Saturday, December 26, 2009

Handmade

Every year since Mr. E was born I like to give a little something hand-made from him and now the Little Miss as well. Now that they're older, they actually like to participate in the creating. E tends to lose interest quickly and I have to keep the activities moving, but I'm happy to say I think I've found my lifetime crafting partner in Little Miss; she can sit for a long time and create. On a side note: Today she drew her first person with a crayon. I'll have to scan it and share. Here are some photos of what was created this year.
I cannot seem to figure out how to put the pictures in the correct order without deleting them, so these are a bit out of sequence. My blogging skills are just not there yet; I'm working on it.

Popsicle stick Christmas trees- This was very quick and easy because I bought the sticks already painted green. The kids assembled and decorated as they wished. We only made a couple of these, but I think we'll make some more next year.

Handpainted trees on mini canvases. For Little Miss I used masking tape to make a quick triangle stencil so she could paint green and for Mr. E., he first made a line using a brown marker and then added his "pine". He is very hard on himself and thinks his sister's came out better, but I think his are just as fabulous and so great because they are all his artwork. We decorated them with sprinkles, ribbon, and a star button. We sent one of these to the kids' birthparents. (By the way, I paid $.25 each for the canvases...love bargains!!!)


Although it can get messy, the kids love to paint! It's definitely on the top of their crafting preferences.

Painted wooden snowflakes with glitter. For the grandparents we glued this year's Christmas photo in the center. I kept one of these as well :)

The aftermath of the crafting .... As you can see not a soul could be found when it was time to clean up.
Evan drew a cute snowman one day and so I decided to scan it and use it for gift tags for all his "teacher" gifts.


The end result of the glittered snowflakes. We sent one of these to each of the kids' birthfamilies as part of their Christmas gift.

...and the finished Christmas trees...this was my favorite this year!

Saturday, December 19, 2009

A package arrived....

...and it was for the kids. It was a set of gifts from Little Miss' birthfamily. How sweet they are! Both kids were so excited to open their first gift of the Christmas season. E even stopped playing Guitar Hero to play the new game he got- ZINGO. It is definitely a welcomed addition to our limited game collection. We've been playing Chutes and Ladders multiple times a day for the past 2 weeks!


Little Miss was also quite thrilled with her magnetic dress-up dancer and princess.

Thank you birthfamily...we love you!

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

From the Heart

I finally finished packaging up the gifts for Little Miss' and E's birthfamilies. They'll be in the mail tomorrow. It's been a fun tradition to send gifts each year and now that E is getting older, he is getting more involved in the process.

Now to get to the 49 other things on my list, which includes finding out why I can't load the rest of my pictures onto my computer. I'll have to attempt another post with photos of the kids' handmade ornaments tomorrow.

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

The First Snowfall

Although there was barely a 1/2 inch of snowfall this past weekend, we still managed to make the first snow people of the season. It's been a while since the snow has been conducive to making snowmen, but this snow was perfect!
Little Miss was not thrilled with the whole snow thing...she spent most of the time sitting on the back deck avoiding the snow and when she was forced to step in it, she would yell, "Pick me up Mommy, pick me up!" A snow bunny she is not! Primping her snowgirl distracted her long enough to forget she was stepping in the snow and she managed to also find a patch of grass to plant her feet in. All was good. At least I didn't have to worry about her wandering...



Here she is in her designated safe zone...Yikes! Check out the mildew on the deck; think it will be time for a power washing in the spring.
Can't wait for the next snow day.

Thursday, December 3, 2009

In a flash...

I can't believe this was two years ago...where does the time go?


Monday, November 30, 2009

It's all good...

Not much time to write, but here are a few (very) random pics:
Little Miss showing her strong-willed determination to get her point across,
E being silly

One of my sleeping beauties...love watching them sleep!
The sophisticated look...

