The 22nd day with Elf

  It's always interesting to see what Elf comes up with.  Today it looks like he tried to keep the kids in.  A make shift temporary containment for kids.  Little does he know I have yet to find anything to contain the children.

  Poor elf your efforts although grand looking will not even slow the beasts down when they wake up.  They will charge through there like raging bulls and a red clothe.

  Lol, there you sit with the best seat in the house. Waiting for them to discover your hard work.  I can't wait to see what you have in store for us tomorrow.

  Sadly I am not counting but your days are numbered. The end is near and you will be greatly missed.  Thank you Elf for all the fun and excitement.

Day 21 with Elf

  Elf met us again in the kitchen. Either he knows us pretty good or he really pays attention to a common occurrence here. Eating. Today Elf had the preparations for a treat set out.

He was not trying to take a bath.  He had some of the marshmallows poured in a pan and the Rice Krispies were on deck looking to be next.

We spent the day out and about today but when we got home we got down to business!

This is a good kid recipe so I set the oldest and youngest in for this one.

The oldest didn't know what she walked into  the little one wanted to experience it too.

(I jumped into to dig them out after I sprayed my hands, lol.  Why didn't she think of that?)

Well that's neither here nor there.  They are even edible.  Both kids did a good job and had it not been for Elf we may not have even thought of the idea on our own.

Elf had some chores on Day 16

 
  After the last couple of be kind days who knows what to expect from elf.  So every morning we just wake up and walk downstairs with some apprehension.  The first couple steps in the hall tells us a lot but not exactly what we are walking into.

 We followed a trail of cereal downstairs.  Why there was such a mess from upstairs to downstairs was a mystery.  We know any late night munchers (the father) would not have been as messy.

  We followed the trail straight to a the culprit.  Or so we think.  Well hello there Elf how do you do?  Sure we would like some cereal for breakfast.


  Everyone did their part with chores after we were done eating.

 Vacuuming up cereal takes an all hands on deck action.

  See you later Elf!

Day 15 with Elf part 2 Be Kind

  We the children had fun if I do say so myself.   The elf not only taught them two new words but also encouraged them to be kind to each other and others.  My youngest daughter would even randomly say be kind throughout her day as if she liked the sound of it, or maybe it was a great concept.  She would remind her brother to act on it as well.

  For our be kind movement we choose different areas to act on, explore and learn from.  There should be a who, what, why in everything and end in observing how the recipient felt as well as yourself.  If you feel good you will continue (hopefully).

  We chose for our be kind mission:

1.  The firestation.  The mission bring cookies. To make them happy and know they are thought of.

2.  Toys for tots event.  The mission to donate a toy for a child to have something on Christmas.  To make a child happy with a toy.

3.  Help an animal shelter.  The mission to provide a donation to the shelter.  To provide something of use or fun to the animals.

4.  Nature.  To provide substance to the birds.  Even though the ground is not covered over providing them some food will hopefully entice them to visit us more and make them happy.

  It took us all day but it was a nice day even if busy.  We started out by making cookies.

Of course while I was in the other room the kids needed supervision so Elf was happy to help.  He was pretty strict.  Not a finger went in the bowl, muscles were however made during this stirring session .

Chocolate had to be retrieved for one batch of cookies and Elf knows about kids and chocolate so he watched very closely.  (Hint: if you bribe with chocolate nothing will get eaten)

Finished product

delivered safely.

Next stop was our toy donation. We had trouble locating a box.  I guess they were all picked up but after I sent a Facebook message I was pointed to 1 location and we headed there to drop off our toy.

The kids choose a toy yesterday for this event and it was neat to have the dialog with them.  She never once questioned why.  She picked out a gift and was happy to make another child happy.

Last stop on our day was to give some donations to the animal shelter.  There are a lot in the area but I choose one that I have gone to several times.  I looked online to see what they were looking for.  We selected peanut butter dog treats and a couple shoe boxes for the cats.

We ended our day with making bird seed ornaments.  They do need to dry so hopefully they will be ready to hang up tomorrow.

12 Days of Elf

  Today I am woke up by my daughter to tell me she hugged the elf so hard he told her to let him go.  She was over the moon happy with the gift he brought her.  I just had to hurry up and come downstairs so she could show me.

  She is so funny because then she just leaves.  Of course she comes back with elf item in hand.  We go back downstairs to properly display elf with his goodies!

We managed to get breakfast in and dressed before diving into the arts of the day.

With two to choose from and two kids involved I am fortunate to not hear who was getting which one.  They came to an agreement of which one was going to whom.

The kids got busy painting their ornaments and did I say they were so happy with their goodies?

   I have said before nothing beats the individual technique and style of each child.  One child figures using a brush was just too slow a process!  The other child took her time.  It would be interesting to provide a object for her to paint and watch the process and she learns to control the brush and paints bigger objects.

They did a great job and thanks to Elf we have some new ornaments on the tree and they now officially have their very first created by them ornaments for their future tree.

Thank you Elf! One point for you today!

Christmas Kids Crafts

  Taking it slow with kids and pain meds has finally slowed me down to do some crafts with my kids.  I have a ever growing board on pinterest.  Jump over there and see what projects  caught my eye or that I would like to make.  My Christmas pins are a collection of kid friendly crafts, decorations and DIY projects.

  Of course I have more than just a Christmas board.  You can find a DIY board, beautiful nail art, science projects for kids and more crafty things for different seasons and holidays.

  I will try to share the fails and wins with you.  I think it makes it easier to see real people accomplishing things rather than pretty, proper, perfect pictures.


