different reward systems in the classroom and nothing is working. So last week after a major blow up at school I thought we should try the golden apple approach again.

We couldn't find any golden coloured apples over the weekend so we just got regular red apple ornaments from the dollar store and Sierra painted them with gold metallic acrylic paint.

We took them to school yesterday in a recycled jar from peaches which will hold the golden apples she receives and a muslin bag for storage of the apples waiting to be awarded.

I am happy to say (and hoping not to jinx it) that the first 2 days have been amazing! Sierra gained 4 apples today and 4 yesterday and now needs only 2 more to get a prize. We keep the prize box at home and it is full of little goodies mostly from little bags from thrift stores (things like little petshop animals, jewlery etc). When she gets 10 golden apples in her container she comes home to choose a prize and then starts earning rewards again. We decided that in the beginning Sierra would be awarded golden apples for ANY positive behaviours during her troubled transition times. As she gains confidence with all her apples we will focus more on certain tasks but for now we want her time at school to be positive overall...for her and for the teachers :)

Do you see negative behaviours at home with your children? Or at school? How do you encourage positive behaviour? What rewards system do you find work? I am always looking for ways to focus on the positive and ignore the negative as much as possible and let me tell you...it isn't always easy to do!

Countdown to Christmas

2011-11-28T18:57:00.000-08:00

I am not a fan of winter but I am a huge fan of Christmas. I love the sights, sounds and smells of Christmas. I love all the family time and get togethers. I love seeing faces light up as they unwrap a gift that was just perfect for them. I love decorating the tree and collecting Santa's throughout the year for my collection :)

For two years now I have been planning to make an advent calendar. Note the key word...planning!

Here is my post from last year of some amazing simple ideas one could make...yet I still didn't :(

I have purchased a couple at value village that I planned on giving a make over to but haven't gotten around to it yet and once again Dec 1st is only a couple days away! So tonight I frantically sit down to find a quick and simple but yet divine advent calendar for my girls...well I found lots...

Look at this amazing

gindgerbread type house I found HERE at Sugar*Sugar (I have a similar unit but only it's a sqaure unit I got at Value Village to make but now I am once again almost out of time to create something as magnificent as this).

I LOVE this magnetic countdown

and beautiful countdown banner

both found HERE from katie.bee.creative.

This clothespin calendar on a board is simply sweet

I found it HERE.

and this one

is for sale on Etsy HERE but it could easily be made with matchboxes with magnets applied to the back (if one wasn't running out of time).

I love this idea

to take a decoration and decorate a small tree. You could even add a small note on each ornament as a family activity to do each day. More about it can be found HERE at Life as a Thrifter.

As you can see I found lots...with us planning to sell the house next spring and live in our RV for a couple years while we build our Earthship I think I will give up on a beautiful and baulky advent calendar and settle for something more simple... like this one

You can find the directions for it HERE.

Now off I go to get busy!

Legend of the Poinsettia Book+Craft=FUN

2011-11-22T11:10:00.000-08:00

After finishing our snowflakes I had an idea to make poinsettias for Christmas to go along with the book the Legend of the Poinsettia by Tomie dePaola. They didn't quite turned out how envisioned but they add some brightness just the same.

They are fairly simple to do. They don't look as much like poinsettias as I hoped but I think they are still pretty :)

All you need is coffee filters, water colour paints, scissors, marker, paintbrushes, pipe cleaners, doilies, and newspaper.

First paint your coffee filters with a red water colour paint. We used Sargent Arts glitter water colours to give them a bit of sparkle too. I always dilute the liquid water colours so they spread easier and last longer. Set aside to dry.

Now paint a small doily (our doilies were 4 1/2"in diameter) with yellow water colour paint. You can add a bit of red to give it an orange tint too if you want.

If you paint your doilies on a sheet of newspaper then you can just add more paint to it when your doilies are finished as you need some painted newspaper.You can keep it all yellow or add some red to make orange and set aside to dry.

When your coffee filters are dry you start out the same way as you did with the snow flake by folding it in half, then half again, and then half it a third time (see picture below).

You can cut the petals freehand or you can draw them on for smaller children as shown below.