Have a fun day! :)


Monday, November 23, 2009

Until the Spring

E just wrapped up the fall season of soccer. We are so proud of him. The first game he really did not stay vertical for more than a minute at a time. After bribing him with lollipops to stay standing throughout the game, he stopped the drama of falling. His coach described him like this: " E is one of the least selfish players. He always keeps an eye on defense but when we are attacking, he is always ready to pass or in the right position receive a pass from one of his teammates." On the field, the boy is full of empathy; always concerned when someone falls and a little shy about taking the ball away from someone. Not so concerned, however, when playing with mommy in the backyard! We're looking forward to the Spring season...he is sad it's over and so are we.

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

And so it begins...

The Christmas season is underway and it's not even Thanksgiving yet. It seems crazy and most of us think it's ridiculous, but I too am guilty...I'm already hooked on listening to the radio stations that are playing 24 hour Christmas music, and even worse...I have introduced it to my children and encouraged them to sing along with me. Now it will be 39 days of "When is it going to be Christmas Mommy?" It's all worth it though! I think our recent ride on the "Polar Express" has officially put me in the spirit of Christmas.






It's the most wonderful time of the year!

Friday, November 13, 2009

First Gift


As I was doing my daily check of all my favorite blogs, I was inundated by posts about the First Gift Campaign. Instead of doing my own post about this cause, I figured I'd link you to my fellow bloggers who can share the message so much better than I can.

The Macs

Whatever

Under the Sycamore

Will you make this your first gift this Christmas? I did! My donation gave 4 people water for 10 years!

Thursday, November 12, 2009

Halloween leftovers

Gosh, it's been way too long since my last post. Life has just gotten away from me the past month. Hopefully things will slow down and I can start doing some regular posts. Here are lots of random pictures from Halloween. Little E is growing up; we went trick or treating with his friends from the neighborhood...he had a blast! Little Miss definitely got into the trick or treating too. She refused to skip any houses and was all business!

Aunt Sue sent the kids some fun goodies (which reminds me, I never called to thank her..yikes!) We made this paper chain and decorated with stickers. The kids had started to decorate the handrail on the stairs with the stickers and I thought a paper chain to hang from the stairs would be a good compromise.

E and his Ninja turtle cousin who joined us for the neighborhood trick or treating.
Mem and Pep with 4 of their 5 grandchildren. Handy Manny was sleeping in the car...must have been a tough day of repairs.


Per tradition, we visited both gran-memeres for trick or treats; they are always thrilled to see us! I think they would be very sad if we didn't visit.




Treats, treats, and more treats...how long does the sugar from all this junk actually stay in your body anyway? I'm feeling like my kids have been on a sugar high since then...is that possible?





Have a sweet day all! Hope to "see" you soon.

Saturday, October 24, 2009

My day as a student..

I attended my first ever photography class today at The Bristol Workshops and my brain is hurting. The instructor gave so much information and I'm excited to try out all I learned! I now know pretty much all there is to know about my camera...it's about time; I've had it for at least 5 years. Unfortunately the weather was not cooperative and we were not able to take too many pictures outside. We were able to get a few and I did some editing ...so fun! The class included a brief overview of the Photoshop software as well. I'm looking forward to practicing and implementing my newly found knowledge.

Here are a couple pictures from today. I'll be posting more soon.



Thursday, October 15, 2009

DIY Ghosts

On a recent shopping outing to Building 19, they had rolls of "rags" by the dozen for only $2.00...PERFECT for a fun Halloween Project. Add some leaves, raffia, and a permanent marker for hand-drawn faces and you have ghosts! Mr. E actually was excited to create...something he has not always been thrilled about.
He made some adorable faces too!




He got a little off task and wanted to make a the ships that Columbus sailed in. He had just learned about it in school and was proud to talk about the Nina, the Pinta and the Santa Maria.
We mounted the ghosts on sticks we found in the yard and decorated our front walk with them.
Definitely a fun and cheap project for a Holiday afternoon.