More Christmas....

It has been CRAZY around here!  Not only is Christmas only a few days away, we are in the process of moving AND have kids sick, sick, sick including one with an allergic reaction to the antibiotic he was on.  SOOO, needless to say, blogging has not been a top priority for me the past couple of weeks.  However, the kids are now asleep for a few minutes, so I thought I would hop on and post some things we had done before a bunch of the chaos descended once more.  :)  Enjoy!

A fun and festive snack for the holidays!  :)

Snack Details:

Christmas tree:  slices of green pepper and pear with a pretzel trunk and a cheese star.

Muffin cups #1 and #3 (sides of tree):  apple and pear circle ornaments for the Christmas tree and green/red M&M's to be used for ornaments as well.

Muffin cups #2 and #4 (top and bottom):  mini marshmallows and string cheese circles for snow under the tree (or more ornaments for the tree).

Garnishes:  gingerbread men marshmallows and winter edible confetti.

Originally I had intended to post this fun little book as a freebie on my Teacher Pay Teacher site, but unfortunately I made it on a program that apparently does not change over well to the format supported by Teacher Pay Teacher.  I would have spent more time trying to figure out an alternate method to post it or remake this in pdf but alas, the craziness and sickness in our house has not allowed me much time for that sort of thing so perhaps it will be available in time for the holidays next year.  

I love this picture of how my daughter helped the elves find the missing presents - that is her finger pointing to them off to the side (barely visible).  Ah, if only the elves had thought to look by the Christmas tree...

This was what my daughter drew under the gift flap on the last page of the book - notice there was not sufficient room for the head of the mermaid doll at the top so she improvised.

We call this "Sweet Spelling" - I gave my daughter a jar full of different types of festive candy or sweets and allowed her to use them to form her spelling words.  If she did it correctly, she would get to pick one of the pieces from the word to eat.  I must say, it was not hard to get her to practice her spelling when this jar was part of the process!  :)

I'd love to post more, but I must be off to work on some more moving stuff before the kids are up and about.  

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!!  :)

Linking to:

www.momontimeout.com

Homeschool Theme of the Week: Christmas Anticipation!

The month of December is stacking up to be a busy one for us!  We have family flying in for the holidays - yippeee (parents just arrived stateside today)!  AND we just found out we are going to be moving almost immediately after Christmas (a good kind of move that we are happy about)!  :)  

So things are going to be a little crazy around here for a while - but we still plan to find time for some schooling and fun!  Take this past week for instance - full of Christmas anticipation....

Our pink Advent calendar forest - idea courtesy of www.familyfun.com.  Their forest wasn't pink - but if you know my daughter...well, let's just say pink is a very important part of her life.  :)

This was a miniature snowman ornament I found that somehow seemed like he belonged in our forest.  He doesn't have a name...yet.

In addition to some normal schoolwork - we made another pattern block book - this one for Christmas.  For those of you who have scrapbook paper you need to use up, this might be a good idea for you.  Just trace your pattern blocks and make up some Christmas designs with your kiddos!  

(P.S.  For anyone interested, I have made my pattern block book available here for $1.50.)  

This was great practice for not only pattern block designs, but positional words as well.  Most of the pages use positional words to describe where something is or where it was being placed.

This was the final (bonus) page where my daughter was challenged to draw a complete picture showing where all the objects should be (by the way - the cookies are on top of the stool).  I love her picture - she did such a great job!  :)

This had to have been one of the yummier parts of our week!  Chocolate chip candy cane pancakes!  Just add some chocolate chips and crushed candy cane pieces to your pancake batter, stir, and make just like you would normally.  Serve with whip cream, candy cane pieces and chocolate chips for garnish!  

We ate these for breakfast today and then burned some of the calories (not enough, I'm sure) by decorating our Christmas tree and hanging some Christmas decorations outside.   All in all, I would say a great start to the Christmas festivities!  :)  I hope your season's beginnings are rich with memorable times together as well!  :)

Linking to:
www.singingthreelittlebirds.blogspot.com
www.diyhshp.blogspot.com
www.letkidscreate.blogspot.com
http://www.delicateconstruction.com/
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http://livinglifeintentionally.blogspot.com
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www.houseofhepworths.com
www.bearrabbitbear.blogspot.com
http://hammockhomeschool.blogspot.com/2011/12/1.html