Advent Day 1 Peppermint Playdough

Today was day one of our advent.  We made peppermint playdough!  This was our first time to make it and we will definitely be doing it again.  It smells so good!

Story played photographer except for the few times I took the camera to get pictures of her.

 The girls took turn adding the ingredients.

 Then they took turns mixing on the stove while it cooked.

 

 

Lyric entertained herself when it wasn't her turn.

 

Story insisted on getting a shot of me too.

 

Story was insistent on tasting the playdough!  I knew nothing in it was toxic, so I told her to go ahead.

 She said it was okay, but a little spicy.

 We colored the playdough green, red and left some white.  We also put glitter in it.

I loved this playdough recipe!  It has the best texture and smells so good!

 We pulled out our Christmas cookie cutters.

 Here is the recipe we used: Peppermint Playdough.

The Easiest Advent Calendar Ever

I  saw this idea on a blog,  unfortunately I don't remember which one- so I can't give credit.  I really wanted to make an advent calendar this year, but most of the ones I found required more effort than I wanted to put into it.

When I found this one I knew it was the one for me!  It was the easiest thing ever!

I bought two packages of foam snow flakes from the dollar store.

I numbered them 1 to 24.

I then printed the activities and glued one to each snowflake.

When we woke up this morning I told the girls it snowed last night.  They ran to the window to find no snow.

Then, I told them I think it snowed in the living room.  They were so excited to see the snowflakes!

 Cadence had the great idea to move the snowflakes to the opposite wall after we did the activity, so we could easily see how many days were left.

Here's our list of activities:

Dec 1 Make Christmas-peppermint play dough with glitter

Dec 2 Christmas Mad Lib

Dec 3 Write letter to Santa deliver to Macy's (Macy's gives $1.00 to Make a Wish for every letter received)

Dec 4 Record family Christmas song (We record a family Christmas song every year.  Cheesy, but so much fun to make and listen to!)

Dec 5 Do a Christmas craft to decorate the house

Dec 6 Make hot chocolate with all the fixings and play games

Dec 7 Make cards to send to American Red Cross—Mail for Heroes

Dec 8 Make ornaments 

Dec 9 Make snowflakes to decorate/ make tortilla snowflakes to eat

Dec 10 Buy tree/ decorate for Christmas

Dec 11 Go look at Christmas lights and listen to Delilah

Dec 12 Make Christmas cards/gifts to mail out

Dec 13 Go through toys/coats to donate to charity

Dec 14 Read Christmas books with a flashlight under the Christmas tree

Dec 15 Bake cookies to take to the clinic/hospital

Dec 16 Make online snowman http://www.castlearcana.com/christmas/snowman/index.html

Dec 17 Make bird feeders (Don't know which feeder will we do yet, but probably pine cone with peanut butter.)

Dec 18 Watch Christmas movie with popcorn and candy

Dec 19 Bake Christmas cookies 

Dec 20 Picnic under the Christmas tree

Dec 21 Make Homemade Snow Globes

Dec 22 Go to a drive through lights place

Dec 23 Go to Bass Pro Shop and see Santa  

Dec 24 Watch past Christmas/family videos with popcorn and hot chocolate

Thanksgiving Day 2011

 

We had one of the best Thanksgivings today!  We started out the day watching some of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade.

 Then we headed to Dave and Buster's.  They hosted a Thanksgiving dinner for Make a Wish Families.  When I received the invitation from Make a Wish I accepted it because we had no other plans, but I didn't really know what to expect.  It was AMAZING!  When we arrived they gave us five loaded game cards and showed us to the games.

I didn't realize Dave and Buster's had so many games for the kids.  I thought it was more of an adult place.  The girls loved winning all the tickets! 

 The staff was wonderful!  They would come by to make sure we had everything we needed.  The manager came up at one point to see if we still had credits on our game cards.  I told him we were okay, but he handed me five more cards, "Just in case." 

 We had a very tasty lunch and headed back for more games.  Devon and Story discovered this one.  You picked the "ride" (a roller coaster, a jet...) you wanted then the chairs moved and vibrated while a fan was blowing in your face.

 The girls loved it.

 

 

We all had a turn.

When we were done with the games we headed to cash in our tickets and 'buy' some goodies:-)  Cadence got a Smurfette doll and Lyric got a stuffed unicorn and a lava lamp.  Story had 1,100 tickets and she saw a Tianna lamp that she loved.  Devon asked the manager how many tickets it was.  He said it was 2,100 and asked how many she had.  When she told him he said, "Well today, we are making deals and you can have the lamp."  She was so excited!

One happy little girl!

We saw the Smurfs at the dollar theater yesterday, so Cadence was very excited to get Smurfette!

They let Smurfette and Tianna meet each other:-)

After Dave and Busters we headed home to change and go hiking.

My handsome husband was being silly on the drive.

I could not believe all three girls were in a picture taking mood.  That never happens!

We put the camera on a post and took this family picture.

Daddy and the girls tried out the rockers on the porch of the nature center.

 

Miss Lyric led the way on our hike.

Story Bell didn't lead the way, but she had the map to ensure we were staying on track.

This is a really bad picture, but I LOVE it!  We put the camera on a log to get this one.

At the end of the hike we stopped for a snack, Chex Mix with M&M's--yum!

Cadence was pretending to get vicious with her stick-scary!

We ended the night watching Horton Hears a Who.  It was an awesome day!