Christmas Crafts

The great thing about having an almost four year old is that she's up for Christmas crafts. Usually I have to tap into my Martha Stewart tendencies all by myself but not this year! I now how a partner in crime. Plus I really wanted to spend some quality craft time with Elise before the babies.

Our first craft was to make glitter pine cones. We gathered pine cones from our yard and we painted on glue and dusted them with glitter. When I say 'dusted' I like to think that it was a non messy project but it wasn't. But we both had a ton of fun with glitter hands, faces, clothes, chairs and floor!

 Our drying pine cones....

Some of them I used in a centerpiece in our family room with candles and pine tree branches but the rest I tied red bows around. I intend to share our glitter love by spreading glitter into other people's homes too...

And of course Home Depot had a Christmas craft. The month of December was a Christmas picture frame. Elise and I glued, hammered, screwed and painted our frame to perfection. Now we have to find a suitable picture to place in it...

 Notice the people in the background. I think they are saying that Elise shouldn't 

be waving a hammer around in the air. They are jealous of our skills!

Who wants boring store bought wrapping paper? Elise's gifts are wrapped with extra love as she made her own wrapping paper.

With a roll of brown paper, Christmas stamps and multiple ink pads, Elise went to town decorating her paper. It was a fun a simple project that she did before school one morning when we had a school delay.

After naptime, we wrapped her gifts. She cut the paper herself and I helped tie the ribbon. For the grand finale, she wrote her name and the person's name on top. Of course we had Demi look the other way when we wrapped her gift.

What to do with all those cookie cutters that I have? How about making cinnamon scented Christmas ornaments?! Elise had a great time sorting them all out. I instructed her to pull out only the green ones as they were the Christmas cookie cutters. In the end, she pulled out the green ones and any of the cookie cutters that had anything to do with dogs-- 2 dogs and bone. 

 Of course we got a little silly too!

Our recipe consisted of cinnamon, nutmeg, applesauce and glue. It sure was crumbly but eventually came together.

 Boy, the house smelled so good when we baked them.

 Afterwards we decorated them with glitter puffy paint

 Some of my favorite...

I was most looking forward to making the snowman hand ornaments... thanks Pintrest for making me obsessed with holiday crafts! Elise and I had to actually do this one twice since I bought the wrong paint the first time and it flaked off when it dried. At least we could reuse the ornaments!

Elise never minds a messy craft with paint. I don't either as long as we don't get it on our clothes or furniture! You can see I was living on the edge since we didn't use a paint shirt!

Now that Christmas has passed and we've passed out our treats to our family, it's now safe to post all the fun events that Elise and I have done together. Hopefully, even with the babies, we'll be able to squeeze in a few small Valentine's Day crafts as well! Me, and my little helper, Elise.....

Children's Wonderland

Somehow between all the illnesses and holiday festivities, I was able to take Elise to Children's Wonderland... a yearly tradition that we started when Elise was a baby. As she continues to get older, she enjoys the lights, experience and fun more and more each year.

                                            

The trick to avoid the crowds is to go right when it opens and we were lucky to basically have the place to ourselves! The first thing we did was to make a necklace for Daddy who was sick at home (I still swear it was food poisoning!). It was tough to make a necklace large enough to fit over his head-- afterall big heads equal big brains, right?!

Then we played miniature golf. Golf is always more fun when there is fake snow and green rope lighting. Notice how Elise is wearing her red, sparkle shoes from her Christmas picture. When we left the house that morning she insisted she get to wear something 'shiney'. 

Playing homage to our elf Jingle

The biggest hit of all was riding the train.. which she did about four times. Last year Elise rode a train with a little boy who ended up crying once it rounded the corner and out of sight from his parents. That's something that Elise has talked about for an entire year! Luckily there weren't any cry babies this year!

However, the first time she finished riding the train, Elise turned and walked into the train set, thinking she could exit that way. It was a bit cute to see the head engineer calling after her... 'Little girl, this way!'. Elise obviously figured out she was going the wrong way!

We had a fabulous morning together! 

