1st Sunday of Advent - 2012

I've put my Sunday Fun Links on hold until after Christmas!  I wanted to spend the next few Sundays sharing with you the traditions and activities that we are doing as a family for Advent.  None of these things are earth shattering...or new.  These are just ordinary ways of celebrating this season of anticipation with an "extra-ordinary" Widener spin!

Last year was the first year since Nathan was a baby that we've had an Advent Wreath using real candles.  I thought we ready.  I thought wrong.  It's too much stress for me worrying about who is touching the candle...who is sticking their fingers in hot wax....or who is blowing them out too hard and blowing wax all over the place!  Real candles are still too much of a temptation for my kids.  So, with the help of some wonderful ideas on Pinterest....I found one that we could make.  It was fun and easy.

I started by making the wreath itself.  I traced the girls hands 4 times each using two different shades of green.

 

I cut them out and then glued them together in a circle. 



 

 

 

I had been saving up my toilet paper rolls for just this occasion!

 

A little glue...

 

A little purple/pink/white scrapbook paper....

 

Roll it on up.

I measured the paper slightly longer than the tube.  I don't really know why.  I suppose they could have been exact and it would have worked fine too.  I just thought the edges were cleaner this way.

 

Slit the excess paper with scissors and then fold and glue them down.

I cut out a circle of paper for the tops...made a slit in the middle of the circle and then inserted a "flame" that I traced and cut out.

 

I think it turned out cute.

 

Now I don't have to worry about little burned fingers or scraping wax off of my dining room table!

Enjoy your first week of Advent!  Happy New Year!

Sunday Fun Links

 

Guess what?  I'm starting yet another weekly feature here on my blog!  It seems every time I try to do this, I let it fizzle out.  It's mostly due to my laziness, but, I'm feeling especially energetic this week and I'm excited to start something new!

Now, I know that Sunday is a special day.  It should be reserved for worship, for family and for rest.  The way I figure it, you can click on these fun links while you are resting and spending time with your family AFTER you've been to church!

I will do my best to remember to post these EVERY Sunday!  If I forget...feel free to remind me!


10 Halloween Seasonal Treats

Free Halloween and Fall Printables

Cheap, fun and easy Halloween Stuff

Great Halloween Crafts (make sure you scroll all the way to the bottom to see all the crafts and activities!)

11 Halloween Games from Martha Stewart

31 Days of October Crafts for Kids


I hope these links help to get you into the spirit/mood of the season!  If you happen to be on Pinterest....there are a ton more ideas!  If you're not on Pinterest.......why not?

Jello Play Dough

Today is one of those days when I had to come up with something for the girls to do....fast.  They gave up on their room (see yesterday's post) for now.  I'm not going to push them.  They know the consequences of their actions.....there will be NO PLAY DATES until the job is done.  It's their choice. 

Our second vehicle is not working at the moment.  Needs a new fuel pump.  Dan and Nathan drove out to the Dodge dealership to pick up a part and so it's just the girls and I.  The weather is very hot, very muggy and very buggy.  It's no fun going outside when you just get eaten alive by mosquitoes.  So, I decided to make some jello play dough.  It's not really a big deal, just something to do while we watch Toy Story 2.

Here is the recipe I use:

1 cup white flour
1/2 cup salt
2 tbsp cream of tartar
2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 cup warm water
1 3oz pack of jello (I had lemon)

Mix it all together in a Teflon pot.  Then, heat it while stirring until it gets clumpy.  Keep stirring until it makes a big ball.  Take off the heat and let it cool.  When it's cooled enough to touch, lay it out on a table with some flour.  Knead it until it's smooth.  Add additional coloring if you want to!  That's it!

I put mine in a Pyrex dish and spread it out...it cooled quicker!

In order to make it a brighter yellow, I added some food coloring.

Then I grabbed a bunch of plastic utensils.

Not terribly exciting, but good enough for some easy fun!

What are you doing to keep yourself busy this Saturday?

May Crowning repost

In honor of our Blessed Mother and the month of May, I decided to repost a May Crowing craft that I did in 2010.  This was an easy, kid friendly craft to help celebrate Mary's month.  Enjoy....


I can't believe that we are half way through the month of May! It seems as though the last few months have flown by and I can hardly recall what we've done! Thank goodness for this blog! I can at least click through my last several months worth of posts and see that we were, in fact, quite busy!

