What a Week!

Well, I would say this has been one of the most exciting weeks I've had in awhile!  For several months I have been hinting around that something big was in the works and a few days ago I finally revealed my big plan:  a preschool!  For quite some time now I've felt that our little town really needed this, so I have been working on plans to start a preschool.  I have spent a lot of time discussing this idea with my husband, family, and a few close friends.  I've prayed about it and tried to figure out if it's a good time to do this or not and all of the signs seem to be pointing to yes.  All except one:  I can't find a stinking location!  I'm working hard on that part of it and I know that if this is meant to be, I'll find one soon.

In addition to that, I finally signed up to be a consultant with Usborne Books and More.  This is another decision I've been mulling around for months and feel like now is the perfect time.  I love their books (we have a ton of them!) and I would love to be able to build my library for the preschool and to help our charity, From Cover to Cover.  There are many parts of my life that just naturally overlap, so I really couldn't find one good reason why this wouldn't be a good option for me and my family.

We have a lot to be thankful for these days!  It's my goal to spend the month of November really focusing on this with the kids.  They are trying so hard to just fast forward to Christmas, but I think it is so important to spend some time being grateful for what we have before we slip into the "I want, I want" phase.  In my last post, I shared how we showed our neighbors we were thankful for them.  Our next "group" we are thanking are the kids' teachers.  On Monday, my daughter made each of her teachers an adorable picture and gave them some Ghirardelli chocolates she picked out at the store.  Who doesn't love chocolate, right?!

Still with a Halloween flair!

Today for a fun activity, we made name turkeys.  All it took was a small paper plate, construction paper, and googley eyes.  The Princess had to figure out how many letters were in her name, pick her feathers, make a pattern, and write a letter on each feather.  She thought it was great fun and drew a cute face on it and some legs, too.  My little guy had to count the letters in his name, choose what color feathers he wanted, and then I helped him write the letters of his name.  We glued on some eyes and once they're dry they will make a cute addition to our "masterpiece wall!"  

The cute little turkey

What a week it's been for sure!  More good things to come!

Lessons of Giving Thanks

Now that Halloween is over, my kiddos would love to fast forward to Christmas.  Mom has other ideas, though!  We are going to spend some time reflecting on what we are thankful for this month and come up with some good deeds we can do for others.  I feel like we do a decent job of incorporating this into our everyday lives, but lately it seems that our kiddos are becoming so focused on their own wants that we need to shift the focus a bit.  I fully understand that kids are egocentric at times, but that doesn't mean that I won't do my best to teach them to think of others, too.  

To start of the month of giving thanks, I pulled out some books to read to the kids before bed.  Tonight my oldest guy snapped up Thank You, God and read it to me.  We haven't read it in such a long time and it used to be one of his favorites when he was a toddler.  Amazing how much he's changed since then!  Our collection is a bit small and I'd love to add some more books about giving thanks and doing good deeds.

Some reading material

Since it was a pretty quiet Saturday, I decided it would be fun to bake some treats for our neighbors.  Our kiddos always love to share things with their friends that live around us.  I made some caramel corn and pumpkin muffins and mini bread loaves.  (I tried a new recipe for the muffins and bread and think I like my old one better so I won't share that today!).  My older two assisted with making today's activity and the whole family delivered the goods this afternoon.  It was a fun way to spend some time together.  When I asked the older kids about our day at bedtime they both were able to explain why we made treats for our neighbors.  I am hoping that it is something they are proud of. 

We'll be sharing more of our activities as the month goes on so stay tuned!

Working hard creating our cards

The finished product

Mixing up those muffins!

 

Sunday Funday!

Just a brief post on this beautiful Sunday morning.  A few days ago, I finally went to my Pinterest page and did one of the outdoor summer activities with the kids that I had pinned:  sidewalk paint.  It was super easy to do and they had a lot of fun.  We used foam brushes, but I would suggest a thicker bristle brush instead.  The paint dries like chalk, so our driveway is now a canvas of brightly colored drawings by the kids.  It is supposed to easily wash off with water, but since we've had no rain lately, we'll just leave it!

Sidewalk Paint

Cornstarch
Food Coloring
Water

In a muffin tin measure out 1 tablespoon of corn starch for each hole.  Add 6-10 drops of food coloring (the more dye, the brighter the color).  Take outside and add some water.  It will start off thick, but as you stir turn it will turn into a nice, smooth paint.

Rainy Day Fun!