Don't worry Children's Wonderland, we'll be back next year!

Hospital Tour

 Last Saturday we took Elise to the Toledo Hospital for a Big Sibling class and hospital tour. We watched a movie about babies, learned to diaper and swaddle a baby doll, decorated a onesie and even got to see the nursery with real babies inside.

Elise's favorite part was seeing the babies in the nursery. She continues to show such love and support for her sisters-- kissing my belly every morning when I get her up and sharing her food during mealtime ("Here. This is for the babes."). She's going to be such a wonderful helper and I look forward to introducing her to her tiny siblings. I'm sure it's not all going to be like roses all the time but I know that in the end, we are giving her a fabulous gift.

Not the best picture... those phone cameras... but a picture I love.

After seeing the babies in the nursery, Elise wanted to give Daddy

hugs and kisses. 

Christmas Card Part 2

 Pictures on the backside of our card... Elise is getting so big!

Christmas Card 2012

Our Christmas Card 2012

Jingle the Elf

Elise has an elf and his name is Jingle. He moved into our house on December 1st and reports directly to Santa each night. I sure hope he's only telling Santa how fantastic and well behaved we all are. Each day he's in a new spot. It's always a surprise to see where he wants to spend his day. We aren't allowed to touch him or play with him... afterall he isn't a toy. Hopefully I won't catch him in our bathroom or someplace crazy-- otherwise I'll have to send Santa an email.

And Santa somehow got a hold of my cell phone number. Jingle must have told him that Elise wouldn't eat her apples during dinner and he called! Not only did he call but he said to eat her apples! Afterwards, he called back and said that she got a gold star for doing a job well done. That Jingle-- he's on top of things!

Bring on Christmas!

I wait all year long for Christmas. I'm one of those people who break out the Christmas music and decorations the second that Thanksgiving is over. This year was no exception. In fact, I've even broken my own rule and have shopped, wrapped and sang Christmas songs before mid November just in case the twins cut my festivities short. 

But the great thing about December is that the rest of the world joins me with my Christmas excitement. 

Our first family Christmas tradition (yes, I have a lot of traditions... something Jeff likes to kid me about) was the annual Perrysburg Christmas parade. We packed up our folding chairs, a thermos of hot chocolate and cups, as well as Demi and scoped out a perfect place for parade viewing.

Elise sat on my lap for most of the parade but was sure to hop down when Santa came by... afterall she didn't want him to forget about her for Christmas morning.

Afterwards we went home, took hot showers and donned our pajamas for Christmas tree decorating. Elise 'oohed' and 'awed' over each and every ornament. She was definitely excited and enjoyed each and every second of it. Who am I kidding? I did too! Maybe it's genetic.

Then Daddy helped Elise put the star on top. Our tree was finally perfect!

I feel like our tree is a time capsule-- filled with pictures of our family, mementos from trips, and gifts from loved ones. There's something so fulfilling with having it up. Later that evening we laid on the floor with pillows in the dark admiring and loving our tree.

We took our family picture with Santa this past Saturday. Elise definitely acted like she was in the presence of a rock star. She was momentarily shy but warmed up quickly as he asked her if she had been a good girl and what she wanted for Christmas.

I'm not releasing any pictures yet (our card hasn't yet gone out) but I'll give you a teaser of Elise's shoe. Yes, those are real diamonds in case you are wondering. During the pictures she held Santa's hand tightly. So sweet.

So what does a three 'and a half' year old want for Christmas? Elise told Santa two things: a horn (yellow) and a cape (rainbow colored).

It's ironic that Elise wants a cape as apparently Jeff had a fascination with capes as a child.... in that he always worked them into his Halloween costumes. Elise has been wearing a dish towel cape for some time so I can see she'd like an upgrade.

One day when Elise was jumping and flying around the house, Jeff nonchalantly mentioned he had a black cape (leftover from Halloween's ago). Of course she wanted to see it and eventually they traded... but it's hard to tie a dish towel around such a big, muscular neck! Do you think superman has the same problem?!