Tag Archive | Kinder Surprise

In Which We Face the Cold United… Well to Dollarama at Least

Day 7 of Advent is here… and since it has been a WEEK of houses and crafts and things I figured I would share out little villages. 3 are garland style wall decorations and the 4th a standing village. They are so proud of each and every house and I am loving seeing their colouring styles and themes (Trinity is PINK PINK PINK) adapt and grow. Today was a Post Office – a must for any village!!

Gavin's

Trinity's

Zander's

Emanuel's

Emanuel’s handcrafted gift is officially completed… it is a matched set actually – a feltie ornament AND squeezable toy both of the subject of his choosing – an elephant! 

He knows about the ornament (it is now on the tree), but NOT the bigger version!

Today’s Advent related craft was a slightly messy one with painting first…

Green sparkly paint

We had to alter the design slightly as we did not have corks to make the stands and instead make ours HANGING picture frames (oh and everyone added some glitter to their paint of course!). 

We have had quite a few time outs to calm down over things… When we have a situation where all the kids are to do one thing and one of them pipes up that it is boring or they don’t want to (craft or not) it often spreads to the others and makes everything not fun so instead of dealing with it at the table I have been sending the boys responsible (amazingly enough the twins only today) to their room and letting them settle there. Hopefully this will work! 

Family time today was a trip to Dollarama to spend this week’s allowance! We ended up with two KinderSurprise eggs (1.00 at the store!!), a bag of chocolate covered pretzels and a Hello Kitty tin (ok that was 2.00 but she is 3… and not really getting it yet). A few more necessities to completing gifts were bought as well as some snacks… but wow was it cold, and as always a bit of an ordeal to get ALL 5 kids out the door… but worth it!

Hello Kitty at a steal

I made up a Dollarama version of this Candy Cane Vase. I used a glass instead of a full vase and the 1.00 boxes of candy canes coupled with ribbon I already had in the house. So my candy canes were not 100% uniform but the end result, I think, was rather nice. Next year I may try this with a bigger vase AND higher quality candy canes!

My Candy Cane Vase

Today’s video is a craft that was included on our daily Advent Calendar page that we have not tried. Looks really neat though!  

We are finishing our craft from today tomorrow as glue and paint needed to dry and tomorrow’s craft is one we are not interested in! Speaking of completed crafts… Gavin has decided to gift his very first cross stitch (though not an original design… I designed this one, his first finish though!) so we had to purchase a frame to finish it off completely. It just works doesn’t it?

Ready to gift

And now I get back to work on another last Christmas present! The kids are almost done!! But the list is still rather long… 

In which popcorn baby does minor yoga moves while munching

Melting on the Weekend

Well the weekend has come and gone and with it two VERY warm days. Saturday topped out at over 30 degrees Celsius. Hot enough that the kids didn’t want to play out in the sprinkler and the pool for very long at all! I am definitely going to put a new kiddie pool top of my list for next summer. Our princess pool is great – for Echo and Trinity but just too small for the boys! They did enjoy themselves for the time they were outside. 

Maybe our last bathingsuits in the backyard, what a cute group

Out in the sun WITHOUT a pull up

I snuck Echo outside with her blanket and Petite Sheepette to take pictures in the sunshine. She has been rather fussy this week and we finally figured out why… she has cut two molars! She is such an odd bean… no front tops, she goes for the painful molars. At least we think they are molars, she has a very small palate so it is hard to tell the exact placement. Goes along with the teeny tiny feet, hands, everything, but all well in proportion. I am hoping to get her into her birthday tutu dress and see if we can get some more pictures. But timing and weather have to coincide, and her mood of course. 

Sunshine baby

It was a slow crafting day on Saturday, too much cleaning, too much heat and too many cranky kids… but I did finish the Vivid Squirrel! I tried to finish a sock owl, but made a mistake with the wings… oops. Thankfully I have enough sock pieces left over to wing up the last 3 owls tonight. Then it is time for Dollarama and more socks! 

Vivid Squirrel

Saturday evening we had boardgames with Kristen, Fydo and Sean… Echo has finally warmed up to Fydo and Kristen and has always been in love with Sean! We stayed up late chatting after gaming. It was an absolute blast.

Playing blocks

Gaming!

We managed to get our timing right and Skype with my dad and my sister Kat (you will remember that she is newly married… you can read about the event on the official announcement HERE… her husband left on Monday for Kuwait for 6-9 months!). It was great to hear from both of them though the kids kept it a busy call, making noise, arguing, spilling something… so it was just like dad and Kat were here on a regular day! He looks great and I am told feels a ton better with all that extra oxygenated blood getting where it should at a good pace. 

I had another pattern sale… the D20 again… and this time the buyer linked my site. I figure I should do the same in return. She is a crafty individual and has an Etsy store you should check out! I look forward to seeing what she does with my pattern! It is always exciting to have someone want to purchase one of our patterns and even more so to have them mention you on their blog! I am hoping to get some more patterns up on our site and maybe connect with more people who are interested in them. I would love to know if you downloaded one of our free ones and see what has been done with it! And if you REALLY feel like it, purchase one and do the same – every purchase adds to my eBay Christmas shopping fund!  

Oh and something else that got lost in the hectic life that was last week – I got a package in the mail! A friend was moving and hadn’t been cross stitching anymore so she sent me her stash! There is thread, hoops, even an unfinished project I am going to take up and see if I can complete! What a pick me up for a harsh week! 

A stash!

And then I was able to sell a few baby boy/outgrown boy items on Kijiji AND send a couple large bags of playclothes on their way through Freecycle on the same day! My goal right now is to sell enough BOY stuff that I could buy some new/used GIRL stuff. Once Trinity is out of her size 3’s I have a small pile of hand-me-downs and then I am out of clothing for her. So if anyone is interested in trades, working out a deal and preferably local or at least coming my way… that would be helpful! AND if you have the shopping urge our Miss Trinity loves getting clothes for Christmas and birthdays (seriously no lie, especially if they are Hello Kitty OR pink!). 

Speaking of Trinity – well  we ran out of pull ups yesterday and were not really wanting to use money needed somewhere else to buy more so we crash coursed our potty training. We have done a bit of laundry, cleaned a few floors and are seeing GREAT results. Now going out shopping we would definitely put on the pull up but we had poop in the potty and everything! She was getting a little frantic about wearing the undies and then came out crying that she had pooped, well quick sit on the potty, a slight scrub of the undies and we had a success! So she earned her sport bottle, has not used a pull up all day (well wore one a couple times but didn’t pee in it!) AND is a big girl now!

Successful Potty = Hello Kitty goodies!

Since the boys got Kinder Surprise eggs at Sunday School we had to walk down to the convenience store and get a box for Trinity too… they don’t sell them as singles so we bought a box of 3 – for 4.67! OUCH but it does break down to about the normal price per egg… just OUCH. So she had one as did Mommy and Daddy. Yum! And the toys were all fun. She wore a pull up there as at times the washroom is out of order – they have had some vandals come in and plug the toilet. 

Kinder yum

Our evening wasn’t too busy, I ran out with Karyn (Echo in tow) to get a forgotten grocery and some supper… but I think I am just feeling the stress of the week. I am hoping to start tomorrow with a smile on my face and a heart centred on homeschooling and my children.

Be sure to check out Fat Sheep’s Site… her adventures are ongoing!!!!

Fun in the sun with her sheep