  Today we worked on 2 crafts on my Christmas board and they came out pretty well.  The kids are satisfied with them.  A great preschool project.  Discuss colors, shapes, numbers with the Santa craft.  The stained glass project I was pleased with!  I think my daughter enjoyed seeing the end result too.  We will hang this up on the wall.  She showed great patience when coloring it and took her time.

supplies: tin foil, sharpie markers, coloring page, gallon baggie

supplies: red, white and black paper, red pompom, cottonball, paper plate, crayon to color face, glue

  My kids that made these are 3 and 5.  Supplies were very basic. Use what you have on hand improvise if you have to! My kids would give up TV and video games if they could make crafts.

11 Days of Elf

  You know Elf is not a bad person.  If we were keeping track there has been more good days then bad.  I think we will keep him.  Today he was having fun when we stumbled across him.

  All the toys were in the middle of playing. Guess last night was game night for the toys.

Hungry hippos looked pretty intense! I'm glad Elmo and Lalaloopsy kept it down.  That is not the sound I want to wake up to.

  A nice quiet game of jump rope between a girl and her horse.

Everyone likes a game of UNO! I wonder who won?

   

Lastly was a game of bowling in my kitchen.  

It's nice to see everyone getting along.  It also was a welcoming way to wake up.   My kids immediately jumped into play action when they saw everything.   Got to love hungry hippo at 0700!  

Thanks for joining us this year Elf.  You have stirred up enthusiasm, fun and added excitement into our day.

Thanks Elf Day 10

  Good things come to those who wait!  It almost surprises me to see what elf has come up with to start the day.  Sometimes it happens before my very eyes.

  I do have to tell you sometimes Elf is hiding on me and that is a chore to go find him.  He may go missing as soon as he is discovered after his antics or just during the day; he seems to drift or be transplanted without me knowing anything about it.  So I walk around looking for him.  Sometimes the kids switch places with him so that the toys being picked on can get their revenge other times he seems to be put in time out due to his actions at the present time.

  Today was different.  My kids easily forgive and forget.  The kids woke up to a good Elf and that is more acceptable to them.

He made stairs out of legos and was climbing up the tree with our tree topper.  Apparently our Elf was going to put the star on the tree! 

Thank you, elf that was very nice and thoughtful of you!  We have yet to put our ornaments up so you putting the star up is a great start! 

  It was pretty smart of you to assemble your own stairs to climb up there. It must have been pretty hard to get those pieces to stick together.  I know when I have tried to make steps past 4 they always fall apart.

You have started out a great day for us Elf and we needed that.  Today will be a good day for everyone here, I'm sure.  Happy Holidays to you!

Day 9 with Elf and his antics

  I am taking it easy but Elf is still playing his part!  He's bringing smiles to my little ones and the little ones are finally getting into the entertainment of elf and his shenanigans.  Sometimes I have to go on a hunt to find elf myself because he has walked off and been placed elsewhere.  Sort of a time out with him has occurred.  My young ones just shake their head and call him the bad elf based on what he's done.  This makes me proud because obviously they know right from wrong, and don't appreciate this new house guest coming in their home creating havoc.

  This morning Elf was in the bathroom again.  He didn't prepare a bath for the babies this time.

 He manged to decorate the bathroom with toilet paper!  My youngest said momma look at what that bad elf did in the bathroom.  I said yep, just look at that.

 From the top of the shower curtain to the floor.  How did he even get up there?

 Apparently just like before he had to leave his signature on the mirror. Thanks Elf for the message.

If nothing else I love to clean up after you and the other members of my house.  What else did I have to do?

He is so cute! Always smiling!  Maybe it's just harder to adjust to a new home then I thought.  Poor thing I'm sure he's doing the best that he can.

7th Day of Elf

  A peaceful nights sleep was maybe to deep of a sleep.

I think I even went to bed early last night. So that led to more peace and quiet in the house for a longer period of time.  It's early so let me turn the light on and see what I'm really seeing.

Oh yeah now with the light on it paints a brighter picture. My tree is clearly laying down.  Why is my tree tipped over?  We don't have a cat.  No earthquakes in my part of the world! What happened to my tree?

As I look closer I see my little friend.  

Always smiling.  Always looking as if he says "Who me, I didn't do it or what happened here."

Day 5 The Elf

  So I had stayed up late last night.  I have a lot on my mind and am having trouble sleeping.  However lucky for me by 3 I was tired enough to finally make my way upstairs.  I couldn't believe what I saw.

  I see that Elf is making himself at home and has decided to take up getting acquainted with the other toys.

Although from his vantage point I'm not sure he was shaking hands with the monkey.

Kind of looks to me like a plan of attack.  You know how you get off the bus and unknowingly get bombarded with snowballs before you can even make one.  Before you even know what hit you.

What is that on your lap?

Oh, dear it looks like you ran out of snowballs and I came upstairs at the right time!  

Not nice Elf!  You are a guest in our house and I expect you to behave just like everyone else.  Which means if you want to throw snowballs at anyone you need to give them a heads up! 

Day 4 with the Elf

  Good morning Elf! Thanks for helping with giving the kids a bath today!  Of course I woke up telling myself the babies need a bath but I just don't feel like it.  However when I opened the door and saw how much work you went into getting it ready for them; it quickly solved my dilemma.

   I see that you even tried to make the water a lovely holiday color.

   You could have maybe skipped spraying my walls.  I'm glad the kids like to clean random things.

   I can almost see your name like you signed your work of art, really?

Well young man you will sit right here until you admit what you did or until the kids turn into pruney raisins.