We didn't have (or at least not yet) a May Crowning "celebration", but we did manage to make a few things for our Blessed Mother statue that I wanted to share with you.

Just a few simple beads and some wire!

I know they should actually be made of flowers, but I thought this looked more like a crown.

Isn't she beautiful! (yes..I realize she has no thumbs....but this statue has been through a lot!)

I found some blue flowers at the craft store that I thought would make a nice wreath.

I used some of the floral foam and just cut the stems off and stuck them in.

I think it looks pretty good!

Nothing is glued on, so I hope it all stays put!

The girls have been singing "Immaculate Mary" in the bathtub over the last few nights....does that count towards a May Crowning celebration???

Our Advent

I should be more prepared for it.  It comes at the same time every year, but it always takes me by surprise!  It's as if I go to bed on Halloween....and the next thing I know, I wake up and it's Advent already!  How does that happen?  Didn't we just do this?

Oh well.  I love this time of year and I'm just glad it's here.  I was somewhat ahead of the game this time, though.  I actually didn't pack away the advent wreath like usual.  Every single year I say to myself, "Nancy, DON'T pack away the Advent Wreath...you'll need that sooner than any of the other decorations".  And every single year, I pack it away.  Then, I have to go digging through all six boxes and it's always in the last one I try!  Not this time.  Haha!....I just put on the shelf in my closet and was able to go right to it!  Whew!  That was a load off my mind.

There are so many wonderful ways to celebrate the season of Advent.  I've spent hours reading blogs and visiting special websites.  I've copied, bookmarked, and printed tons of ideas.  I wish I had the time and money to try them all.  The thing is, if I did try them all...or...did more than I do....I might miss the meaning of these special activities.  It's taken me many years to realize that I can't do everything!  I want our family to grow in faith and love as we anticipate the birth of the Savior!

 As my kids get older, it's harder to keep them focused on anything but what's under the tree on Christmas morning.  They are kids that live in a world that is very "me" focused and full of all the material things you could possibly dream of.  As Catholics, it's my job to understand and teach my children that while we live "in" the world, we are not "of" it.  Setting limits and making decisions ahead of time really helps.

Even as an adult, I can easily become overwhelmed. When I take my focus off of Christ, my 3 page list of things to get done...remains just that...things to be done.  When I focus on EMMANUEL, God WITH us....I can then enjoy the preparation and the traditions.  I still have my list of things to do, but I can do them with a sense of anticipation and a sense of  purpose.

We do very few things for Advent...but they are meaningful and the kids love them.  We added one new thing this year and the jury is still out on whether or not we will make it an annual part of our season.  Here's what we do:

1.  Advent Wreath:  This is the second year in a row we are using real candles for our wreath.  In the past, we've used a fabric one that worked just fine.  We light the candle each night and read a short meditation.  We've allowed Nathan the privilege of lighting it!  It allows him to feel important as an up and coming "man" of the house and the girls look at him in "awe" as he maneuvers the lighter. 

2.  Advent Calendar:  It's tradition in our family that my mother-in-law bring us an Advent Calendar.
While we love to open the window and see the symbol or read the scripture passage...there was always a fight as to which one of the kids was going to open the door.  You've got to know that in my house EVERYTHING is a competition!  So, to combat the arguing, I found these calendars on sale at Hobby Lobby!  I bought 3 so that everybody had there own.  As a matter of fact, these actually have pieces of chocolate behind the doors!  I also bought one without the chocolate....just because I thought the picture was gorgeous!

3.  Jesse Tree:  This is the one thing that we added this year!  I've always wanted to have a Jesse Tree but I've just never taken the time.  About two weeks ago, I found a pattern for the ornaments that really looked easy and doable for me!  Once I printed them out, added the backing, colored them and then got the laminated, it was easy.  I found the pattern here.  Since these pictures were taken, I've also punched holes at the top and used ribbon for hanging.  I've decided not to have a separate tree....we'll just hang them on our Christmas tree.

4.  Christmas Countdowns:  Although the following little activities are technically "Advent Calendars", I call them countdowns because there is no scripture reading involved.  These are just a couple of fun things that I've found through the years that make it exciting for the kids.  The first picture is of a freebie from Simple Schooling.  They are currently doing a series called "The 12 Days of Freebies".   The second photo is of a magnet nativity scene.  Each day you put out a new piece.