As of late, we have had several rainy days.  While we have gone on a few outings, my kids are going a bit stir-crazy!  We are still working on our ocean unit, so we busted out the paint last week and made some jellyfish.  We cut a paper plate in half, glued on some crepe paper, grabbed some cut up sponges, and off to work they went.  They turned out really cute and the kids had a blast painting.

We brought out those trusty poms again and came up with a new game.  Toss them in the muffin tin.  That brought about a competition and they had fun playing that for quite some time!

One day the kids went downstairs and after awhile called me down.  They had created a zoo!  They played this together for two straight days.  It was quite elaborate and took awhile to clean up, but it was fun!

Now we're hoping for this rainy weather to go away for awhile so we can enjoy our time outside!

Summer School With Mom Week #2: Rainbow Fish and an Ocean Snack

We are continuing with our ocean and sea life theme this week.  I think it may last all of June at this rate!  The kids are interested in learning more about everything that lives in the ocean and we are having fun doing it with food, crafts, reading, and math activities.  One of our summer bucket list items is going to the aquarium.  I think that would be a great treat at the end of our unit.

Today we read the story The Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister and made our own Rainbow Fish.  Each kid got a paper plate and tissue paper and tin foil scales.  They glued them on and topped it off with a googly eye.

Rainbow Fish in Progress

Working Hard

 For an afternoon snack we made an ocean in a cup.  We crumbled up graham crackers in a Ziploc bag and put them on the bottom for sand.  We made vanilla pudding in a bag, too, and added just a touch of blue frosting coloring to make our water (which turned green because of the yellow pudding!  We decided our water was a little dirty!).  You could add Swedish Fish or another type of gummy fish, but my kids aren't fans of those, so we added chocolate chips and called them sharks because of their points.

Working on the Pudding

Shaking it Up!

Smashing Up the Graham Cracker

Adding the "Sharks"

The Finished Product

We topped off our afternoon with a Finding Nemo movie party.  They had fun naming the sea creatures and my oldest even got out a book from the library to find the right names for the fish!

Ocean Food

We are enjoying our first week of Summer School with Mom!  Yesterday I taught the Princess how to do a simple dot-to-dot and she begged for more.  She was so proud of her fish bowl that she made around two fish!  She even took extra time coloring her fish just the way she wanted them.

We had a pretty busy day yesterday, so we didn't dive into any projects.  We did, however, plop down some beach towels in the middle of our living room and have a beach picnic.  We had turkey and cheese starfish sandwiches, Goldfish crackers, and some apple slices.  The kids had a blast and I can see them asking to do it again in the near future.

The Picnic Lunch

Today we had octopus hot dogs on a plate in a sea of fish (not pictured).  They were also a hit!  The one time it's okay to play with your food is when your mom turns it into something too hard to resist!

The Octopus Hot Dog

We're going to knock one of our bucket list items out today:  making cookies!  I think this is more for Mom's benefit than the kids.  I am craving a good old oatmeal cookie.  Nothing better to do on this cloudy, rainy afternoon!  I may even pop in Finding Nemo!

Time for Summer School with Mom! This Weeks Theme: Ocean and Sea LIfe

Summer has officially kicked off at our house.  This summer I am planning to work with my kiddos on a variety of skills and hold my own Summer School with Mom.  Oddly enough, my kindergarten graduate was already asking for math worksheets Friday afternoon, so I think we're on the same page!  My middle two always like projects to complete, so I am hoping to have some fun with it.  

This week we are starting a unit on Ocean and Sea Life.  Each day I hope to complete a few activities that have to do with our theme.  Today we made an octopus and completed a developmentally appropriate math worksheet.  We will also be reading a lot this summer.  We have set our goals and the kiddos will receive a reward once we've reached our milestones along the way.  They will also be participating in the summer reading program at the library.  I plan to keep them busy (though I'm sure I'll still hear, "I'm bored" plenty!)!

To make our octopus, we used a balloon and crepe paper.  I blew up the balloons first and let them have some fun batting them around for a little gross motor work.  We turned on some music and I challenged my oldest not to let it fall on the ground more than ten times during a song.

Gross Motor Fun

Once they were done playing, I gave them a Sharpie and had them draw a face on their balloon.  I cut the strips of paper for the tentacles and they counted out eight legs to glue onto their balloon with a glue stick.  Simple project, but they turned out really cute!

The Finished Product!

10 Quick Games for Kids

These days I spend a lot of time feeding the baby and while my middle two kiddos play pretty well with each other, there are just some times when I need to calm them down with a little organized fun.  You can find a game in this list that would work in almost any place!

