Homemade Christmas 2012

This year I decided to make it a homemade Christmas.  For years I have been wanting to really do this, dig in, find lots of ideas, and then actually do it.  I felt that we accomplished a lot of what I had planned to do and it was so fun crafting with the kids, making projects with Trent and staying up late working like one of Santa's elves!  I hope that everyone that received one of our homemade with love gifts, enjoys them as much as we enjoyed making them!

I found this printable on the internet and had it printed as a picture.  Then I put it in a frame and gave to family and friends.

The boys drew pictures and Penny scribbled on some paper or I traced her hand and then modge podge the pictures onto small white tiles to make coasters.  We then added felt to the bottom and gave them many clear coats of paint.  Wrapped with festive Christmas fabric bows and sent them on their way.

 

I modge podged a picture frame with wrapping paper and added a bow.

Hand painted R2D2 ornament for Charlie

Hand painted Boba Fett ornament for Tommy

The Symbols of Christmas tin

Altoid tins decorated with felt and filled with homemade magnets

Magnets made from clear stones, pictures from magazines glued to stones and then magnet glued on the back.

Hand painted train ornament for a friend

Notepad made from clear picture frame, sheet music printed from the internet that was put inside the frame and a post it glued to the front.  I ran out of time and next time would add more embellishment.

Homemade candy cane playdough in spaghetti sauce jars that we have been saving, wrapped in festive fabric and a cookie cutter tied to the top.

 

 

Eggshellland 2011

The boys enjoying their tasty treat, Penny not impressed.

Sign, Cross, Characters from the movie UP

The balloons and house from UP

Hot air balloons

Tommy covered in Spider Man ice cream

Every year right before Easter we make our way over to Eggshellland.  The same family has been emptying, painting and making a fabulous display out of real eggs for something like 40+ years. It is amazing and fun, free activity to do with the kids.

And this year the day before Easter, when we went, was actually warm enough to wear shorts and eat ice cream! The next day it was cold and rainy, but we will take what we can get!

The last 2 weeks: Valentines Day Fun

The last two weeks both boys shared the same theme and we worked on our Valentines Day  decorations and cards.  We made tissue paper hearts with contact paper as well as hand and foot print Valentines.

Even Penny made a Valentine

 Valentine Sun Catcher

The boys also had fun buzzing around the house with the "love bugs" that they had made.

On Thursday we had a small Valentines Day party with a few of our friends.

For our treats we had confetti cupcakes, brownies and strawberry milk. 

The kids decorated their cupcakes and made a valentine card to take home.  It was a lot of fun!

Besides all our pre-Valentines Day fun, we stuck to our basic lessons as well. Charlie completed lessons in Phonics and Math, practiced his hand-writing by finishing up his Thank You cards from his birthday and we picked up his Explode the Code book.  We also learned about matter, solids, liquids and gases in science.  

 

Charlie is using blocks to solve subtraction problems.

Tommy is still enthusiastic to do "school" with us.  

The last 2 weeks he did a few sheets in his workbook and  played on Starfall.com.  He is also doing much better playing independently when I need to work solely with Charlie. 

Having fun with dress up as Kings and Knights in their "castle".

I had a conference call with Charlie's "teacher" from K12 this week as well.   We went over his test scores from the AIMS web test he did a few weeks back.  Charlie scored average or above average on all areas.  She was also pleased with the progress that he has made from the beginning of the year and feels that he is right on track in most areas and ahead of the game in some.  She also said that if we continue to complete lessons at the rate we are currently working, then we will be done with his school in late April.  The last day of school is technically June 3rd.  We will most likely continue on as we have been, possibly taking a few days off for the boys to have a "free day" from school and for me to devote to planning their summer curriculum and Tommy's curriculum for next year.

The last 2 weeks have been so much fun and we have accomplished a lot.  I am so proud of Charlie and the progress he has made. I am so grateful to be able to spend this time with the children and be their teacher.  I am so grateful to be given this opportunity!

Cookies for the Super Bowl

Country Christmas 2010

We spent Christmas down at Nie Nie and Papa's house this year.  It was good to be together Christmas morning.  There is nothing like watching the children fly down the stairs with excitement to see if Santa had brought them their treats!

On Christmas Eve we put out cookies and milk for the Jolly Ole Elf, carrotts for the reindeer and also special reindeer food, made form oatmeal and glitter, out on snow so the reindeer could find their way to the big house.  Santa obviously didn't have a problem finding us this year, even way back off the dirt roads in the country!

Santa even has special wrapping paper!!

Tommy and Charlie opening their "Santa" presents.

Tom was SO excited!!

Santa brought him the drum set he wanted

and the trumpet

All the boys got LEGOs

Charlie got the Buzz and Woody LEGO train set he wanted.  The fellas went right to work building it.

The day wouldn't be complete without a ride on Grandpa's loader!

There was sledding

and naps

rides on Nie Nie's tractor

and snow wagon rides with cousins

 musical shows being put on by the children

and lots of time to catch up

There was good fun in the newly remodeled kitchen (you DID IT Dad!!)

lots of smiles at the kids table

and a beautiful Christmas spread

We celebrated this little girls 1st Christmas

ah, I love that handsome man!

and of course, there was plenty of time spent with Grandpa and his Christmas train.

 

Our biggest gift this year!

We celebrated the birth of our savior, Jesus Christ, and thanked Him for the promise of eternal life with Him in Heaven.  This year, that has much more meaning to me then any other. For though we celebrated and laughed and ate and were merry, we were all missing our beloved Jane.

Homeschool Kindergarten and Preschool: Week 10Thanksgiving!

One of the easiest and our favorite craft for this time of year was the Give Thanks banner we made from a variety of beans, glue, yarn and construction paper. I wrote out the letters on the construction paper, the boys and I covered the letters with glue and the boys went to town placing the beans on the letters. We will definitely do this again next year.


The boys and I went shopping for our Operation Christmas Child boxes a few weeks back...and Penny went to. That is going to take some getting use to, I am so accustomed to saying just the "boys" :) The boys picked out some toy trucks, stickers, harmonicas etc as well as some fun toothbrushes, toothpaste, soap etc. We did this last year and Charlie really remembered the meaning behind what we were doing and was excited to pick out the different things to send to his "friend".
We had a lot of fun last week and did a BUNCH of school work and lots of fun activities gearing up for Thanksgiving.

There was also a lot of loving going on. Both boys are still smitten with their little sister :)

Tommy had fun playing playdough.

Charlie concentrated on Math and Phonics again this week. His teacher gave us permission to skip through a lot of the lesson since most of them are review for him at this point. I am carefully going through the lessons to make sure that we aren't overlooking any concepts that he does not know. I am excited to see him be a bit more challenged!

Both boys had fun with our Fall sensory bin. I added plastic gourds, paper leaves, crystal pumpkins, pine cones from Grandma Candace and a few trucks. I gave the boys some measuring cups, spoons and containers and let them go to town. They really enjoy these sensory bins and it really holds their attention.

We had fun making these Turkey hand print cookies. The boys helped with the entire process and had just as much fun eating them as they did decorating them ;)



They also completed some foam Turkeys that I picked up either at the art store or at the dollar store.


I also made a Cornucopia out of dough for our table centerpiece. It turned out ok, but I have bigger and better plans to do it again next year.


We read a few books about Thanksgiving and why we celebrate. I had wanted to make a Mayflower ship with Charlie but we didn't get to it...maybe next year.

We have so much to be thankful for! It was a great week!