Advent Days 5-9

Day 5 - Read Christmas Books

This is one of the "easy" days I like to fill my calendar with. Before December I go on Amazon.com and order a bunch of new Christmas books for the girls and let them pick out 1 or 2 every time one of these days pop up. This year I printed off a few extra labels of "Read Christmas Books" to take the place of whatever we were doing that day just in case our day gets hectic and we don't get around to actually doing that activity. This strategy comes into play in a couple days and is VERY convenient because we can read the books at bedtime.

Day 6 - Go See a Movie at the Theater

Back in my original post, today was going to be a shopping day. After talking to the hubby we decided to take the girls to see Frozen at the movie theater as a special treat. They had a BLAST and the movie was GREAT!

Day 7 - Go to a Christmas Party

Today we got to go to hubby's company Christmas party. They always do a great job of providing the kids with a good time and the parents with some time to let down. The girls got to jump in bounce houses, make Christmas ornaments, get a balloon animal, and sit with Santa/get a present. Plus Lia got to try a deep fried candy bar. If you know Lia this was probably the highlight of her day!

Day 8 - Read Christmas Books

This is the day the extra labels came into play. I had originally slotted to make cookies with the girls today. Instead after church we cleaned the house and had friends over for dinner. So we read a Christmas book before bed and everyone was happy :)

Day 9 - Bake Cookies

Today we made up for yesterday and made Monster Cookies (a family favorite). Here is the recipe I used:

Monster Cookies
(yields 4 dozen)

3 eggs                                      1/2 tsp salt                               
1 stick butter                            2 tsps baking soda
1 1/2 cup peanut butter            1/2 tsp vanilla
1 cup sugar                              4 1/2 cups rolled oats
1 1/4 cup brown sugar             1/2 cup M&Ms
                                                 1/2 cup choc chips

Combine all ingredients. Spoon onto ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 12 mins.

The girls are old enough to really get to help and had a blast.
  

Advent Days 3 & 4

Day 3 - Watch a Christmas Movie

Today I took a mommy shortcut. Every day in the afternoon we have "rest time." During this time the girls are required to lay down with no talking and watch a movie. If they fall asleep GREAT if not, they at least get a break (and who am I kidding? so do I!). Earlier in the day we went to the library and rented a couple fun Christmas movies for the girls. They got to watch one of these movies during rest time. 5 minutes before bedtime I realized I hadn't done the advent activity so we flipped the card and read that we were supposed to watch a Christmas movie. So I turned to the girls and said "We got to watch a Christmas movie earlier today didn't we?" Worked for them, worked for me, activity short cut complete! (For those curious we watched The Care Bears: The Great Giving Holiday and the girls loved it.)

Day 4 - Make Gifts for Teachers

Today we made gifts to give to the volunteers that work with my girls in their Moppets program while I'm at MOPS every other Thursday. We started with the intention of making enough for all their Sunday School volunteers, gymnastics teachers, etc. However two minutes into the project Mommy realized there was no way their attention would last that long. So we stuck with the 8 Moppets volunteers and we will work on more another day. 

I got the idea for these Hot Chocolate Reindeer from Pinterest. Here is a link to the original tutorial.

 We started with our supplies: piping bags, hot chocolate mix, mini marshmallows, mini chocolate chips, googly eyes, red pompoms, brown pipe cleaners, and rubber bands.

 We put the hot chocolate mix in a piping bag then closed it off with a rubber band and trimmed the end. Then we placed that bag inside another piping bag and added mini chocolate chips, and mini marshmallows. I think this was the girls' favorite part (plus they may have snuck a few chocolate chips and marshmallows :).

 Then we were ready to add the eyes, antlers, and noses. At this point Lia had lost interest completely (well except for eating the marshmallows). So Sophie helped Mommy place the nose and eyes on with glue dots and bend the pipe cleaners into antler formation.

I hope the Moppets volunteers enjoy our little reindeer when we deliver them tomorrow!

Advent Days 1 & 2

Day 1 - Decorate the Christmas Tree

Sophia was old enough this year to help Daddy put the tree together! 

 After Daddy had the lights up it was time for ornaments!

All finished!! (I forgot to take a picture of the star. . .mostly because it took a little finagling to get it to stay on . . .)