Next take the painted newspaper and cut it into a circle shape that is slightly smaller then the doily. Fringe the edges with scissors as shown below.

Next push a pipe cleaner through the center of the coffee filter, then the doily and then the newspaper circle. Twist the pipe cleaner on the front and the back to keep the flower steady.

Scrunch up the whole flower with your hands. Open your flower back up making sure not to completely flatten it. You want it to have some depth.

Volia! A beautiful Christmas centerpiece! They might be better left white with orange and yellow centers to be narcissus is you wanted them to be more Christmasy looking as they didn't really turn into poinsettias but they are nice and cheery for a winters day craft :)

Easy Coffee Filter Snowflakes

2011-11-21T23:50:00.000-08:00

I'm trying to embrace the fact that winter is on it's way and put a fun spin on the white stuff the kids love so much! Since our snow outside is melting the girls asked if we could bring some inside so we decided to make some snowflakes.

Here is a super simple way to make snowflakes. An easy twist to the regular paper ones :)

All you need is coffee filters and scissors to make them (wax paper, white glue, sprinkles, paint brush and water if you want to complete the activity how we did). Younger kids may want to draw on their design with a marker or pencil first before cutting.

First follow the picture below to fold your coffee filter. Fold the filter in half, then half it again, and then once more. Now you can either draw on a design to cut or cut freehand. I usually just freehand it but I drew one to give you an idea for design. Open up your snowflake carefully and see what master piece you have created.

Take note of the bangs...and don't turn your back on a 5 year old with scissors...
she may get static hair and decide to cut it out!!!

When finished we decided to give them a bit of sparkle so we glued them onto wax paper with a diluted glue solution of about half white glue and half water. Then we brushed the glue solution onto the wax paper. Don't worry, the solution will bead a bit as the wax paper is too smooth. Lay down the snowflake carefully and then brush on a layer of the glue mixture. Sprinkle with glitter.

Allow to dry and then cut around the snowflake and hang in your windows, or walls or where ever you want. You could make smaller ones which would be perfect for tree ornaments.

Whoooo hoooo I WON

2011-11-21T12:44:00.000-08:00

A few days ago I came across THIS post over at Whipperberry and I WON!!! There were 2 winners for this contest...

#1 Ellen who said, "Ooo what a fun night! I think we'd follow your lead & have a Christmas crafting night. I'd like to make some special gift tags for my family. Thanks for the lovely giveaway!"

#2 Brooke who said, "I follow Whipperberry, your in my side bar and now I follow Elmer's on Facebook. If I were to win my theme would be a kids Christmas party where I would get kids together in the neighborhood to make gifts for their family."

Congrats my friends… You're going to love this prize pack!!

I can't believe it! I am so excited! I'm off to start thinking about what wonderful things I can make with some local kids as their gifts to their families this Christmas season :)

Thanks again Whipperberry and Elmers! I'll be sure to post and let you know what we all created :)

Winter Rabbit Book + Craft=FUN

2011-11-20T16:28:00.000-08:00

It snowed briefly here the other day and is disappearing almost as quickly as it arrived. With the snow comes feelings of winter especially since the leaves have all fallen and their limbs are all bare. Fall is my favourite season. I LOVE when all the the leaves change from their greens to their warm oranges, reds and yellows, and when the sunlight is just right...life is perfect! If it weren't for the Christmas season I would not like winter at all with it's snowy cold and wind...even here in Southern BC I get cold. (I grew up in Nova Scotia and left partly due to the cold winters)

Since I was feeling a little glum from the weather I decided I should try to make the snow positive and I looked towards the book shelf for inspiration. What better way to beat the winter blues then to be inspired by the horrid white stuff!

I haven't dug out all the winter items yet but we did have a copy of Winter Rabbit by Patrick Yee on our bookshelf.

So we read the story and then got out some paper, glue, scissors, markers, pastels, cotton balls, pipe cleaners, goggly eyes, something for the nose (we glued on a pink pony bead) and set to work.

First I let the girls pick out a rabbit shape from the book and drew it for them.(your child could draw their own rabbit if they want or you could trace a picture from the book if you prefer) and they cut them out, glued them onto a piece of blue construction paper and covered the rabbit by gluing on cotton balls. Add a face to your bunny with googly eyes, pony bead and a pipe cleaner mouth.

