Gingerbread Pirates

We had one last ornament to make for our Story Book Tree and finished it up the day before Christmas Eve.  The kids made gingerbread men out of craft foam, puff paint, glitter glue and beads.  Before they made their ornaments I read The Gingerbread Pirates to them.  We’d never read this book before, but it was so good.  They all enjoyed it, even Hanna who reluctantly sat in on it, but admitted it ‘was a cute book for the boys’ when it was over :-).

I also made homemade gingerbread cake for a treat.  Needless to say, the three oldest kids did not like the gingerbread, but Jamie, myself and Jesse enjoyed it.  My mom says my Grandma always made this with a hot lemon sauce when she was a child.  I gave most of it to my mom and she said it was good.

We had a wonderful Christmas.  A special day, a happy and fun month.  We are enjoying just being around home, playing with Christmas ‘toys’ and relaxing this week.  I am also doing some mega planning for the month of January.  We will start back to school January 2nd.  Even though the break has been wonderful I got excited about starting back as I began my planning tonight. 

We will be starting back with a unit on bears.  Stay tuned…

More Christmas Fun

We’ve been very busy crafting while we enjoy other Christmas activities and gatherings with family this month.  We’ve mostly made ornaments for our Story Book Tree.  Here’s what we’ve done over the past week.

• Baby Jesus Star for Mortimer’s Christmas Manger (and Cat in the Manger)
• Craft stick snowmen (Joe & Jack), bottlecap snowman (Hanna), glass ball handprint snowmen (Jesse, picture coming, Mama still has to finish the hats on this one) for Snowmen at Night
• Paper plate angels (Joe, Jack), paper plate wreath (Joe), mason jar lid poinsettia (Hanna) for The Legend of the Poinsettia

The night the boys made craft stick snowmen to go along with ‘Snowmen at Night’, Jamie and Hanna were on a Daddy/Daughter date at Frankie’s Fun Park.  After I put Jesse to bed, Joe, Jack and I read the book, made ornaments and they helped make S’mores Rolls for a treat to go with Snowman Milk.  They loved making the rolls and when I pulled out the milk they thought it was really neat.  We watched Frosty the Snowman while they ate their treat.  It was a fun night.I’ve had fun making these special crafts with the kids and the treats for them this month.  We have a few more things to finish up the next couple days.  I am very much looking forward to getting together with family and being together to celebrate Christmas this weekend.  It has been a good month and we’ve definitely made memories together that will be lasting for me and I hope the kids can say the same—that is always my hope as I plan and prepare here at home for them.

*Everything we’ve made can be found, here, on my Christmas Pinterest Board if you are interested.**

Handprint Art

I love hand and footprint art.  It will be heartwarming to have these sweet masterpieces to look back on years from now.  I already treasure seeing Hanna’s tiny hands and feet on her pieces from when she was a toddler. 

I still have several hand/footprint things to make with the kids over the next couple weeks, but here is what we’ve made so far.

Jack made a reindeer, oops, I mean moose :-). Jesse made an angel and a Christmas tree. We also made a trip to our local paint your own pottery store to make a Family Handprint Tree and Jesse made a footprint manger.  I can’t wait to get those back!  I am excited to hang the tree up in our home.  I hope to make a plate for each month/season/special holiday this year to put out on an easel in the kitchen where I display plates the kids have made in their pottery camps over the years.  I’m thinking footprint snowmen for January with the three boys, and Hanna’s hands making the same thing as in my header above for February.  The pottery pieces the kids make are priceless. 

More later…off to do some catching up on my family blog…

Christmas Crafting and Fun

We have been enjoying making lots of special ornaments for our tree, reading our favorite Christmas books (and several new ones too), reading a selection from our Christ Book each day and yesterday we started with our Brown Bag 12 Days of Christmas.  The kids look forward to each day and to seeing what we will be making, doing or eating :-).  It was well worth the time I put into planning and preparing to see the smiles on their faces this month so far.

So far we’ve read and made the following for our Story Book Tree:

Craft stick stars for Bear’s Christmas Star.  Joe made a large star for the tree topper and each of the other kids made small ones to use as ornaments.  Snowflake ornaments for Dream Snow. Little brooms for Cobweb Christmas. Puzzle Piece reindeer, or moose as Jack calls them this year, for Olive the Other Reindeer.  I love the way Jesse held his little ornament in place with one chubby finger while he painted it. He loves making things.  He gets so excited when it’s time for ‘cool’.  As challenging as it can be not having him nap anymore, it’s been so much fun and special seeing all of the kids around the school table together.  I’m glad all my kids enjoy arts/crafts.  What would I do if they didn’t ?! :-) I made some Nutter Butter reindeer treats for the kids for this book. Joe and Jack made beaded candy canes for Mouse’s First Christmas.  Bless Jesse’s heart, he tried and he has no problem stringing beads on pipe cleaners, but he just wanted to put a few on and then take them off over and over again.  He had fun though. We made cardboard crochet thread stars to go along with Room for a Little One.  This is my favorite Nativity Book.  Here is Jack’s sweet, little star.We have thoroughly enjoyed the first two weeks of December and I am looking forward to the last two as well.  I just wish they didn’t fly by so fast!  Trying to enjoy every single day and make the most of each of them during this special time of year.

**All of the how-to’s and ornaments from this post can be seen on my Christmas Pinterest board.**

Sweet Little Feet

Can you tell what we were up to this morning? Jesse LOVES it when I ask to paint his hands or feet.  I only intended to do one footprint craft with him this morning, but he was so excited that I ended up printing his sweet little hands and feet a total of 14 times!  He was patient and we had the best fun.  Hand and footprint crafts are my favorites. I have lots I want to share and post soon.  We have had a good time the last week and a half reading books, crafting and having special treats.  I love this wonderful time of year.