Day 2 - Read the Nativity Story/Nativity Sticker Books

Recently I went to a friend's Usborne Books party and found these gems. I could not be more happy with the purchases. These are both great books. The first is a board book which has a great rendition of the Christmas story that is perfect for little eyes and ears.  The second is exactly as it says, a Nativity sticker dress-up activity book.

Both of the girls loved playing with the sticker books after we read the story!

Christmas Advent 2013

Yes, it is December 2nd and although I have had my list of advent activities for this year compiled for a week or two I just now got around to finally putting my board together. Procrastination is one of my strongest attributes :) So here is a picture of the completed board, hung on my wall, ready to be "attacked" this Christmas season.

 

I made this board last year after getting the idea on Pinterest from The Girl Creative. You can find her tutorial for the board here. It worked well for us last year and we're looking forward to using it for many years to come. Last year I printed out all my "activities" on mailing labels and put them on the back of the cards. This year I just printed new labels and placed them right over the top of the ones from last year. I also decided to laminate my cards so they would hold up a little better over the years.

This is my list for this year. I've included links to ideas from Pinterest.

1 - Decorate Christmas Tree

2 - Read Nativity Story/Usborne Nativity Sticker Books

3 - Watch a Christmas Movie (Max & Ruby)

4 - Make Gifts for Teachers (includes all teachers in their extracurricular activities, church, preschool)

5 - Read New Christmas Books

6 - Buy a Present for Your Sister & One for Charity

7 - Go to a Christmas Party (@ Daddy's Work)

8 - Bake Cookies with Mommy

9 - Make CD Snowman

10 - Watch a Christmas Movie (Golden Winter)

11 - Read The Jolly Christmas Postman

12 - Go to a Cookie Decorating Party

13 - Make Santa Handprint Ornament

14 - Visit Santa

15 - Watch a Christmas Movie (How the Grinch Stole Christmas)

16 - Make Snowman Handprint Ornaments

17 - Make & Play with Christmas Play dough

18 - Read New Christmas Books

19 - Make Christmas Tree Ornaments (Craft Kit from Michael's)

20 - Decorate a Graham Cracker Gingerbread House

21 - Go see Christmas Lights

22 - Christmas at Grandma & Grandpa's

23 - Make Christmas Treats

24 - Read Twas the Night Before Christmas

25 - Christmas Day

 

I'm hoping to be able to blog about each of our daily adventures. Some are a little more exciting than others but I'll be sure to include them all. I might even add in a few mommy crafts I'm working on this month :) Stay tuned. . .

Wedding/Prom Garter Tutorial

As many of you know my little sister got married a couple months ago! As part of the preparations I had the fun of making her garters for her. She requested Chicago Blackhawks garters to surprise her groom with (a fantastic idea in my book). In the end they looked a little like this.

I recently had the privilege of making another set (this time Chicago Cubs) for a friend. This time around I decided to share the process :) Hope you enjoy!

Wedding Garter Tutorial

Supplies Needed:
Ribbon (1 1/2" for the widest portion; 1" for the middle portion)
Thread
Elastic
Emellishments
Straight Pins
Safety Pin
Scissors
Sewing Machine

(I have a hot glue gun in my picture but I ended up not using it.)

1. The first thing you're going to want to do is measure the leg the garter will be on. I didn't have this capability so I cut my elastic to be 14". If you are able to measure the leg, you will want to cut your elastic to be a little shorter than what you measure so it "holds" onto the leg and doesn't slide down.

2. The next thing to do is to cut your ribbon to be 1 1/2 x as long as your elastic. (In my case the ribbon was 21".)

3. Next pin your 2 types of ribbon together . You will want to center the more narrow ribbon on the wider ribbon.

(I added ruffles to the bottom of the keepsake garter shown)

4. Now you can sew your ribbon together. To do this you want to sew as close to the edge as possible down both sides of the narrow ribbon. By doing this you are creating a casing for your elastic to be fed through.

5. Now attach your safety pin to one end of your elastic and feed it through the casing you just made. Use a straight pin to attach the end of the elastic to each end of the casing. The casing should bunch up since it is longer than the elastic.

6. Now fold the garter in 1/2 so that the right sides are facing each other and sew through all layers. At this point I also burn the ends of my ribbon so they won't fray.