Another tradition we have is that we purchase a new family ornament every year!  I usually get them at large annual Christmas craft show called Christmas Made in the South!  This is the ornament that I chose for 2011:

We also love handmade ornaments.  I made this cross several years ago.  I bought a kit and as it turned out, these ornaments were much harder to make than I thought.  So a dear friend finished them for me.  This is the only one I made!  And this year I found a coloring book with these stained glass looking pages.  We used markers instead of crayons.  I think they turned out nice!

Happy 2nd week of Advent, my friends!

Quick & Easy Craft!

I found this cute Valentine craft while visiting the Enchanted Learning site and decided to try it.  It kept the kids busy for over an hour!  I made a heart template and traced a ton of them onto colored construction paper.  I let everybody cut out their own and use as much glue as they wanted!  Of course, having one of these (although I bought mine at Hobby Lobby and it was $3.99) was half the fun!  We hung them over the firelplace.

Catching Up

Life has been very busy in our household lately!  I've hardly had time for the computer at all!  I logged on last night for a few minutes and noticed that my Google Reader has over 300 unread blog posts!  YIKES!  I might have to do a quick "mark all as read" and move on!

Here's what has been going on in our neck of the woods:

My sweet Olivia turned 5!!  Can you believe it?  It seems like only yesterday that she made her first appearance in this world!

We had a small party on Sunday with some of her best friends and our family!  She enjoyed herself immensely!  Her favorite part of the party was opening presents (of course) and she LOVED, LOVED, LOVED the dress up clothes!  Here she is in her best princess garb:

I guess we don't need to wonder what she wants to be for Halloween!

Our parish also enjoyed the annual Oktoberfest!  The kids had tons of fun!  They each got a new shirt to wear for the festivities!  Originally, I wanted all three of them to have the skeleton shirt as this goes along with our recent science studies.  However, I couldn't find it in Nathan or Olivia's sizes, so I ended up with two other ones that I thought were cute!

Olivia loves to wear hair bands, so she was extra proud of her new outfit.

Speaking of skeletons, we've been doing tons of fun activities for our science lessons!  One thing (of many) that I really love about Catholic Heritage Curricula is that the lessons coincide with one another.  The first grade (Amelia) and the fourth grade (Nathan) science lessons are both working on the human body at the same time.  As a homeschooling novice, this really makes things easier for me, and more fun for them.

This week, we focused on the 5 senses.  A great resource that I found is called The Body Book!
I can't tell you how much fun this activity was!  Even Olivia and I made one.  Take a look....

Through the magic of paper, crayons, scissors and tape....we can see how all 5 senses work by using flaps!  We saw the inside of the eyelids, the ears, the mouth, the nose and what our skin looks like!  And of course, none of our sense would work without the brain!

By the end of this school year, we will have the entire body put together!  Next week is "The Tongue"!  I highly recommend this book if you happen to be working on the human body or the 5 senses!

We've also been working on our pumpkin decorating craft.  It seems that every year we carve the pumpkins too darn early and they start rotting because of the very warm Florida weather.  So, this time, I decided we would just decorate our pumpkins instead of carving them.  This idea came from Family Fun Magazine.  The are called Decoupage Pumpkins.  Although I don't have a photo of the finished product yet (they are still drying), here are some pictures of us making a huge mess!

Here's what the finished products are supposed to look like.  I don't think ours will look like this, but we sure had fun making the mess!

Great Ideas!

Here are some awesome ideas that I have come across lately!  These ideas are just too good not to share! 


1.  Very creative (and useful) Lazy Susan!

2.  How about some Corn Syrup Paintings!

3.  Great website.....Catholic Artworks!

4.  Do you like Butterflies?

5.  Paperdolls anyone?

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Easter Bonnet Craft

Amelia had to make an Easter bonnet for a class project. There were very little to no instructions for this. I've been thinking about this on and off for about 2 weeks, trying to figure out how to make one. Then, I remembered something I had seen in this magazine a few years back! I had most of the supplies on hand that I needed to put it together. Here are the pictures of the process.....

Once the pieces were cut and glued together...all that needed to be done was to decorate it. We used paint, artificial flowers, crepe paper and stickers and ribbon.

I think they turned out rather cute, don't you?