rudolph christmas tags

A few days back, Alex was bored. Code word- needs to be hanging with mommy or daddy. So I asked him what he wanted to do. He wanted to do arts and crafts. Okay, we can work with that. What kind of craft? Gluing, paper, marker, paint, clay? oh yeah, and let's remember I was heading upstairs to start working on dinner in five minutes!!

He didn't know what he wanted to do so I pulled up Pinterest and showed him this cute pin I found and asked him if he wanted to create some to/from tags for us for Christmas. He was all for it. I got him all set up and walked away!! He was so excited to be left in my office with paints and in charge of getting these tags done. He came up to the kitchen, without any paint on his fingers!! and let me know he had finished stamping and was waiting for it to dry.

He went up and down the stairs a few times until he was certain things were dry so I got the red and black paint all set up for him and let him at it. Oh my gosh, he did such an amazing job!! I told him I would add the antlers and the to/from stamp when he went to bed. I also rounded the corners and love how they came out!!

I think I have to get Kira to do some too. There are not enough tags here for all the gifts we have to give!!

what's been happening

I feel so behind in EVERYTHING!! I have not had a free moment to get my thoughts together enough to blog in ages. Crazy time of year. But I do have some pictures to share of what we have been up to. At least some of the time!

We decorated the tree. This is the first year since hubby and I have been together that the tree does not contain a single Hallmark ornament!! This year for my sanity, I decided that I was not unwrapping six huge totes of Hallmark ornaments and putting them all on the tree while the kids ran around playing and ignoring hubby and I. It was a very liberating moment. Instead we purchased a few sets of ornaments at Walmart and some new white lights. The colors on the tree are red, silver, gold-ish and brown. Very pretty. I think Kira misses the Hallmarks as she would not participate in the decorating but she didn't help when we had the others either!! 

Alex however was all for helping! And a big step in my letting go this holiday season... I did not move a single ornament after he placed them. So what if two snowflakes ended up right next to each other. It is a wonderful tree and I am so happy he enjoyed decorating it with us!!

Our elf on the shelf has returned for the holiday season and brought a new friend. We now have Scout and Cookie and they have been having a great time getting into trouble and just plain being silly. That will have to be a whole series of posts to share their holiday adventures!!

On this day, they had left the kids new Angry Birds jammies!! Can you tell they like them??

We went to the annual Christmas party at the Rec Center while daddy was working one Saturday. Oh so much fun!! Kira had Rudolph painted on her cheek and was very proud to show him off.

Santa even came to visit!! The kids said he looked silly with his painted white eyebrows but still managed to tell him what they wanted. Adorable!!

Alex won one of the raffles!! This huge and soft bear is named Edgar Six (and yes there are five more bears named Edgar in our house) He was so happy!!!

We also took the kids to see Santa at the Burlington Mall in Massachusetts. I love the set up they have for Santa and they are always so friendly and kind to the kids. We love going there. The kids enjoy it because we go to the Rainforest Cafe for lunch. Christmas traditions.

I LOVE this picture that the photographer captured. AMAZING!! Then they even emailed me the other three they had taken. Pretty stinking cool. I think it was an oops but I am taking it and am now the proud owner of four great pictures with Santa for this year!!

I have also been a baking fool for the past three weeks. My kitchen and I need to separate as my hubby is missing me. But totally loving the cookies!! After breakfast this morning I need to get baking again and finish wrapping presents. Going to be a busy one.

I hope everyone has a great Christmas! I do hope to be around more in the New Year!! 

sketch challenge, field day and birthday....

Yes I have been quite busy, but in a totally great way. Below is a sketch we were given to use in my sketch challenge group on FB. It is pretty neat and think it will be used again in the future. I can also see where I would add extra pictures!! I love taking pictures.

And here is my layout inspired by the above sketch. After I took the picture and loaded it to the computer, I realized I did not put the date on the layout so that has now been done. This was Christmas Eve 2008. Kira looks so tiny!! She got to make reindeer food in her class and then another teacher gave her the small bag of food. We had some very happy reindeer that Christmas!

