VDV Four Advent Day 13: See Santa and Give 3 Gifts

This day was a special day. It was one of our giving days and I was looking forward to it since the start of our Advent fun. I really want to teach the boys about the joy in giving. So, sometime in November, I got Bug to pick out 3 of his favourite books. Then we purchased brand new ones and wrapped them for 3 special kids we would pick at the mall when we went to see Santa. In the morning when he opened his advent bag, we started talking about what we were going to do when we got to the mall. I told him that he got to pick 3 kids to give a gift to, so he had to be on the watch for the children once we were inside. The very first kid we saw, Bug loudly said "Mom! Look, it's a kid!" He was so excited to give a present...I was so very proud of him. The meaning of our day was quickly realized by Bug, and thoroughly enjoyed! The last little girl we gave a present to, came up to us shortly after with her Grampa to give Bug a hug. It was the sweetest thing ever. This Mommy VDV may have had a few tears in her eyes.

In each book, I wrote a letter explaining what the present was for. It said:

• Our family does an Advent activity every day from December 1st until December 24th to celebrate the holidays. Bug and Bear are 4.5 and 1.5 years old, and this year we have added more giving activities to help teach the boys that the holidays are much more than about receiving and that there is so much joy in giving. This year, one of our activities is what Bug has chosen you for. I gave him 3 presents he got to bring to the mall with him, and he chose you to give one of these gifts to. Bug loves getting read to, so this year we picked out three of his favourite books and bought a brand new one to give to you. We hope you enjoy them just as much as he does. Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year.

I also got Bug to write a quick little note just to get some more practice with his writing.

In between our gift giving, the boys got to go sit with the jolly red man himself. I was worried about how Bear would do, as some days he plays strange. He may not have smiled, but at least he wasn't screaming!

Francis, this morning was found in an altercation with Spiderman.

VDV Four Advent Day 12: Skating

This Advent day is pretty self-explanatory from the title. We collaborated Bug's skating day with his class with his advent activity of the day. We invited the boys' Oma and Opa to join our fun and Bug used big boy skates for the very first time.

Bear is too young to skate, so we all switched off in getting some Bear cuddles!

But mostly, Bear was there for the food! haha.

After Bug was done with his skates, he wanted his boots back on so he could run around the ice with a hockey stick and puck. He enjoyed this part more, as he's pretty unsteady on his feet with his single blade skates (not the bobsled ones from last year). We had a lot of fun though...a great family outing.

This morning, Francis was found wrapped underneath our Christmas tree!

VDV Four Advent Day 11: Christmas Tree Waffles for Supper

Our household loves, loves, loves breakfast for supper. It is something that occurs most likely once a week, especially on one of the days that I work a night shift. This advent day was on my second night shift of my set, so when planning our list, I figured this would be a good day to incorporate our activity with supper. I have a waffle press, so we made green waffles, and I cut them into triangles to make Christmas tree waffles. Bug helped me prepare the waffle batter. I used a banana slice to cut a star, and raspberries for our ornaments. The boys loved this...and we all got to be like Bear and be there for the food. Poor Bear, most of our days were a bit too much for his activity level, but this one was perfect!

Francis found himself in a precarious situation in the morning...we still don't know who taped him to the wall.

VDV Four Advent Day 10: Water Gun Snow Painting

This was an activity that we brought back from last year's advent list as Bug just loved it!! I filled water guns with water and about 10 drops of food colouring, giving them a shake before we headed outside. Then I let Bug run wild down our sidewalk, spraying our banks of snow. This day was pretty cold, so I didn't put him into the snow banks as I knew we wouldn't be outside for long. But Bug made sure every drop of coloured water was out of the water guns before we were allowed back inside. He truly does love this one. Bear, unfortunately was a bit too young for this one so he was inside having a nice warm nap.

This morning, Francis was found wrestling our bathroom sink crocodile.

