Make it Monday - Star Christmas Ornaments

I've mentioned before that I have tried to be intentional with our December plans by planning activities and, well, actually doing them!  The boys have enjoyed doing some crafts especially when those crafts include things like glitter glue, beads and paints! 

Mess for Less shares a simple tutorial for making some awesome snowflake ornaments that were perfect for my boys.  I love the idea of having the boys make a special ornament each year for our tree so making these was a winner!

 Nate's masterpieces which he made exactly the same. 

Josh's masterpieces - he made a rainbow and a fun snowflake with lots of beads.

I did a little prep work on these by using hot glue to make the snowflakes out of popscicle sticks.  This way, the boys could just paint and glitter and glue to their hearts content and I wouldn't need to scrap anything off to glue them together.  We made two ornaments - one to take to Great Grandma and one to keep at home (but Josh has already told me that his is for Papa and Nana so . . Mom, you might get it but it is really mine HA!) Great Grandma loved her ornaments and hung them on her super tiny tree (she lives in a nursing home). 

These would make a great craft for the family, daycare, or a Sunday School class!

Things My Kids Say

* I've had so much fun listening to the boys sing their songs for their Christmas Program.  My favorite part is how they sing the wrong words.  Such as the line in Hark the Herald Angels Sing that says, "God and Sinners reconciled".  Josh sings it, "God and Sisters reconciled"  or, a song from their program that says, "Holy Holy" and he sings, "Homey, Homey"  :-) hahaha

*We took the boys to see Santa recently (which raised all kinds of questions from whether Santa drives a car to how he knows who is naughty or nice!).  One of the Elves walked by and Josh (loudly) exclaimed, "Look mom, even the Leprechauns came to see Santa!"  We explained that they were Elves; for the next few days Josh would ask, "What are those people called who work for Santa?"

Family Fun - A Live Nativity and An adorable Nativity

This past weekend was filled with some awesome fun! 

We started out on Saturday with a trip to my Father-in-laws.  I didn't take any photos but we had a great visit.  He even took us to "The Cheese House" and bought us some awesome cheese (I love the Olive Cheese!).  Once we left there, we stopped at McDonald's for dinner and the boys got to play in the playland for a little bit too.  From there, we went to a Live Nativity put on by another local church.  Now, I have never been to a true live nativity and really wasn't sure what to expect but, it was fabulous.

 Darryl and the boys.  Josh and Nate thought this was awesome.  We got to walk down a path that was light by torches so we had to "Follow the fire"!

 As we walked along the path, there were stops where, as we arrived, a light would come on and they participates would tell the Christmas story.  It was so well done from the story itself, to the costumes, the the real live animals. 

After we had walked through the entire set, there was coffee/Hot Chocolate and coffee.  There was the option to ride in a wagon through the Nativity but we were glad we walked it so we could do it at our speed.  We did take the wagon ride from the cafeteria back to the beginning and that was fun. 
We plan to make this a tradition in coming years. 

Sunday we got to enjoy the boys Christmas program which they have been working on for months! 

 The boys singing in the choir.  Don't you just love their shirts?  I do!  I ordered from a great Etsy shop called Embrace Ethiopia.  The owner was wonderful to work with and I got the shirts very quickly! 

 Josh had a small solo in one of the songs.  It was so awesome to hear him sing out his part loud and proud (since every time we practiced at home, he whispered his part!)

 Near the end of the program, all of the younger kids left and then came back dressed up as the Nativity.  I don't know about you but to me, there is nothing cuter than a bunch of munchkins dressed up in costumes of "days of old". 

 Nate was a cow.  He picked the cow costume and loved it.  And let me tell you, there has never been a cuter cow.  Ever :-)

 I could just eat that cow right up . . .oh wait, that's kind of odd. 

 Josh picked a shepherd.  How adorable is this kid anyway?  He also said his verse without any help - he had that thing memorized and said it loud, and clear.  (we worked hard on that!). 

 The Cow, on the other hand, wanted nothing to do with the microphone and refused to say his verse (which is fine because cows don't talk anyway, right?).  He just chose to look cute and play with his ears. 

The boys took a bow together at the end - I loved it!

The added bonus on Sunday is that both my parents and Darryl's mom and her husband came to see the boys.  The boys were so excited to have the two sets of grandparents there to watch them. 

We had a fantastic weekend as we started the Christmas season and are looking forward to more in the coming weeks!

Weekly Menu

This is a menu that I planned for last week but, due to not having water when I thought we would, I pushed it ahead to this week.  I can, thankfully, say that we now have water and I'm cooking once again.  (And Microwaving and using a dishwasher YEAH!)  I must admit, though, as inconvenient as it was to not have water in the kitchen, I did not mind not cooking.  I could get used to Darryl bringing dinner home every night!!   The boys and I are glad to not be eating PB and J and Cheese and Crackers every single day for over a week for lunch!!! 

