Merry Christmas Morning!

SANTA WAS HERE!!!

James got what he asked Santa for,

HUNGRY HIPPOS!!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS MORNING EVERYONE!

Christmas Eve!

We decided we should get Santa's Milk and cookies ready before we left to head into the city since we would be returning home so late. Good thinkin' Daddy!

Bye Santa! Have a safe trip, see you next year!

Time to open presents!

Here is a snap shot of most of the great-grandbabies minus the twins Ashley and Angela and Elizabeth.
Me and my Cousin Maria

We had a wonderful time spent with our family on this special holiday!

Winter Wonderland in Chicago

We took our annual trip downtown to visit Auntie Rita and Uncle JP and see what the city offers during winter time. Mommy and Daddy dropped Amelia and I off at Auntie Rita's house for a top secret Christmas present operation, shhhh! We promise not to tell until Christmas! So, Mommy and Daddy headed for an afternoon for some "kid-free" time. They grabbed a bite to eat, then decided to check out Navy Pier's Winter Wonderland, to see if we should all go there sometime soon.

From this picture, Navy Pier looks like the place to be in the winter time!

Let's go see the windows!

This year's theme for Macy's Windows was "Letter's to Santa".

Over by Daley Plaza is where they have the City's largest Christmas Tree. This year it was one giant tree (for many years they use tons of pine branches to assemble one big tree like structure).

After hanging out by the Christmas tree, we made our way to Lincoln Park Zoo for the Zoo Lights.

(more pics to come)

I Saw Amelia Kissing...

Advent Activity Day 17:

Discovering the Benefits of Mistletoe

"... Da-DDY,

underneath the mistletoe last night!"

Joy to the World

Advent Activity Day 16:

A Trip to the Post Office

Today we headed to the post office to mail out all of our Christmas cards.
Mommy gave each of us a few at a time to place inside the mail slot. We had a lot of fun saying "good bye" to the mail as we heard it slide down the mail shoot.
We hope everyone will received their cards before Christmas!

An Oldie, but Goodie X-mas Activity

We Need a Little Christmas...(Cookies)

Advent Activity Day 14:

Christmas Cookie Matching Game

Sorry no pictures to post about today's activity, but really it was just a simple file folder game matching different shaped cookies. The file folder has a picture of a cookie sheet with the silhouettes of the missing Christmas cookies. The object is to take the cookie cutouts and place them on top of the matching silhouettes scattered over the cookie sheet. This was really too easy and not very interesting to James, but Amelia enjoyed matching all the cookies to their correct places on the sheet. James and I decided to talk about what types of cookies we should really make instead!

Away in a Manger

Advent Activity Day 13:

Creating a Christmas Card with Christmas Stickers

Since the kiddos were so good at the last outing to our local Walmart, I decided to reward their behavior with Christmas stickers found at the end of the greeting card isle. They each picked out one pack. James picked out the Nativity sticker set and Amelia choose Sesame Street characters with Santa hats on them.

Lately, I have noticed Amelia likes to line up her stickers when she does sticker art.

They were both very pleased with the way each of their cards turned out.

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Advent Activity Day 12:

Toys for Tots

This morning we talked about how some children may not receive many (if not at all) gifts, because their Mommies and Daddies can't afford to get them anything. So, we discussed how we should try to help out as much as we can, even if it is just a couple little toys. Mommy said she starting doing Toys for Tots or adopting a family/child to share some of the Christmas spirit with them since she was in college and that we should continue to do the same. So, Amelia and I got to pick out a pack of bubbles with cool wands and accessories to put in a Toys for Tots box. It was so tempting to open the packages up and play with the bubbles ourselves, but we tried to remember that these gifts were not for us, but for other kids who will enjoy them just as much, if not more!

So, we all hopped in the car and Daddy drove around to find a Toys for Tots box. We finally found one at Island Foods! Amelia and I took our gifts and headed for the Christmas paper wrapped box. I took a peek in to see what others have donated, but to our surprise it was empty! Maybe, they just sent a load of toys to needy children, or perhaps we were the first to drop off a toy? Anyways, we both literally dropped the packs of bubble toys in the box, and headed back to the car. Even, though we really didn't understand why we left "our gifts" behind, we knew that Mommy and Daddy were very proud of us.

Homemade Pizza, Yumm-O!

What's Cookin"?

Some Pizza Pies!!!

First, we brushed (spatula-ed) olive oil over the dough.
Then, we used spoons to spread some yummy pizza sauce. Next, was the mozzarella cheese, we sprinkled it on pretending it was snowing on our pizzas. Then, Daddy gave us pepperoni to place on top of the cheese. Now, it was ready for the oven!
Wow, this pizza is the best! I think I did a great job for making my own pizza dinner!!!

Amelia's pizza that she made must have been delicious as well, since she ate almost every crumb!

Thanks Daddy for teaching us how to make such a fun, yummy dinner!