1.  Can You Be A...

Name that animal.  They love this game and as long as there's a big space and noise is okay, this one works well.  Some of our favorites:  kangaroo, monkey, snake, and horse of course!

2.  Ten In the Bed...

There's a song, "Ten in the Bed," that my kids love.  It goes like this, "There were ten in the bed and the little one said, 'Roll Over, Roll Over' so they all rolled over and one fell out!" Repeat until zero.  Whenever I start singing it, the kiddos drop to the floor and start rolling.  Fun!

3.  Pipe Cleaners in a Colander
Self-explanatory!  Drag out your colander and give the kiddos some pipe cleaners.  

4.  Folder Games
You can print these fun games online, glue them in a manilla folder, cover the folder and game pieces in contact paper, and Velcro.  There are games for all abilities or make your own!

5.  Poms in a Muffin Tin
Let your kiddo make their own "cupcakes."  Let them use tweezers to pick them up and work those little fingers!

6.  Sticker Fun:  On Your Body!
Give your kiddos some stickers.  Play like "Simon Says."  Name a body part and have them put the sticker on it!

7.  Freeze!
Get the little ones dancing!  Turn on some music, get them dancing, and pause it.  If you 
don't have music, give them a gross motor skill (hop, gallop, walk, crawl, etc.), let them burn some energy, and and yell "Freeze!"

8.  Snowball Fight!
But not messy!  Throw some poms on the floor, give the kids a straw, and have them blow "snowballs" at each other.  This also works with pieces of tissue paper if you don't have poms on hand.  My kids like to play hockey with them, too, and shoot them into a goal!

9.  I Spy
A classic game, but give it a twist.  Depending on your child's level, you can spy colored objects, an object that starts with a letter, or an object that rhymes with a word.  Mix it up and you'd be surprised how long this entertains!

10.  Sticker Names
Write your child's name on a piece of paper and let them make it with stickers.  You could also work on numbers, letters, sight words, you name it!

   

Summer Bucket List

Today was the last day of preschool for the Princess, which means that summer vacation is right around the corner!  At first it seems like we'll have all of the time in the world during the summer months, but before we know it the summer is over!  Last year we had just moved, so our summer months were full of getting our house organized and hanging out at home.  Now that we're settled, it's time to have some more fun!

A few years ago we created a summer bucket list with the kiddos.  We put realistic wishes on a piece of paper, placed it on the refrigerator, and stuck a smiley face sticker next to an activity once it was completed.  This year I would like to do it again.  I have a feeling this summer's bucket list will be twice as long as the one we created two years ago, as we have more people sharing their wants and opinions!  I can't wait to hear what the kiddos have to say and I'm thinking of my own activities to add to the list.  This is such a fun activity and helps us plan out our summer a bit.  When the ideas are in front of you, it's much easier to find the time to do the activities.

We'll share our list once it's complete!  What will be on your summer bucket list?

What?! May Already?! Time to Prep for Summer (Part 1)!

Since I've had Baby #4, the days of the week run together and for the most part I have no idea what the date is!  So, I was a little surprised to wake up this morning and realize that today is May.  What?!  That means we have entered into our last month of the school year.  My kindergartener will soon be a first grader, preschool year one for the Princess wraps up next week, and soon I will have all four of my kiddos at home...everyday...hmm.  We need a plan!

We don't live close to "town" where most of the activities are and I don't want to spend a lot of time driving each day, so I am going to have to get creative and come up with some activities to do at home or in our little town.  While I am all for free play and unstructured time, letting each day be a free-for-all will be a disaster.  I think if I spend some time in May devising a plan, I may actually be able to pull it off!

My goal is to create projects in the following areas:  arts and crafts, cooking, science, literacy, and motor skills.  Since my kids are all young, but at very different levels, I hope to be able to come up with one activity and adapt it so each kiddo can be successful.  In addition to these activities, I want to plan some fun outings to support what we're learning or just to get out and explore.

Once I get organized, I'll share some of my activities with you all.  One activity we will do every day is reading.  I want to create a weekly reading challenge for each kid and if they meet their minute or books read goal, we will celebrate on Friday evenings with a special activity or treat.  I plan to use a weekly chart to keep track of our progress.  We'll track the books my oldest son reads in addition to his minutes, as it will be fun for him to see how many books he actually read over the summer. 