6. And this is what you get.

7. The last thing to do is attach any embellishments you want. To make the sports themed garters I used charms from dangle earrings I purchased online and some extra ribbon for the bow. I sewed them on but you could also hot glue them (hence the hot glue gun in the first picture). And Voila!

(Please excuse the pasty white leg :P)

Froggy Birthday Cake

We recently celebrated our youngest's 1st birthday. It was such an amazing milestone and required a great party!!  I have this thing about making my kids' birthday cakes myself. My mom always did this for us and I just love the idea of putting the thought and effort into this project for my little love bugs. I've deemed frogs as Amelia's animal of choice since she can't verbalize her favorite animal yet. So it only seemed fitting to make her a froggy cake!! 

I started with 2 cake mixes and made 2 - 9" rounds, 2 - 8x8 squares, and 4 cupcakes. I had a silicone muffin tin so I didn't need to use cupcake liners.

Once I let all of the cakes cool completely I started the assembly process. First, I leveled and stacked the 2 rounds and set them aside. Then I leveled and stacked the 2 squares. I cut the legs out of the squares something similar to this.

Once I had the legs cut out, I put the cake together. (I reused an old box and covered it in aluminum foil for my cake board.) I used toothpicks to help hold the legs in place. I also ended up cutting a little bit off the sides of the stacked rounds so the legs would sit close to the body.

At this point I started frosting the cake (It took a couple coats). I used store bought whipped frosting that I dyed with food coloring paste. Once I had the cake frosted I added the eyes. For each eye I leveled and stacked 2 cupcakes (using toothpicks again). I then afixed them to the top of the body with toothpicks.

I frosted the sides of the eyes green then used white and black to draw in the rest of the eyes and mounth (and a little pink for the tongue). Wa-la!! It turned out better than I thought it would (which is always nice). :)

It turned out great and was a fantastic addition to Lia's froggy first birthday!

Happy Birthday To My Little Lia!!!

Bacon, Egg, & Cheese Biscuit Casserole

So rarely do I ever get to watch TV during the day. My toddler normally has the TV monopolized when it is on :) However a few weeks ago I did get a chance to watch an episode of the The Chew. I happened to tune it towards the end of this recipe but it hit a sweet spot with me. Now who doesn't love breakfast for dinner? This seemed like such a Home Run for my family! After looking over the recipe a little I decided to tweek it to make it simpler and less time consuming. I also took out the chives just because I honestly didn't think it needed the extra. My family absolutely loved it (and so did my MOPS group!).  (You can find the original recipe here.)

Bacon, Egg, & Cheese Biscuit Casserole

• 1 pound bacon (cooked and chopped)
• 1 package Grands Biscuits
• 6 large eggs
• 1 1/2 cup milk
• salt & pepper to taste
• 1/2 cup cheddar cheese (grated)

The recipe is for a 9"x13" pan. However, this time around I was just making it for my family of 4 for dinner so I halved the recipe and made it in a 8x8 pan. (The ingredients listed above are for the full recipe.)

 

First, you make the biscuits according to the directions on the package. I sprinkled some shredded cheddar cheese on top of mine because I love me some cheese!   

Once the biscuits are done you can let them cool and move on to the bacon. I make my bacon in the oven which cuts down on mess. That & no matter how hard I try I simply can NOT make bacon in a skillet. . . To make bacon in the oven line a cookie sheet with either aluminum foil or parchment paper and bake it at 400 degrees for 15-18 mins. I ended up making a full pound and am glad I did because I ended up burning 1/2 of it. (See I told you can't cook bacon. . .somethings just elude me. . .)

Once the bacon is cooled, chop it up. 

Now you're ready to start assembling your casserole!

Start by slicing your biscuits in 1/2. 

Then layer the bottom 1/2 of the biscuits in the bottom of your buttered casserole dish.

Next, sprinkle all of your chopped up bacon and shredded cheese over the biscuits.

And finish off the layer with the tops off the biscuits.

Next, you're going to whisk your eggs, milk, salt & pepper together and pour it over the entire casserole. 

Cover the dish and let it sit in the fridge for about a 1/2 hour to let the juices really soak in :)

Then cook it covered at 350 degrees for 45-55 minutes are until the eggs are set. (I spaced the cooking it covered part so mine got a little crisp on top. . . But oh so yummy!!)

 Bonus - if you make it for dinner and have left overs you have breakfast the next morning! Score!