Use the pastels to draw on snowflakes falling down.

Simple...fun...book + craft. Easy fun for any afternoon! The girls had so much fun we are going to do Book+Craft=FUN on a regular basis so check back soon for more book + craft posts!! Enjoy

Color Me Mine Langley BC

2011-11-19T20:26:00.000-08:00

Today was the Grand Opening of "Color Me Mine" Langley. If you haven't been there yet you should go and check it out! Go for an afternoon of creative fun with your little one! They have a huge variety of affordable gifts you could have your little ones paint for grand parents or teacher gifts. They also do parties if you have a birthday or special occasion. Check out their website too as they have monthly events!!! They also have the rights to a lot of Disney characters!

We picked up a friend of Sierras from school for a fantastic play date day! Here is how we spent our day at their grand opening (I forgot my camera...thank goodness for cell phone cameras):

We painted of course!!!

Got fake tattoos

Faces painted

Got Balloon mermaids

They did a great job at their grand opening and I would recommend them as a great place to go!

Woodland Park Zoo

2011-11-16T15:49:00.000-08:00

While visiting Seattle this past weekend we visited the Woodland Park Zoo. Compared to our Vancouver Zoo I was very impressed. Plus with our membership to Carlsbad Living Desert Zoo we got in for FREE! Click HERE to read about our day at Carlsbad Zoo on my travel blog from this past summer. Our all time favourite zoo is still the Tampa Lowry Zoo in Florida. Click HERE to see our day there. If you visit central Florida and have kids...make sure you go. We got way more then our monies worth there.

Now onto our day at Woodland Park Zoo! It was a rainy and cool day but a lot of the animals were out including this whole family of monkeys right at the zoo entrance :)

Deciding which path to take and what animals to see first

This elephant was fun to watch. He kept tossing mud on his back,

then he'd roll around and get back up and toss some more.

We got to see this Tapir excitedly run back and forth through this little swimming hole.

"Come on lets get going"

plotting out the path

There were lots of wonderful sculptures all over the zoo.

Here the girls timidly explore a wolf den with baby wolf sculptures.

Isn't this bear a beauty :)

Aayla loving this river otter sculpture

Feeding the birdies

This little guy

reminds me of the story Verdi

In the outdoor woodland playground there were these turtle shells

so the girls could pretend to be Franklin :)

Sierra loved climbing on this big spider web.

It reminded me of Eric Carles the Very Busy Spider

All in all we enjoyed our rainy wet zoo day!

Seattle Children's Museum

2011-11-16T10:55:00.000-08:00

I'm a bit behind...this weekend we took a trip to Seattle.

and we went to the Children's Museum. The girls had a great time. They loved Global Village where they explored different cultures.

Having fun sewing

Making music

Visiting the different homes.

Here Aayla makes herself comfortable in a bed in Japan.

and Sierra checks out the kitchen

Can you tell Aayla likes beds??? Here she climbs in with Mama Bear and lays down for a little rest.

Night Night Mama Bear

They went on an ocean adventure

and joined in a dance party

Come on Grammy...join us!

Then we headed to Discovery bay

Time for lunch...the food court area had pint sized table and chairs for the kids...a great idea!

Then we went back in to the Lego/Block area. For some reason both girls were more interested in the duplo then the lego.

I LOVE these duplo walls. It was one of the things I used to always looked at in the catalogues for daycare but never bought so playing with it was lots of fun! (I have an idea to make one of these at home. We have duplo alphabets which these would be perfect for)

Aayla spent a lot of time riding the cars around.

Sierra posing in front of mural in the lego room

Next we headed to La Cocina del Cacto which was Aaylas favourite.

She could have stayed in here for hours!

Here Aayla makes a smoothie :)

And delivers it to an awaiting customer

Next Sierra brings in some tacos

Yum yum

Oh my grammy sure will be full after this meal

Then it was off to the Theatre

And learning about the behind the scenes areas like pulling the drapes

and using the lights and sound box.

Then it was time to do some shopping. This was a fun area but I was disappointed with it as the store area in the San Antonia Childrens Museum we went to in the summer was amazing!!! (See my post HERE if you want to see our time we spent there).