We will utilize many different ways of reading:  independent book look, Tag readers, books on CD and DVD, and being read to of course.  We plan to participate in our local library's reading program as well.  While we have a ton of books at home, I have saved some from my Scholastic order to pull out this summer and we'll take a weekly trip to the library to check out books, too.  I hope to get some reading in myself this summer!  I think I'll participate in the challenge as well.

How will you encourage your kiddos to read during the summer?  If you're looking for some good books, check out our post from last summer!

Mommy Bootcamp is Back!

We may have a new baby in the house, but this mama is not letting that be an excuse for my kids to blatantly ignore me or do the opposite of what I ask.  The not listening is driving me up the wall, so it is time to take some action.  You may recall that this past summer I did a little "Mommy Bootcamp" to try to discourage some behaviors that were causing problems in the house.  Well, it's back, and today was the prep day to devise a system to try to get our kids back on track and listening!

My goal was to make something simple that the kids can independently do quickly and see their progress.  I am a big fan of sticker charts, but this time we're going a different route.  Each kid got to choose their "logo," which is what they will move.  My little guy chose a dump truck, the Princess chose a giraffe, and my oldest son chose a baseball.  I printed them out, trimmed around them, and placed contact paper over both sides so they will be durable.  On the back, I attached a piece of Velcro.  

Each kiddo will have a road (covered on the front side with contact paper) with a designated number of Velcro spots on them (varying by age) that lead to their "destination" (construction site, zoo, and ballpark).  Each time they listen the first time to a direction, they can move their logo.  Once they arrive at their destination, they will receive a reward (a story, extra five minutes to stay up, a show, etc.).  I am hoping this will be a fun and motivational little game and soon we'll be back on track and listening again (at least better than they are now!).

I have hung this up on one of our kitchen walls so we have easy access to it and it will be a visual reminder to listen.  Cheers to Mommy Bootcamp!  

All ready to go!

Math Activities for Toddlers with Food!

This morning I am home with my little guy (2 1/2) and of course, the baby.  I feel a bit guilty about the amount of time I'm able to spend with all of the kids right now given how much attention the baby requires, so I wanted to do something fun with him while my older two were at school.  We opted for a little math fun with food!

While it's not the healthiest food on the block, Fruit Snacks and Fruit Loops lend themselves well to sorting, color recognition and naming, and patterning (and they just happened to be in my pantry!).  This morning we just worked on sorting, counting how many in each group, and figuring out which group had the most and the least.  My little guy thought it was fun and especially enjoyed the end result:  eating them!  This activity would also work well with colored Goldfish.

Depending on the age of your child(ren), you could use the Fruit Loops to create pattern necklaces and make them as difficult or easy as your child can handle.  You could also take the colored Goldfish, provide cut out fish bowls for each color, and have your child sort them into the correct fish bowl.  There are many ways to play and learn with food!

Sorting Fun!

Easter Fun!

Okay, I have a confession...I've been really bad about doing craft and fun projects with the kids lately.  It seems like I've had so many things to do to prepare for Baby #4 that I've slacked off and just let the kiddos play most days.  I figured it was time to do something fun with them to celebrate Easter, so today we did a few crafts and over the weekend my mom was kind enough to make some cookie dough for the kiddos to cut out some cookies to decorate.  Mom-guilt washed away!

Today we made stained glass Easter eggs to put in our front door windows and a bunny ear headband.  Not too many supplies needed:  contact paper, construction paper, tissue paper, card stock, and a stapler.  For the eggs, I cut out the shape of an egg from construction paper and stuck it on the contact paper.  We already had some tissue paper cut up, so they stuck it on.  You can also have your kids rip it.  To make the bunny ear headbands, I used pink card stock and large white construction paper to make the headband.  My daughter is almost four, so she cut out her ears (and did pretty well!).  For the little guy, I did it all.  Once we were finished, they practiced their hopping and finding some eggs.  

Little Easter Bunnies

Stained glass Easter Eggs

If you're looking for some other activities, one of my favorites is to make glossy Easter eggs.  Cut out an egg on some card stock or poster board.  Add some corn syrup to regular washable paint and it will dry very shiny.  It's so pretty and on my list of things to do later this week.  You can also take some plastic eggs, separate them, and let the kids paint with eggs by stamping.  I also plan on making a bunny puppet with a brown lunch sack.

The kids had a great time yesterday finding eggs that I had hidden around the house.  We like to practice!  After awhile, I had the kids hide them for each other.  Oh the giggles!  You can turn this into a math game by giving them a specific number of eggs to find.  You can also take a Sharpie and put dots on one half of the egg and a corresponding number on the other (use different colors, it is more challenging) and have the kids match them up.

