My Advent Calendars....

As promised here are my Advent calendars I recently made.

This cone one was taken from The Red Thread- you can find hers here. I filled each cone with one yellow star (they're rather small so you can't see them in the photos). Each star has a fun, fast activity written on them. For example: Do Five Jumping Jacks, Sing a Song, Hug Mommy, Hug Daddy, etc.

Here's my string of envelopes. I got the idea for it here. I used my Cricut machine (with the Base Camp cartridge) to cut envelopes. The frustrating thing was that I could only cut four envelopes per 12" square paper. On the other hand, it was really nice not having to cut out all those envelopes by hand. I strung them up between my skis on a string of jute. I bought the tiny clothespins from Hobby Lobby.

Now, in these envelopes I tried to put more meaningful family activities. Some of the activities we've already done include: coloring Christmas coloring sheets, painting toenails (okay, so Mark didn't get his painted but he did paint Ava's), we all wrote letters to Santa and last night we played a few rounds of Uno. Tonight we're going to a Christmas concert (which Mark will be singing in). Tomorrow we're supposed to get a Christmas tree- at least according to the envelope.

The girls each have their own Advent calendar in their rooms (these ones were purchased). I filled their calendars with puzzle pieces. They both have a puzzle and on Christmas Day we'll be able to put the puzzles together. I did add a few pieces if chocolate- but not for every day.

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Thanksgiving da Michigan

Look at all those lovely, delicious pies. Just taunting me! There are two lemon meringue pies, two pumpkin pies, two pecan pies, one apple and one blueberry pie. Do you think that's enough pie? Probably not.
More of our gorgeous feast for which we were grateful to be eating. Dad in the background carving the 23 lb turkey. Yum!

Lily made lovely Thanksgiving decorations which decorated the walls.

Ahhhhhh....isn't that sweet? Ava just curled up next to Gregory while watching a video. Ava talks a lot about My Gregory while we're away from Michigan. Too cute.

With the Thanksgiving meal digesting in our systems Beth got out a gingerbread house kit which the kids got to help decorate. Henry even got to help!

On Friday, Beth and I got up at 3:45am and got ready to hit the Black Friday sales. I can't say I got any fantastic deals but I'm happy that I got most of the gifts for my niece and nephews. And that's a good thing!

On Saturday our families (and grandparents!) went to check out the Leonardo Da Vinci exhibit at the Grand Rapids Public Museum. I just love this museum. It's a hands-on kind of museum with something for everyone.

Look how beautifully they had it decorated for Christmas...those are strings of lights with strings of tiny mirrors hanging.

An explanation of the exhibit....

This suit of armor was robotic (truly unusual in Leonardo's time). Absolutely fascinating for adults and children...Henry watched it move for some time. So did I.

Ava trying a crank of some sort. Leonardo, it seems, was in love with ball bearings, cranks, winches, pulleys, and using water power.

Annika and Lily playing with the gears. They had the most awesome computer program for kids. I actually played it for a long time. Wish I knew what that program was called...

All the cousins lined up... anxious to get on the.....

Carousel ride!

Grandpa took Ava on the ride. :)

Sweet photos of Henry and Beth.

She doesn't look very excited, does she?

Two like-minded cousins. (in some respects like-minded)

The museum had a small volunteer run station where you could cut out unusual snowflakes. The older kids loved this!

Mark showing off the snowman snowflake.

Annika concentrating hard on cutting out her snowflake.

Busy kids cutting away.

Mark helps Ava with her snowflake.

In final news...Uncle Ray got his first deer while we were there! Hooray for Uncle Ray!

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{Advent Calendar Party}

Want a fun way to invite the Christmas season into your home? And have lots of fun with your friends at the same time?

Host an Advent Calendar Party!

A what did you say?

A party where you make a simple Advent Calendar. Now, these Advent calendars weren't intended to hold goodies, chocolates or toys. These where intended to hold slips of paper with family activities written on them. One activity per day.

I searched online for fun, simple and creative Advent calendars that could be created in a short amount of time. I emailed out suggestions (1 and 2) to everyone and I also asked everyone to think about what activities they wanted to put in their calendars (I think that's the hard part).

