Tomorrow marks the start of our Advent season. The actual sit down organized, what the kids call “boring” education is basically set aside for Christmas fun! Educational Christmas fun, of course… We are doing the Activity Village daily Advent activities (as many as we can and have supplies for), the boys have requested to learn about sleds – I have a few books on hold and what I could get yesterday from the library, and we are doing our Polar Express lapbook! I am excited about that one. We read the book for the first time today and coloured the cover page. I need to fold the two folders for each boy tonight and then we are jumping right on in with two little booklets per day! Add to that anything and everything I can find for them to do, learn, etc and I think we will keep rather busy!

We got some terrific mail today! Cousin Veronika found a Groupon for a 6 in 1 Solar Educational Toy and got it for us to add to our homeschooling supplies! So of course we had to bust it out tonight. Ken and the boys sat at the blue table and made up the puppy version. Tomorrow we are going to put it in the sunlight and take what Ken told them about solar panels and actually SEE them at work! It is adorable too, the finished puppy. After they have a go with it in that form for a while we will pick another. But what a great way to see how we can harness the power of the sun! 

Very cool gift!

Working with Daddy

Completed Dog

I finally got the chance to photograph the little owl ornament I made and put up in my Etsy store to purchase. It is 10.00 plus shipping and I would love to send it to a new home! I have two white ones to finish as well! I really do enjoy making them, I just hope SOMEONE ELSE will enjoy them as much as I have someday! 

Up on my Etsy!

So we got more snow today which made the roads rather treacherous, but Ken managed to get out to the store to get rice and the twins made a go at playing outside. They got cold rather quickly (and refused to wear snowpants) but they ran around and enjoyed the fresh snow. We hope to take them out sledding this weekend. AND apparently the van is FINALLY going in for repairs tomorrow! Keep fingers crossed the part is minor and that is ALL they need to fix as the coolant system is what will be comped. 

Cold but happy

He Chris got roped into post supper stories with Trinity tonight. She took full advantage of his naivety and gave him one of her longest books to read! I had to giggle as everyone else is VERY aware of the pitfalls to reading that particular book! But he did a great job. 

Story Time!

I really wish I  could share more of the crafts I am completing BUT I am taking pictures to share AFTER we give them out!! So for now I say Happy Almost Advent and get back to my crafting! 

Playing in our Little People Nativity set!

With the cold weekend the weather has turned positively warm today! Which meant a slurpee WALK for me once the kids were all set and settled and Ken aware I was out. YUM. 

Today was a bit of a crafty day for all involved. There was glitter for the SECOND day in a row (yesterday it was Emanuel and Zander and their tiny snowflakes). We did much better yesterday on keeping it contained. For some reason keep the glitter at the table and after mommy’s bath she will come see meant walk with it through the kitchen, down the hallway to the washroom to show mommy a container of OPEN glitter… 3 or 4 attempts at sweeping it all up later and I am sure I missed enough that days from now we will be reminded of the event. BUT we have some lovely glittered paper snowflakes. 

Emanuel and Zander glittering

Since every year the kids make their own gifts to give the people in their lives we needed to come up with something new for them to do this year. I have some white Model Magic clay stuff left so I took some of that and our Christmas themed cookie cutters and had the twins sit down and create. They made enough for all 4 of the kids to paint once they dry out. 

With supervisor Echo

Who then supervised Daddy as well

With some work on math, snowflake worksheets and crafts sorted… while not a hugely busy day we did manage forward movement. I am debating which would be better – trying to borrow a copy of Polar Express from the library or purchasing my own. I have the files to make a lapbook with the twins. We have the movie as well, so we will do the lapbook and then finish up with the movie. It may be a bit tough to get our hands on a copy in December. 

I finished a few owls over the past two days… Christmas themed of course. Though the first two I did up are already gifted, I will have two to post for sale (the best/cutest of the two will go up on Etsy as my 5th ad). I do love working with Christmas themed materials. 

Christmas cute

I actually completed two people on my Christmas list over the past two days. It feels good to actually cross people off but the list is still distressingly long and my crafting time limited. We watched the Santa Claus Parade on CTV.ca today. The boy were most excited about the Lego float! 

Watching the parade

Tonight’s big goal is to go through all the presents I have saved up over the months. Some go in bags but the ones to wrap are making an extra trip to Kristen and Fydo’s on Thursday to be wrapped. We have a sitter for 4 of our 5 and are going to go and enjoy some adult (and Echo) time while we pretty up some packages ahead of schedule. 

Karyn, Trinity, Emanuel and I were the only ones at the library for pj storytime… it seems everyone else was at the parade and tree lighting. Our kiddos were set on the library and I was right there with them on that one! With the twins seeing their parade online and the baby really NOT needing to sit in the cold the library was the best choice. We had stories about winter clothes, sang songs and did a craft. We lost a mitten on the way home (paper) but I replaced it! 

Dressed for winter in paper form

Tomorrow we will assemble our snowflake lapbooks… there is cookie dough ready to bake which will require the help of CLEAN little hands. Maybe I will let the boys make their own at the blue table… depends on our level of focus! We do love to bake and gift out some of our yummy results! Now if only I could get SOME sort of order on my busy kitchen table… maybe?

I had to try and get some Christmas shots.. thanks to Cousin Veronika and her sheet!

She would NOT sit still!

But cute all the same!