As I mentioned earlier, we made cut-out cookies and decorated them with frosting over the weekend.  The kids got to paint the frosting on and had a blast.  I'll include the recipe that I use to paint the cookies.

Cookie Glaze Frosting

1 cup powdered sugar

2 t. milk

2 t. light corn syrup

1/4 teaspoon vanilla

Food coloring of decorating gel

In a small bowl, stir together the powdered sugar and milk until smooth.  Beat in corn syrup and vanilla until icing is smooth and glossy.  If icing is too thick, add more corn syrup (this is always the case for me.  You could add a bit more milk and then corn syrup until it is thin enough to spread).  Separate into bowls and add coloring gel or dye.  Paint them with a brush.

Cutting them out

Painting away!

A finished product!

2013 Goal #4: House Projects! First Up: Kid Activities and Craft Area

One of my other goals for this year is to complete one house project a month that have been on my "to-do" list (may since we moved in or shortly after).  Some may be larger undertakings than others, but I am hoping that come 2014 we've complete 12 projects that will make our house a little more "homey."  I think we will feel quite accomplished if we succeed at this task!

My kiddos love anything to do with arts and crafts.  If I would let them, they would play with Play-dough, paint, and all things messy every day.  They also love to color and do "projects."  The old teacher in me loves to provide activities for them to do and I am fortunate that I can go to my storeroom and pull a folder for any season and most topics young kids love and have plenty to keep them entertained.  I go in spurts with this, though.  This year I'd like to make sure that I have at least two projects for the little ones to do each week and I am going to create a space specifically designed for messy and crafty fun.

Let's start with the space.  Right now I have a small two-person table set up in the kitchen.  Ever since we moved in, I have envisioned using one of the rooms in our house as a place for the kids to do their art and craft activities, as well as storing all of the materials.  The room I am using has wood floors, so it makes it a bit easier to clean up.  I finally splurged (thanks to some Christmas money the kids received) and purchased a large rectangular table and four colored chairs from Discount School supply.  They will finally have plenty of space to work.  I already have a little Closet Maid cabinet with a few shelves inside to store their paper, crayons, and miscellaneous supplies that I don't mind if they get into unsupervised.  I plan to have my husband hang a few shelves in the new room to put supplies like paint, play-dough, glue, scissors, shaving cream, and other materials that they can't have unless they are supervised.  I saw an idea on Pinterest to use dish drying racks to store coloring books and crayons, so I am hoping to utilize this idea for the coloring and activity books that they have that reflect their current interests.  To round it off, I want to create an area to display their masterpieces.  My goal is to have this all complete by the end of January.

If I can get organized, I'd like to take some time on Sundays to put together the materials I will need for a few easy projects for the little kiddos to do each week.  They love to make things and show them off to their dad and grandparents when they come over.  I must admit, our wall of creations reflects where we are in life.  We may not have a lot of professional art pieces on our walls, but we have plenty of original creations by the kiddos!

Today we decided to celebrate the last day of winter vacation by having a gingerbread day.  I pulled out a few old activities that I thought they would enjoy and we will top it off by baking gingerbread cookies this afternoon.  My older two did a simple dot-to-dot that I found online as well as a glyph activity coloring parts of a gingerbread man by answering questions and selecting a color.  I had picked up some foam gingerbread cut-outs at Target from the dollar bin awhile back, so they can decorate those, too.  They love the story of the Gingerbread Man, so they were quite excited to spend a day on these activities! 

Gingerbread Glyph Activity

Decorating Cookies

Cutting Out the Gingerbread Men

      

        

Christmas Crafts

I've updated my Pinterest page with some new Christmas crafts for the kiddos.  I finally got around to making the felt Christmas tree and they made one round of ornaments.  It was a big hit!  We've also made a candy cane using cut up construction paper to glue onto a candy cane printout and a paper bag Santa Claus puppet.  They have loved playing with that!  I updated it, also, with our paper plate wreaths.  I am hoping to make some cute ornaments with craft sticks sometime soon to post.  They would make cute grandparent gifts!

Today I am trying a new sugar cookie recipe.  They are supposed to taste like the Lofthouse cookies you buy at the store, but due to our son't peanut allergy, we haven't had them in years!  I'm hoping they're close, because I love them and they would be so easy to do for any of the holidays!  If they turn out as I hope, I'll be sharing that recipe soon.  

