Advent Day 11

Okay, I'm out of order.  It's been a busy few days.  

Tonight for advent we scheduled Christmas Caroling.  Then we had a flat tire that ended up keeping the boys and I away from home until dinner time.  That meant late dinner, and late bed time.  We decided to change our project (and we are thankful that our boys can't read yet).

We chose to make baby Jesus out of play dough!  The boys LOVED the project.  We had fun talking about what Jesus looked like (our babies have mustaches).  Here is a quick clip from our family time.

Finding Peace through Advent

Have you noticed that we tend to fast forward through our holidays?  We try and fill our time with all of the great festivities and busy ourselves with shopping.  Christmas time is frequently anything but peaceful.

This week, as we lit our advent candle, we talked about peace.  Peace is often a struggle - I like fast paced living.  I like the rush of adventure.  I fret about things like "am I doing enough to teach my boys" and "what should I be doing to make my home a healthier, happier place".  While these are great things to consider - I sometimes forget to allow myself to experience the peace of God.

This month, as we celebrate advent, Randy and I have set out family activities that help us focus on the season of Christmas.  We have something every day that points us to the anticipation of the coming of Christ.  The change of our change of focus, the other concerns are less.

My lesson: When Christ is my focus, my problems fade.

How has advent changed your family life?

Advent Experience: Week 1 Review

This is the first year we are practicing the celebration of Advent.  We are excited about the idea, but uncertain about how it would all work out.  Randy and I sat down and briefly reviewed our week together tonight so that we could talk about what, if any, changes we would make during the next weeks.

What we like:
- We have an excuse to sit down at our table every night - it's easier for us to say no to going out to dinner when we have a planned activity after dinner. 
- We've got a planned conversation topic for our meal.  This really helps with engaging the boys.
- It's given purpose and shape to our learning with the boys.
- The boys have changed in their prayer life (even in this week).
- It helps us focus on the birth of Christ.
- The boys look forward to our special family time.
- We are building beautiful memories and new family traditions!

What we are not so sure about:
- It's been more difficult to schedule our time at the gym.
- The boys are staying up later because it has changed our routine.
- We sometimes struggle to focus on the reason instead of the activities.  We'll modify some of our activities for next year.

Overall:
We are enjoying the celebration of Advent.  We'll absolutely make it part of our family tradition as our boys grow.  The boys have changed even in this week from begging to eat dinner out, to thanking God in their prayers that we can eat healthy food at home instead of at a restaurant. 

Advent Day 7

Today was day 7 of Advent.  At dinner we talked with the boys about the meaning of Hope.  They are starting to understand a little better.  Cassius pulled the activity out of our calendar to find out what we were going to do today.  Pulling the activity card out of the envelope has become a coveted job for our boys.

The chosen activity for this evening?  Making ornaments!  I spent a little more time than I had planned looking up DIY ornaments for preschoolers on Pinterest.  I did not find nearly as many as I had hoped, but I got crafty and we had fun with things we already had around the house.  (Hoorah for not needing to drive across town to buy craft supplies at the last minute.  Below are pictures of our not quite completed ornaments - each needs some finishing touches to make it last longer than this week.

Finger Paint hand and foot prints.  At least one for each child.  They were made on white construction paper.  I will be writing their name/date on the back of each one, then covering them with contact paper and stringing them with ribbon once they have dried.

Glitter pine cones.  This was the EASIEST craft we did and the boy's favorite.  I tied spare yarn around the top of the pine cone so I can make a loop to hang it.  The boys poured their own glue onto the pine cones - this was tricky for my 2 year old.  Then they went to town, sprinkling sparkles all over the pine cones.  I still need to loop the yarn, otherwise these are completed.

Watercolor paper ornaments.  The boys got watercolor paints in their stockings this morning.  Each boy had 4 paper ornament cut outs to paint.  When they are dry, I will mount them on cardstock and punch a hole through the loop at the top.  Then I will string them with ribbon.

Milk Jug Christmas Trees.  I grabbed an old milk jug, rinsed it out - then drew these simple tree shapes on 2 of the sides.  I cut them out for the boys.  They used permanent markers (with close supervision) to color them.  I made holes in the top of each with the scissors.  They still need to be strung so they can hang on the tree.

Foam photo ornaments.  These came in a kit from Hobby Lobby last year after Christmas.  They were super cheap and have been cluttering my house for nearly a year!  The boys needed help to glue the pieces onto the fronts of their ornaments, but enjoyed decorating them.  I still need to print pictures of each boy to put behind the foam, and glue the cardboard onto the back of the ornament.

There you have it, a preschool ornament party in my dining room.  What kinds of ornaments do you like to make with preschoolers?

  

Advent Day 6

December 6 is St. Nikolas Day!  Children traditionally celebrate by leaving stockings or shoes out for St. Nick the night before in hopes that he will leave gifts for them.  We had Awana on December 5, so decided to wait.  As part of our St. Nikolas Day celebration, we decorated stockings and hung them by the fireplace.  December 7 we woke them early to open their stockings and again shared about who St. Nikolas was and why people like to remember him.

Mommy Lesson #17: Never Poop

It's been months since I shared a mommy lesson.  They all come from my personal experience... here's our experience of today.

The story:
Today we had school time.  The boys ADORE school time, and I love it that it keeps them busy, learning, and not dumping legos all over the floor.  Manasseh's lesson included some cutting and gluing.  He did a FANTASTIC job.  Suddenly, I had a belly ache.  I HAD to poop and RIGHT NOW.  I left the boys to do their work and implored them to go upstairs after they finished the next task.

They did not.

When I returned from my private time, I discovered this:

Oh yes... the dreaded self-haircut.  I suppose that it's "normal" for preschoolers to do this.. but well, this mama LOVES her boy's hair.  

What I learned: Even in an emergency situation, stop to grab the scissors.

This morning

11am

                 

Now "I don't like the clippers"

I think he learned a lesson too.  He cried the whole time I used the clippers.  He didn't like the way it felt or the hair all over his body.  Oi, let's hope the next 2 don't find scissors too.

Cheap & Super Easy Toddler Sleeping Bag

My "big" boys are getting new mama-made sleeping bags for Christmas as part of a camping play set that I'm putting together.  I got some incredibly cute fabrics the day after Thanksgiving at an amazing price and am looking forward to putting those together very soon.

We were at Walmart the other day and I got to thinking that the little guy is just starting to get to the point that he wants to do what his brothers are doing.  He will probably want his own sleeping bag for playing camping in the very near future as well.  We happened to walk past a big bin of cheapo, thin fleece blankets - they were something like $3 or $4 a piece.  I picked one out that I didn't think looked TOO girly, and had a fun print on it.

Seriously, this is how simple his sleeping bag is... I opened it up, found the halfway line, pinned some ribbons on the OUTSIDE of the fabric.  I made the pattern on the ribbon face outside, next time I'll reverse it so that when I tie the bag together the pattern shows easily.  I measured my ribbon by wrapping it around the rolled blanket and giving it enough slack to make bows.

Next I pinned the blanket sides together, leaving the ribbons on the outside of the fabric - which became the INSIDE of my pins, they were hidden while I sewed.  I used a quick straight stitch about 2/3 of the way around the folded blanket, leaving room to fold the top open for easy entrance/exit.

Here is the finished bag, ribbon closures in place.  I folded the corner down, which you cannot see at all in this picture.  One thing I like about using the blanket is that it already has finished edges, so it looks like I did a lot of work.

Rolled, tied, ready to wrap for a Christmas morning surprise.

If you were putting together a camping play set for preschool/kindergarten aged boys, what would you make sure to include?