A Year of Family Fun

While traumatic, our family's experience with Elliott's brain tumor and subsequent craniotomy during the Winter/Spring of 2012 was a reminder that nothing is more important to us than spending time (and having fun) as a family.  With that in mind we decided to give our girls a year's worth of trips and experiences for Christmas last year.  This was a HUGE hit with our girls (and us!), so we did it again this Christmas.

I've been working in a list of things to do and places to go for months, and after the girls went to bed on Christmas Eve, I quickly made these certificates.  Some of the certificates were paired with books (a castles book with the Medieval Times certificate and an art book with the Van Gogh certificate).

These trips will last throughout the entire year with the last trip being to Great Wolf Lodge during December of 2014 (we went this December and had a fantastic time being there during the Christmas season).  Both girls were thrilled with these certificates for our upcoming year of fun trips and experiences, and we can't wait to get started with our first trip next week!!!

Melted Crayon Ornaments

Several friends told me about this melted crayon ornament idea, and it sounded simple and fun enough to try!

First, we shaved crayons (using a pencil sharpener for small shavings and a small knife for larger pieces).  We put the crayon shavings into clear glass ornaments.

Then we heated the shavings within the ornaments using a hair dryer (the ornaments are too hot to hold, so they are hanging from the snowman's hat).

This was a simple and fun activity, and the ornaments are beautiful!

 
 
 
 

Santa!

Our girls are so excited and proud that their Grandpa is one of Santa's helpers!

 

Our Ballerina

O(7) was a Land of the Sweets Candy Cane Attendant in a recent performance of the Nutcracker Ballet.  She was only onstage for about 30 seconds, but it was a great experience and she loved it.

Both of our girls LOVE The Nutcracker Ballet, and several of their advent activities/gifts have revolved around this ballet.  We frequently read our Nutcracker books, and they have loved watching the dvd recently.  They also love the Dover Nutcracker coloring books.

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Our Gingerbread House

The girls and I are continuing our Christmas tradition of opening a Christmas book and doing a Christmas activity as our countdown to Christmas.  I'm not nearly as organized with this as I was last year, but it's just as much fun when it's thrown together :)

About a week ago, we built and decorated our gingerbread cottage.  It's a Christmas miracle that it didn't fall down!  We propped it up with magnatiles until the icing dried.  It looks a little rough, but we had fun making it and that's all that matters to us!






We love the book that always goes along with our gingerbread cottage activity, Cookie Count.

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Melissa and Doug Unit Blocks...50% Off!!!!

Melissa and Doug Unit Blocks are 50% off today at Amazon!  These are some of the BEST toys ever, and every child should have a set!!!  We've had our blocks for about 6 years, and both girls still LOVE them.  I'm tempted to buy another set since this is such a great deal :)

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