We think we should do this every Friday night!

Must Be Santa

Advent Activity Day 11:

The Classic Cotton Ball Santa

This was a great opportunity to explore mixing colors to create pink!

(OK, I know this is a bright pink for Santa's face, but I didn't want to waste anymore white paint to lighten it. Call me cheap!)

Amelia did such a nice job adding some "Po-pos."

They were so much fun to make, that we thought each set of our Grandparents need one for their house as well!

James' Santas are the top row and Amelia's are one the bottom, notice the middle one with the tilted hat...I LOVE IT!

A Message From Santa?

We had some very exciting email to open to night, it was a video message from the big guy himself, Santa!

James was so excited to see Santa deliver his special message on the computer. James made sure to answer aloud each and every question and comment that Santa said to him. He knew what hair and eye color he has, that he has been working very hard to use good manners and that he is asking for trains for Christmas! What an amazing night it was!

Santa didn't forget about me either, he sent me a special video message too!

He also knew the color of my hair and eyes and that I have been a good girl all year long! He even knew that I wanted a "baby" for Christmas!

Also, James and I saw in Santa's book a picture of each of us, so that means we are in the book as "nice" children! Phew!

Thanks Santa for our special Christmas messages! We will make sure we leave plenty of milk, cookies and carrots for your reindeer!

Here Comes Santa Claus

Advent Activity Day 10

Santa's Missing Buttons

This was a simple activity that both seemed to enjoy. I found a container filled with fun, chunky buttons to use with this activity. The objective as to find 3 of the same buttons to put on Santa's coat.

Since I only printed one Santa picture, they had to take turns finding different groups of three buttons to complete Santa's coat, James had fun just manipulating the different buttons. James then thought of making a rainbow using the buttons, so I said "Sure!" Just as I was going to help him start to sort all of the colors to make an "arched" rainbow using many buttons, I looked up as saw this...

Needless to say, he had one proud Mama looking at him!

Snoopy's Christmas

Advent Activities Day 9:

Sponge Painting a Wreath

Today, I had another idea for our Advent activity, but I was ruled out by the kiddos! So, we decided that we needed to hang more handmade Christmas art around the house an settled for sponge painting a simple wreath. Amelia's is on the left and James' is on the right. Amelia was mighty proud of hers, so proud that once Mark got home from class she raced up to him and said "Look it! Look it!!!" So cute! I was impressed with James taking his time to make sure every part of the paper plate ring (wreath) was covered in green paint. Nice work James!!!

These were two activities that we made last year with old Christmas cards.

James is working on a Christmas card puzzle and Amelia is finding the missing pieces on the several cards surrounding her. Simple activities that they can do alone, is wonderful thing at times!

* The title of the post was choosen because we read A Charlie Brown Christmas for our bedtime book, I know another stretch!*

Let it Snow!!! Let it Snowwww!

Today was the first day of the season to frolic in the fresh snow. Like Daddy says "We made freshies today!" We all worked together to gather some snow to attempt to make a snowman. Well, this is what the end result looked like, a child sitting on it's knees with a very creepy face! Oh well, maybe tomorrow might be a better day for snowmen building! (The snow just stopped and I think we are up to at least 6 inches of snow!)


This year Daddy decorated the arbor with some pretty lighted garland (curiosity of Miss Heather) and a multi colored wreath. We all enjoy looking at it out our back windows.

YUMMY!!!!

This was Amelia's first real experience playing in the snow, and boy did she have fun! She let out the cutest little giggle as she made her first steps in the "crunchy" snow. We estimated that she ate about 3 medium sized snowballs, while we were playing outside! Needless to say, she really enjoys the chilly, white treat!

It's time for some SNOW ANGELS!!!

I have been waiting all year for this!

After an hour of playing in the snow, it was time to warm up!

Advent Activities Day 8:

Ornament Counting and Number Recognition

James was able to count to at least 12 (Amelia was being a bother to him during this activity) randomly placed ornaments on the tree and had no problem identifying each of the numbers. Nice work James!!! Mommy is very proud of your math skills!!!

A Different Kind of Christmas (Tree)

Advent Activity Day 7:

Trimming a Tree GameA simple tree shape cut out of poster board and some miscellanious items to decorate the tree, and presto! You have a very pretty/interesting looking Christmas tree!

The best part of this game is that you can easy swipe it clear and create another beautifully decorated tree! No, two trees look a like!
Here is a red and white themed tree that we all worked on together.

(Gotta love early childhood ideas books, there are just so many awesome ideas out there!)

Playdate with the "Z" Family!

As usual we have a wonderful time playing and hanging out with Liz, Lauren and Ryan "Guy." We got to play with the sensory table that was filled with beans, the coolest part was that we were in their house while we played!!!

We love the beans!!!!

Thanks "Z" family for a lovely lunch and a great time playing together...FINALLY!!!