The Princess has her first preschool holiday program tonight.  I'm not sure that she'll do anything but stand there, but it will be fun just the same.  I am making a very early dinner of BBQ chicken drumsticks in the oven.  They are pretty delicious!  Hope everyone is having a great week.  I'm sure you're busy getting everything done for the big day! 

Oven Baked BBQ Chicken Drumsticks

Chicken Drumsticks
BBQ sauce
Olive Oil
Salt
Pepper

Line a pan with parchment paper.  Place drumsticks on pan.  If desired, pat on olive oil, salt, and pepper.  Bake in oven without any sauce at 400 degrees.  After 20 minutes, brush on BBQ sauce (I normally use Sweet Baby Rays, but your favorite or homemade works!) and put back into the oven for 25-35 minutes, until chicken is no longer pink.  Spoon or brush sauce every 5 minutes until done.  

Some Christmas Book Favorites (and a New Cookie Recipe!)

I have been so busy with the holidays approaching that I've been neglecting the blog for a few days!  Today I thought I'd share with you a few of our favorite Christmas books, as well as a new cookie recipe I tried on Saturday that was delicious (and easy!).

Today our kiddos are receiving a few new Christmas books for their advent bag activity.  This year I was excited to purchase Pete the Cat Saves Christmas by Eric Litwin, because all of the other Pete the Cat books have been a big hit in our house.  A few of our other Christmas favorites are Christmas in the Manger by Nola Buck (this is a board book), Moosteltoe by Margie Palatini, The Grinch Who Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss, Hurry, Hurry Have You Heard? by Laura Krauss Melmed and Who Is Coming to Our House? by Joseph Slate (also a board book).  We have many more books that the kiddos love to read, but these have stuck out this year!

Saturday I decided to take a stab at a Rolo-stuffed cookie and opted for a chocolate crackle with a roll stuffed inside.  They were delicious!  I can't wait to share them with our families.  Yum!  Today I thought I'd share the recipe with you.  They were quite easy to make!

Rolo-Stuffed Chocolate Cookies
From Two Peas & Their Pod blog

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 t. baking soda
1/4 t. salt
3/4 c. cocoa
1 cup butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
2 t. vanilla
Bag of Rolo candies unwrapped
Sugar (for rolling to dough balls in)

In a medium bowl, sift flour, baking soda, salt, and cocoa.  Set aside.  With a mixer, cream butter and sugars together until smooth.  Mix in eggs one at a time.  Add vanilla next.  Beat until mixed.  Slowly add flour mixture to sugar mixture and blend well.  Take a spoonful of dough and wrap around Rolo.  Roll into ball and then roll in sugar.  Place on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper and bake at 375 degrees for 7-10 minutes.  Let sit on sheet for an additional 3-5 minutes.  Place on wire rack to cool completely.

All rolled up

Delicious!

Christmas Series Part 2: Advent Activities

For the past several years, many moms in one of my mom's groups have done an advent calendar and different activities for each day.  To date, we have never done more than open a window on the calendar or move the candy cane on our snowman.  I thought I'd take the plunge and get creative this year.  I do not have a cute calendar to use, but found an idea on Pinterest to make bags for each day and put a surprise in each one.  I may cheat and reuse my bags and my tags won't be nearly as cute, but the kids will still love it I'm sure!

This is the list of surprises I have decided to include in their bags this year.  We'll see how it goes and I may tweak it next year!  I think it sounds like a lot of fun and I hope the kids enjoy it!

Advent Bags

1.    Watch the Polar Express

2.    Make cut-out cookies

3.    Wreath craft

4.    Candy

5.    Write letter to Santa

6.    St. Nicholas Day:  Christmas shirts and coloring books

7.    Christmas CD (Laurie Berkner) and go look at lights

8.    Watch Charlie Brown Christmas and have popcorn

9.    Cut down Christmas Tree and Food Basket Donation

     10.   Christmas book and read by the fire

     11.   Make a Santa puppet

     12.   Make and send cards to those on the church list

     13.  Candy

     14.  Pizza and hot chocolate

     15.  Make cinnamon ornaments and Snowman movie

     16.  Toys for Tots drop-off

     17.  Christmas stickers

     18.  Christmas shape grilled cheese and tomato soup dinner

     19.  Make grandparent gifts    

     20.  Picnic by the tree  

     21.  Read Christmas stories by the fire with flashlight

     22.  Decorate gingerbread cookies 

     23. Christmas at Grandma and Grandpa’s house

     24. Gingerbread pancakes and Christmas at Grandma   

           Great’s

     25. Christmas at home!!