I tried making a few of the calendars ahead of time to see if they were really doable in a short amount of time (2 hours) and I realized that I needed to find a different idea (especially since we were in Michigan visiting family over the Thanksgiving holiday and I wouldn't have much prep time). A miracle happened while I was shopping at Michael's on Black Friday and I found tiny paper bags- 25 per package. Talk about a miracle! I decided then that my party guests would be invited to decorate these bags with numbers (1-25) and embellishments. Perfect!

Some of the guests brought various scrapbooking tools...but this was a great way to use the scrapbooking materials I've gathered over the years. And guess what that means? I can go get new stuff!!!!

Clever Anuschka brought her own pretty envelopes to decorate. Love those vivid vibrant colors!
Bunch of busy crafters.

The food spread...I think we had enough cheese, crackers, veggies, fruits and baked goodies to feed a small army. I also had mulled apple cider (and coffee, tea, and milk). Too bad I didn't get a close up photo of the food before we started snacking. Maybe next time. Do you see the vase filled with lovely flowers and greenery? Mark gave me a bouquet! :)

We had several kids come along with their moms to the event. The older ones participated with the advent calendar decorating and the younger ones got to watch some Christmas movies, go outside and play (it was a beautiful warm and sunny day!), play inside, and dress up....

Funny Lilly! That's one fancy kitty cat riding a tricycle!

I also found this Christmas-theme coloring sheet roll at Michael's. The kids all got crayons and went to town coloring it (while a movie was playing).

I'm so proud of my friend Dani! This is the first craft project I've seen her complete!

Emily showing off her lovely creations!

Anuschka's String of Envelopes! I felt that the party was a huge success. I'll admit that I'm a rather nervous hostess. I think the last party I hosted was two years ago. I will also admit that the calendars took a lot longer to create than I had anticipated but we had plenty of food and the kids were entertained so all was good. I always feel that since my house isn't picture perfect I can't have people over but I guess that's not very important in the scheme of things. I did try to get out a few Christmas decorations (I only had a few hours on Monday to decorate).

There are a few things I'd do differently next time. One of them is to make sure Annika isn't aware that I'm hosting a get together for our friends so that she'll say she doesn't feel well to her teacher at school and thus making me late for my own party. Sigh. No- she wasn't sick but I brought her home anyway. She was confined to her room for the day (for two reasons).

So what was the family activity for December 1st in my own calendar? Color Christmas coloring sheets together. Fun and simple.

I promise I'll take photos of the calendars I've made....just haven't gotten around to doing that yet!

ETA- Here are the calendars I made!

This post was shared with the Holiday Inspiration Blog Party at Your Home, Only Better and with A Soft Place to Land's DIY Day Blog Party.

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Plastic Bag = (pretend) Parachute

I just had to post some photos of Ultra Cute Ava. Sorry Mark. I know you just love the word ultra.

No plastic bags were hurt in the following photos.

Somehow life just seems better when you're upside down. It certainly is full of lots of surprises! Like, how did that grass get there?

I really love that dress she's wearing! Thank you Oma for sending it to us! Ava loves it and so do I!

Oh, and just for the record, Annika isn't in these photos because she was having fun at school.

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Tumbling Tots

Ava had so much fun participating in the Tumble Tots class at our local YMCA. She has watched Annika get to participate in classes but this is the first non-music class she's gotten to do.

Every day she'd ask if today is Her Class. Every. day.


First some stretching exercises. Now she can do a perfect somersault And hop like a frog. Complete with frog sounds.
Somersaults with legs spread apart- more challenging because they weren't supposed to use their hands

Slither like a snake. Fun!

Hanging on the low bars (trying to make a L with her body)

Twirling on the low bars

Concentrating hard while walking on the balance beam Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed

"No More Monkeys Jumping on the Bed!"

The parents were allowed to watch the last class of the session. Now I understand why they don't allow parents to stick around. Most of the kids wanted to visit with their parents instead of doing the exercises they were asked to do. Not Ava. She loved her class!

We can't wait until the next session starts!

Hmmm...maybe I should put ponytails in Ava's hair. It does look a little wild (even when it's brushed).

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