VDV Four Advent Day 9: Decorate Craft Tree by Rolling Dice

I found these cute little foam trees from Michael's and thought it would be cute for the boys to decorate them with little gems. I pulled out a single die, and got Bug to identify the number he rolled. Then Bug counted out the corresponding number of gems and he placed them on the foam tree (the gems came with adhesive stickers). Bear was interested in rolling the die, but obviously isn't quite there in his fine motor skills to work with the small gems. Bug helped Bear finish his foam tree. We will hang them in the house every Christmas now!

Francis was found resting with a cast after his trapeze act from the night before. Santa and some of his elf friends signed his cast too!

VDV Four Advent Day 8: colour Christmas Pictures

This day was one of my 12 hour day shifts, so I kept our advent activity to something pretty basic. I searched the internet for uncoloured Christmas images and printed them out for the boys to colour. Bear did well with his scribbling and was easily entertained by the markers, so I spent some time trying to teach Bug to colour inside the lines or to try and think about colouring the picture with different colours in different parts of the image. He did pretty well!

After the images were coloured, I started showing Bug how to draw certain animals or items. Since it's Christmas, it seemed logical to draw a Christmas tree. Also, it was only common sense to teach him how to draw a penguin as that's Mommy VDV's favourite animal.

Bear's favourite part of each day is the candy canes. Hehe.

Francis was found doing a trapeze act from a candy cane.

VDV Four Advent Day 7: Glitter Pinecones

This advent day was a craft activity, with the result being something I will bring out every year as a part of our Christmas decorations. Over the fall, I collected a bunch of the hard pine cones from a neighbouring house's lawn. We would walk by this house numerous times, either to grocery shop or take Bug to school; so I started picking up the really good ones that were close to the sidewalk. I didn't have a full purpose in mind at the time, I just knew we could do a craft with them one day. Then, during my planning phase for our advent activity list, I thought of glittering these pine cones and putting them on display in a glass jar for a center or mantel piece during the holidays. Every time there was a coupon at Michaels, I went and bought a bottle of glitter I wanted to use, and in the end purchased 3 different colours (green, red, and iridescent). I also purchased some mod podge. All of these items were bought with a 40% or 50% coupon and the glass jar I obtained from Dollarama for $2.00. Also from the dollar store, I bought some ziploc bags so we had a place to put our glitter.

I got Bug to help paint the mod podge onto the pine cones, and then we placed them into one of the glitter bags. Bear was able to help us out at this point by shaking the bag to get the pine cone fully glittered. The boys loved that part!

The finished product was so pretty!

Francis was found this morning building a house of cards!

VDV Four Advent Day 6: Food Bank Run

This year, we added 3 more giving days to our activity list compared to last. As the years go on, we will be doing more of these, as I really want my boys to grow up knowing what Christmas is actually about; that it is about the spirit of giving and not just about getting presents. Obviously kids love the idea of getting gifts on Christmas day; but this Mommy VDV loves the whole season. So we will be celebrating it from December 1st until the 25th; and most of those days will eventually be spent bringing joy to others. 

Today, in the boys' advent bag, there was money waiting for them to go to a grocery store and pick out items for the food bank. Safeway does food bank hampers for $5.00; however, I thought it would be more fun for Bug to actually go down the aisles and pick out some non-perishables. 

My work also adopted a family for the holidays so we picked out a few food items for them and a craft for the eldest daughter. Bug loved dropping them into the collection boxes!

Francis was found looting some coins this morning.

VDV Four Advent Day 5: Baking Santa Hat Cupcakes

The VDV four like to bake...whether it's the actual process or the eating the baked goods in the end, it's something we enjoy doing together. Bug loves to measure out what we need, and watching him make sure the measuring cup is level is probably one of the cutest things to see. And of course, you can't pass up the joy in getting to lick the spoon or bowl...another favourite of the boys.

This baking advent day was making cupcakes and decorating them with icing Santa hats. The recipe I used was actually for a chocolate cake; however, it is so moist, I adapted the baking time so I could use it as my go-to cupcake recipe (my oven cooks them perfectly at 15 minutes). They were really yummy, maybe a little too much icing, so making mini cupcakes for this idea might be better. But they were so cute and the boys loved them!