Field Day for the kids was on Friday. The day started overcast and not looking too great. By the time they did the roll call of nations/ classes... the sun was out and stayed out all day. Which was a great thing since the school had rented two bounce slides and turned them into water slides!! The kids LOVED it. Even Alex who hates to have water on his face.

Each class was a different nation and they designed puppets and made flags from their nations. The theme this year was the Olympics. All the kindergartners were Ireland. You can see Alex in the front by the white of the Irish flag. And his amazing teacher in the red shorts on the left.

Kira's class was doing Fiji. Here's a picture of my little lady with her puppet which she made into a tree kangaroo and her flag. She did such an amazing job on her puppet! I love it.

And a friend of ours, took mine and Dave's picture after the ceremony. Something that doesn't happen often since one of us is always holding the camera! Aren't we cute?? I then went into the school and helped with Alex's class while they did their events.

Then it was Saturday and a special Saturday it was. My little baby girl turned 11! I mean seriously. How does one lose eleven years?? I swear she was just being born and look at her! Heading into sixth grade and looking oh so beautiful. I'm afraid to blink since she'll be in college then!

For her day, she wanted me to make her a Piplup cake. ummm sure. I can do that. I found this image on the web and posted it to Pinterest since I am like that. Dave printed it out and off to town we went. This was my first time making a layer cake and learned a few lessons. One... you don't need a ton of frosting in between the layers (but I do like frosting) Two... make sure to level them so the cake doesn't wobble. Three... if you are going to decorate with additional frosting... you don't need as much of the base frosting. We are getting on quite the sugar high eating this cake. Totally not complaining... just explaining.

The black gel we used, was fighting us a bit and running when we didn't want it to. Hence poor Piplup's lazy eye and his crooked beak. But the cool thing is that the gel was glitter gel so Kira didn't mind these imperfections and was quite excited to see it after her bath.

Tomorrow begins our last week of school. Not sure how much learning will be happening, but it will be the end. Alex will find out his teacher for next year on Friday and they are having a step up day. I do believe I will have to be there taking some pictures!!

scout is at it again!

Seriously loving having Scout in the house this year. He is having a great time and so are the kiddos. On this morning he was hanging out in the stocking on Kira's door. Looks quite cozy to me.

On this day, he was rather hard to find. Alex didn't find him until after school he was hiding so well. He's the little blob towards the 5 o' clock position on the wreath. Yes I love my Mickey wreath that I made. I picked up those ornaments years ago at Lake Buena Vista and they did spend some time on the tree but over the years, I didn't want them getting scratched or lost so they ended up on this wreath. Love it!!

On this day he used dry erase markers to draw on the kids school pictures! So stinking funny. Alex was not amused on this day and erased it after daddy saw it.

Today's 'prank' has been my favorite so far this holiday season. This is what Kira saw when she awoke this morning. Her Build a Bear Rudolph with a note telling her to look in the mirror. hmmm... wonder what that could mean?

This was on her desk blotter. Again... the plot thickens as to what Scout has been up to.

This was also on her desk. Quite messy whatever it is that he did.

Look at my very happy Rudolph!! bwahahahaha... I am loving it beyond words.

This is Alex's Build a Bear Rudolph on his chair with the same note as Kira. And a couple of incriminating cotton balls.

And another very happy Rudolph this morning. bwahahahahaha again I say. I love the looks on their faces. Priceless holiday memories right here!

Here is the little stinker at the very top of Kira's book shelf out of everyone's reach. I do believe both of the kids would have loved to have touched him today and taken away his magic. They were not impressed with his painting job. I was. ;)

And he left a bit of a mess in the family room getting the notes written and the cotton balls together.

Who knows what other trouble Scout will find himself in for the upcoming week??!! I'm sure it will be good.