Saturday - What did I say about "full cooking"? Today we are going to visit Darryl's grandma for Christmas.  She lives in a nursing home so this year, each family is taking time to visit her sometime in December.  In the past we all gathered at the nursing home for a party but, lets face it, partying in the nursing home home is not that fun.  Anyway, after we leave there, we are going to do something fun - either Catch Air or the free play food at the mall, dinner and then going to see a HUGE light display at the Baseball Park.  It should be a fun day. 

Sunday - Stuffed Shells, Green Beans, Garlic Bread and yes, Spaghetti.   It's a simple Sunday dinner that I can prep on Saturday and toss in the oven when we get home. 

Monday - Ham and Scalloped Potatoes, A Veggie, and Rolls.  This is the leftover ham from the church dinner a few weeks ago.

Tuesday - Chicken and Dumplings (Mac and Cheese for the boys).  I'll be using the left over Turkey from that same dinner!

Wednesday - Chicken Noodle Soup and Rolls

Thursday - Lemon Dump Chicken, Mashed Potatoes, Carrots and Rolls

Friday - Tacos

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree

This year, I wanted to be intentional with our Christmas plans so I picked a few key things to do on various weekends, made our plans, picked out crafts and other activities, put together our Christmas Countdown with little gifts, crafts, and activities and . .. forgot to plan time to decorate our tree!!!  Seriously.  So last week I looked at our calender and realized that this past Friday night was the only time we really had to decorate it and have it done sooner rather than two weeks from now.

The night started with Darryl and the boys making a trip to the store because, well, we had no lights for the tree.  See, last year I threw out our lights because I planned to buy LED lights for the tree.  (For the record we only had one strand of lights left working by the end of the season).  Then I kinda forgot that I threw them all out until, well, Friday.  They boys had fun though, so really, that's all that matters.

 Darryl worked on putting the lights on the tree (while the boys tried to play jump rope with them at the same time HA!).  We did put up our artificial tree again this year because Darryl wasn't really up to cutting one down as of yet but our plan next year is to 1)not forgot to plan to decorate the tree (geesh!) and 2) Cut one down. 

 Nathan waiting patiently to hang the ornaments.

The boys hung about 95 % of the ornaments this year so yes, our tree is very bottom heavy with ornaments, but it is the most beautiful tree ever.  They had so much fun deciding where to hang things and asking about special ornaments.

What We Are Eating - Chicken and Bacon Crescents

Chicken and Bacon Crescents
adapted from  . . .well, ideas I've seen various places

In my search for some new appetizer/snack ideas I came across a few recipes that turned crescent rolls into various sandwiches.  I took the basic concepts from those ideas and turned them into a sandwich with flavors that Darryl and I love.  I've made these twice and we've enjoyed them both times.  They make for an easy Sunday night dinner or a quick Saturday lunch.  

Ingredients:

1 roll of crescent rolls
8 slices of bacon, cooked
8 chicken strips, cooked (I saute the chicken in a pan with a little oil.  Salt and Pepper the chicken before cooking)
8 small pieces of cheese - I used colby jack but you could use any kind you love
BBQ Sauce

Directions

1. Seperate the crescent roll sinto 8 triangles.
2. Spread BBQ sauce on each triangle
3. Lay down one slice of cheese, one piece of bacon and one chicken strip. 
4.  Roll up and place seam side down on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper
5. Bake at 375 for 12-15 minutes or until the Crescent Roll is lightly browned




 

Teaching Tuesdays - Week 15

Christmas is in the air around here and I've implemented my Christmas themed ideas into our school day. 

Nathan is still enjoying his preschool work. 

 He loves doing the Sight Word Searches as we learn sight words.  This was an all time favorite because it is the word "But".  The boys laughed and laughed because we got to say "but".  I tried to explain the difference between "but" and "butt" but they really didn't care; they just thought it was funny.

I did incorporate several Christmas themed worksheets based on things the boys have either already learned or are currently learning.  All of the worksheets I used last were I found over at Kindergarten Hoppenings.  She posted some really great worksheets and I really loved that they were free!

 Nate takes his shirt off frequently.  He tends to be hot or just busy and feels the need to remove it.  On this day they were painting some ornaments that they got in our Christmas Countdown. 

Josh loved the finger painting (which is funny because as a toddler, he wouldn't touch paint or play dough because he didn't like it on his hands) and, once his ornaments were painted, he then painted me several fabulous pictures.  This is pretty awesome because it wasn't long ago that both boys would only color or draw in one color; but now they are finally drawing me some awesome things!

 We also worked on a couple of fun Christmas Crafts one day.  I try to keep our crafts fairly easy and both of these were just perfect.

 The pattern for the Christmas Tree Puppets can be found over at Scholastic.  They really are adorable, aren't they?  The boys are new to paper bag puppets so trying to get them to actually make the puppets "talk" wasn't completely successful but they still liked them.

I found the Christmas light pattern at About Home.  My original idea was to make ornaments but when I saw this pattern, I just printed it on cardstock and let the boys decorate it with Glitter Glue and Scrapbooking cut outs.  I really love how they turned out!