Francis was upset that his snowman didn't survive inside :(

VDV Four Advent Day 4: Decorating the Boys' Rooms

This activity was a favourite of Bug's last year. We put Christmas lights around his bed frame, but this year we added a little craft activity for their door. We made snowman door signs with their names out of paper plates. This craft was super cheap, as I bought the paper plates and ribbon from Dollarama, used a black marker I had at home, some brown cardstock and a few pieces of felt. Our activity this day was also a writing lesson in disguise, as I got Bug to write the letters in their names on the plates. I cut out the felt and cardstock pieces for the snowman's hat, scarf, nose and arms; but Bug helped me glue it all together (I used the ribbon for the frame work to glue the plates vertically, where the lettered plates became a part of the snowman's body). Both of the boys were pretty happy with the final results hanging from their doors.

Then, of course we needed to put the Christmas lights in the boys' rooms. Another big hit, yet again this year! I love bringing these simple joys to my boys!

Francis chilling in a hammock while watching the boys' behaviour.

VDV Four Advent Day 3: Write a Letter to Santa

This Advent day was an easy activity, as I came off my first night, slept during the day and then worked my second night. So it needed to be an activity that could be finished quickly between the time I woke up and getting ready for supper. What better activity than to write a lovely letter to Santa...and of course giving Bug some more practice with his writing. He also loves drawing his version of monsters...they are pretty scary, hey?! Bear obviously isn't writing yet, but he's really getting into "drawing". I use that term loosely because it's more of a fascination with seeing the coloured marks left after he scrapes the pen, marker, etc onto the paper. So Bear drew Santa a nice scribble! He was also being a goof and taking off his Santa hat, only to try and put it back on in ridiculous ways!

Bug's letter for Santa was so cute. I just asked him what to say and then we worked on the words individually. He isn't quite at the writing level to write a sentence or thought out, as he doesn't have a lot of word recognition. So with each word, I just told him what letter to write next, and we plucked away at completing the letter.

And Francis this morning, was trying to be like Mike, getting some air!

VDV Four Advent Day 2: Christmas Wreath out of Hand Tracings

Our Advent Activity Day 2 was a craft that I'm super excited about; something I will be able to put on display every year. I don't have a lot of Christmas decorations, aside from my tree; so I'm pretty excited to build on those by the crafts and items I make with my boys.

What I used for this craft: a wooden floral wreath from Michaels, 3 different shades of green felt, a bag of multi-shade red pom poms and a bottle of Mod Podge Stiffy (seriously, who named this?) to stiffen the felt. In preparation for this craft, I brushed the Mod Podge onto each piece of felt until it was saturated and then let it dry for 48 hours. On the day of use, I traced the boys hands onto the felt, where they each had tracing cutouts in each of the shades. In hindsight, I think I would have cut the felt first, then stiffened the hand cutouts. My hands hurt so bad after I cut out 30 hands...

Once all of the hands were cut out, Bug helped me use the hot glue gun to attach them onto the wooden floral wreath. I placed them in multiple directions, so that the fingers looked like branches of leaves, giving the finished wreath a nice dimensional look. To complete it, we glued on our red pom poms. I have to say, the wreath turned out better than I would have thought, and I love, love, love it!! So excited to bring it out every year to remind me of how little my boys once were!

And of course, Francis was up to some funny business this morning, having a potato sack race with some of Bug's stuffed friends.

VDV Four Advent Day 1 - Decorate the Tree

I have been so excited for the Christmas season to begin. I loved how last year we started some family traditions that I hope to uphold over the coming years of my rugrats' childhoods. I'm not going to lie, last year after our Advent activity Calendar went off with such a hit, I already had a rough plan for Advent 2013. Since September, I started tweaking the schedule (and really paying attention to what my work schedule was so the activities were doable during my shift work hours). By the end of November, I had Ziploc bags labelled and ready for the days they were needed. I really didn't want my work schedule to prevent this from happening, so I was insanely organized to the point where once Bug grabbed the bag for the day, I just had to go grab the corresponding Ziploc bag that had most of the materials already set aside. 