Sierra filling her cart FULL of bread products

And then weighing them all...oh my!

Then we were on to the Construction Zone where Aayla

had more fun laying out all the pieces on the floor in lines

Then they measured the lines

Here Sierra is collecting paintcans...but these paint cans were food to feed her cows???

Then it was time to hop on the bus and head back to the hotel :)

All aboard!

My girls can not walk by leaves without picking up a handful :)

Night night Space Needle...it looked so pretty lit up and framed by the colourful leaves.

Felt Poppy Tutorial and Fall Fun

2011-11-10T22:54:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow is Remembrance Day here in Canada and Veterans Day in the United States. Poppies have become a symbol of remembrance for those who gave their lives for our freedoms. How many Poppies have you purchased over the years to have them fall off and need to be replaced? We've lost many so this year I decided to make our own poppies.

All you need to make your own poppies is:
-red felt
-needle, thread, scissors
-black button
-petal pattern shape

1) Draw a petal shape or use my pattern piece in the next photo and cut out 4 petals from red felt. The pattern is approx. 1 1/2'tall by 1 3/4' wide.

2) Take each petal and sew the bottom together to form the shape of each petal.

3) Sew all four petals together at the centre of the flower. It doesn't matter if this stage is messy as it will be covered up with the button in stage 4.

4) Sew on a black button to the centre of the flower.

5) Turn your poppy over and sew on a safety pin.

6) Place on your lapel.

These would make a cute gift with this little poem printed on it:

I'll wear a little poppy,

As red as red can be,

To show that I remember

Those who fought for me.

I made 6 tonight very quickly so we all have one to wear tomorrow.

Today we took advantage of the warm afternoon air and had some fun playing in our leaves which are finally starting to fall off our trees. Fall is probably my favourite season. I love all the colours as the leaves change colours.

Here's how we enjoyed our leaves today:

Having Sierra loose her poppy in our leaves today prompted my evening
crafting of making family poppies that will stay on.

Daddy shaking more leaves off the tree :)

How have you enjoyed your leaves today?

Mushroom Math tutorial and More

2011-11-09T10:22:00.000-08:00

In case you missed it I wrote a post a little while ago called Muscaria Mushroom Madness which you can read HERE.

Since finding all those mushrooms to photograph I have been in a mushroom mood :) This week I made a Mushroom Math game. It only took a few minutes to make and is super simple to make and lots of fun play for your little ones. Good math skills and good fine motor skills too. For fun kids could use chopsticks to add the pom poms.

All you need is

-construction paper (red, green and white)

-glue stick, scissors, marker

-15 white pom poms for 5 mushrooms (coloured ones work too!)

-My pattern or draw your own

Here's my pattern. Use can use it or draw your own mushrooms.

1) Cut out 5 red mushroom caps, 5 white stalks and 5 white ring pieces.

2) Glue the stalk to the bottom of a green piece of paper.

3) Glue the ring piece to the bottom of the red cap and then glue on top of the stalk.

4) Write the numerals 1 to 5 on the base of each stalk.

5) Provide a bowl of at least 15 pom poms.

6) Children count the pom poms and put the correct number of pom poms on each mushroom cap.

If you want to study mushrooms a bit more here is a great diagram to learn the parts of a mushroom.

As well as this sweet puzzle which can be found HERE by mamaroots on Etsy.

We also made little mushroom treasure boxes.

To make them paint the outside of little wooden bowls red and the insides white.

Then add dots ontop of the red. We used the end of a paintbrush.

Paint a small wooden vase white to be the stalk and allow everything to dry.

When they are dry you can hide small treasures inside :)

We added our new treasure boxes to the rest of our wooden goodies and have had a great week of playing.

I LOVE our wooden toys maybe even more then the girls do! All of our wooden goodies come from many artists on Etsy. Some of my favourites are Mamakopp, Mamaroots, Jalu Toys, Pretty Dreamer, Rjabinnik, Little Red Whimsy, and Your Inspired.

Happy Halloween!!!

2011-10-31T22:11:00.000-07:00

Happy Halloween everyone!!!

