ADVENT*ures Day 4

PHEW!! *Wiping sweat from my brow*

What a day!!

We woke up late. Not sure why… maybe I hit snooze one too many times?!?

Youngest daughter, Katie, had an appointment with the Cleft Palate Clinic today.

She is growing like a weed and gets prettier every time the doctors & nurses, dentists, surgeons, psychologists, social workers, and other members of the team see her. She will probably need more work on her defect when she is bigger, for now, we wait & watch her grow.

While he was at school today, Nicholas lost another tooth!! The tooth fairy is going broke! 4 teeth in 4 weeks!!

This photo made it very obvious I need to take the child and his glasses in to the Walmart Vision Center to get them adjusted – again. LOL

This evening, we went to our local Home Depot for a Kids’ Craft night. We also got to see Santa!

For some reason, my oldest – 18 year old Christopher did not want to sit on Santa’s lap or do the craft. LOL He was a huge help with the kids though and he plans on bringing them to craft night next week for “Build A Gift for Mom”. (That way, I can be surprised.)

I’ll post a picture of the cute craft they did tonight when the paint dries. Some of the children were more liberal with their paint.

Day 4 of Bible Study & Advent Devotionals – DONE! WOOT!

ADVENT*ures Day 3

Today was mostly uneventful. Seriously.

Grocery Shopping.

More cookie baking.

Yesterday was a serious adventure in cookie baking and decorating. I think I have the royal icing thing figured out. Maybe.

Oldest daughter is at her Hip-Hop Dance Class. I seriously cannot wait until recital to see how far she has come.

Tomorrow, youngest daughter goes to see all of her specialists for her cleft palate. It’s an annual thing, I do not expect to get any serious information or that they’re planning another procedure for her any time soon. She works with a speech therapist at school twice per week and this seems to be enough for now.

Tomorrow evening, our local Home Depot is holding a special Kids’ Workshop. They’ll making a Christmas craft. Next week they will make a gift for Mom and the week after that is a gift for Dad.

Yesterday, youngest daughter took a link off of the Countdown Chain.

Tonight, the middle child & middle son took the link off.

We also managed to get Day 3 of all of our Advent Devotional materials done. YAY! I’m even current on my Bible study and don’t need to play catch-up yet!

As for making scrapbook pages about our December – that will probably start happening soon, but I’ll be ok if that project is waiting for me in January. Documenting our days here on my blog counts!

ADVENT*ures Day 2

This post is going to photograph heavy. Please be patient.

First, I’ll show & tell you about the awesome craft I made yesterday.

Did you (or your children) ever make chains out of strips of construction paper? Do you get as disappointed as I do when they fade? rip? and need to be thrown away?

I have the solution!

My children and I started making construction paper Countdown-To-Christmas Chains a few years ago. All that work just to throw it all away.

*light bulb moment*

This year we made our countdown chain out of craft foam sheets – like these…

I cut the red & green into strips about 1/2”-3/4” wide.

Then I used Velcro Brand self-adhesive dots for the fastener.

I used clear ones, but couldn’t find those to link up at Amazon.

Then I wrote the numbers 1-24 on the strips using Tulip Dimensional Fabric Paint 4oz Puffy White

While I was patiently *ahem* waiting for the puffy paint to dry, I made a template for a star.

I cut the star shape out of that fancy-schmancy glitter foam sheet you see in the photo above.

Anyway…

It all ended up looking like…

Last night, my youngest child took the first link off.

Now we have a reusable “Construction Paper” Paper Chain to Countdown-To-Christmas. The whole project including the overage I purchased cost just over $8.

Today, I am playing with sugar cookies and royal icing.

My middle son wants Dinosaur Sugar Cookies to take to school for his Birthday treat next week. I’ve heard that royal icing is difficult to work with so I decided to start practicing this week.

My grandmother’s sugar recipe is perfect!

Now to start making royal icing. Adding more confectioners’ sugar to the grocery list, I think I’m going to need it.

Proud moment! We made it through all of the Advent reading and activity things I showed you yesterday again this morning. I’m even on track in my Bible Study!

Oh… the tree?!? Did we decorate it? We sure did, finished it up last night.

Then we watched The Grinch and ate popcorn.

Our ADVENT*ures Begin

Today, Sunday, December 1, 2013 is the first day of Advent. We are so excited to start counting down to the birth of our Lord Jesus! This is an exciting time in the life of our family, made even more special by the fact our two youngest children (5 years old) are understanding the Faith & Family traditions more.

Most families have one Advent wreath or calendar. We have *way* more. I'd be an over-achiever if I expected we will do all of the activities and readings that came with them.

First up, our family Advent & Christmas "wreath".

This Nativity sculpture and candle holder was a gift from some very dear friends.

Next up we have the Advent wreath which came home from Religious Ed. with my kindergarden students last weekend.

Pardon the sideways photo, I have not figured out how to edit the photo orientation on my phone. (This post is coming to you from my phone.)

Next we have the Advent countdown activity my 2nd grader brought home from Religious Ed.

I've never seen this one before, so it should be fun!

The we have a Jesse Tree brought home by my 5th grader.

I also have a countdown to Christmas book and calendar.

I'll be thrilled if we do, read, etc. only one or two of these each day. I also found an Advent Bible Study I am going to try to complete. There is a version of the study for children also. Not sure if I will add the children's study to our activities or not.

Today is the day we decorate our Christmas Tree! The kids are so excited!

Happy 1st of December!

Happy first Sunday of Advent!