This year, I remade our advent Calendar as the one last year was a bit too small for 2 kids. I used a long piece of scrap wood I had lying around the garage (honestly, I have no idea where this came from...haha), and painted it white. Then I speckle painted it with brown before I added the nails that hold the mini bags. Above each of the nails, I painted the numbers 1 through 25 (I included 25 because it's always fun to have an extra bag of candy canes). The bags I made out of decorative burlap that I found at Michaels. I make many trips to Michaels when I have a craft in mind, because I'm sometimes a bit too frugal and refuse to pay full price for items that are $7 or more...haha. I bought both of the patterned rolls of burlap with the coupons (saving money is a definite plus to being organized). Our new advent calendar fits perfectly on our mantle!

Onto our first advent activity. The first one will always be decorating the tree. The perfectionist in me did quite well this year, as I barely told my husband where to put the ornaments. Haha...I drive him crazy when we decorate the tree, but I reigned it in this year. I mean, I can easily just re-organize the ornaments on the sly when he isn't looking...oh dear...ha! We wear Santa hats during all of our advent activities, so we dusted them off from last year and started putting them to good use! Aren't we cute?!

If you noticed in the first picture, Bug is putting a sticker on a calendar. He loves stickers, so last year I made him a laminated Christmas countdown sticker chart and in each advent bag, he gets a sticker to place. This is a perfect added activity to help build some strong fine motor skills. The burlap bags also contain a mini candy cane for Bug and Bear, and the little Christmas note to tell us what our activity will be for the day.

And of course, the beginning of December marks the return of our Elf on the Shelf, Francis. I think I have more fun with him than I should probably admit...but I love when one of the first thing Bug asks in the morning is "where is Francis?". 

Oh, how I love the holidays!

Kids Wood Christmas Tree

I'm a bit behind on posting on my blog...once again. But I love the holidays, and we have been busy starting December 1st. So I haven't had much extra time in front of the computer, which is the way I like it most of the time, but especially during the holidays.

This post is from my last set off in November, right before the beginning of our Advent Activities. What better way to end November than to do some Christmas crafts. For those of you who know me, it isn't a surprise that my Christmas tree is decorated in all penguins. This is great; however, when you have kids and you have craft days with them making Christmas ornaments, it becomes difficult on where to display them. Obviously it makes sense to put them on our tree; however, the penguins are so overwhelming that I didn't want their ornaments to get lost in the Christmas tree that barfed out penguins galore. So, thanks to my amazingly crafty mother, I asked her to make us this super cute wood Christmas tree that the kids could paint and then that would be the display place for their ornaments over the years. I gave Bug and Bear a paint brush and green paint...and let them at the tree.

When most of it was painted, I put a bunch of different shades of green on our painting plate, and showed Bug how to "sponge" the paint on with the paint brush so the tree ended up having a 3D look with multiple shades.

Bug really got into it and painted most of the tree. Bear stayed in his small little corner, but loved it just the same! He ended up with most of the paint on himself, and when Bug saw how funny Bear looked, Bug proceeded to paint his body. What goofs I have!

Then of course it was bath time!

The following day, Bug made a Christmas tree ornament with one of his friends that came to visit. I got them to paint 3 popsicle sticks green, and 1/3 of a popsicle stick brown. After, we chose a bunch of buttons from my stash and then I helped the boys use the hot glue gun to construct our popsicle stick tree!

Once our wood tree was dry, I sealed it with some water proof sealant (as I want this to last through the years). Then I unpacked some lights and all the ornaments Bug made previously, along with the new Christmas tree one and helped him decorate our craft tree! I loved how it turned out! I don't have many Christmas decorations, but I love how the things that the VDV four have made in previous and future Christmas' will add to our stock.