We have had a fun filled day full of Halloween celebrations. I must say we love Halloween and I have been pleasantly surprised by how Sierra's elementary school handles Halloween. A lot of schools now a days cancel Halloween altogether or have an orange and black day or something similar.

So when the notice came home last week inviting all the parents to their Halloween parade where the kids could wear whatever they wanted...including masks (which was important to Sierra since she has wanted to be Darth Vader since she fell in love with THIS Volkswagon Super Bowl commercial).

So we spent the afternoon in Sierras class having lunch, watching the school parade

and then had a spooky snack together. One of the mom's in Sierra's class is a pastry chef and made these cute little cupcakes for the party. For you locals looking for some treats that look almost too good to eat you can visit her website here (link coming sorry I don't have it right now).

Then we went to pick up Aayla early. Their party was just winding down. Janine from the Centre for Child Development was visiting Aayla and her speech support worker to see how things were progressing and posed for a picture with Aayla.

then it was time to head home,

have supper, add our graveyard to the front yard,

and head out Trick or Treating!

When the bags got too heavy we headed for home.

To sort out the loot!!!

Hope you all had a SAFE and Happy Halloween!

Pumpkin Painting and Pumpkin Sun Catchers

2011-10-30T13:03:00.000-07:00

On our trip to the pumpkin patch this week we got several smaller pumpkins and gourds as well as our pumpkins we will each carve so we decided to do some pumpkin painting!

Add some glitter and voila! Perfect Painted Pumpkins!

While we waited for the paint to dry Sierra still wanted to paint so we made some simple pumpkin suncatchers.

To make a sun catcher all you have to do is cut out the center of a paper plate, paint the plate orange, set aside to dry.

Next colour a coffee filter with washable markers. You don't need to completely cover the whole filter. Add as much colour as desired. It will blend together in the next step.

Next use a paint brush to paint with water all over the coffee filter or you can use a spray bottle of water and spray it.

Allow to dry, then tape the filter to the back of your painted paper plate, add a stem and hang in your window.

We also started our Halloween treats for the the girls to give to their friends at school and daycare on Monday. We are covering lolipops with coffee filters, and colouring them a little. Traditionally these are done with kleenex but since we had the coffee filters out we thought we'd give this way a try :)

Pumpkin Patch fun

2011-10-29T12:11:00.000-07:00

Thursday was Sierra's class trip to the pumpkin patch so we made it into a family event as they were going to the same patch we go to every year near our house. It's called Rondriso Farms.

First everyone got to feed the cows

Then we listened to the farmer talk about the crops they grow, and how they care for their livestock.

Aayla, Sierra and Sierra's best friend Sophia sitting together

After the farmer spoke to us everyone got to make a pumpkin craft and learn about the different pumpkins and gourds the farm grows.

Sierra would rather be in the pumpkin patch

Sierra loves the story The Bumpy Little Pumpkin

by Margery Cuyler, illustrated by Will Hillenbrand so she had a special liking for this bumpy little gourd!

She really liked the bumpy gourds

Then they has a hunt for pumpkins in the yard while we waited for the tractors to be ready for the hayride to the pumpkin patch.

Look there's pumpkins!!!

Then it was off to choose a pumpkin...

Aayla carried this for a brief moment and then decided
she needed a smaller one :)

We had a great afternoon at the pumpkin patch...now off to play with our pumpkins.

What happens when shirt meets hot chandelier?

2011-10-25T17:59:00.000-07:00

Luckily Sierra loves her shirt enough to be upset and come running downstairs crying that she needs help.

As I start up the stairs I smell smoke...om my...how could she have stared a fire???

Sure enough the smell of smoke led us into our spare bedroom where she was watching a movie. She had thrown her shirt up in the air and it landed on the hot chandelier and was very burnt by the time I got there. In my panic there is no picture of the chandelier but here is what is left of her smouldering shirt.

She was very upset her shirt is ruined...perhaps she will think twice next time before throwing things around a room???

Featured on One Pretty Thing

2011-10-25T15:48:00.000-07:00

I'm excited to say my felt pumpkin post HERE made it onto One Pretty Thing!!! See it HERE.

If you don't know One Pretty Thing...go have a look. Rachel has an amazing selection of great kids activities as well as crafts, decorating ideas and lots more!