December 17, 2007 Puzzles, Pots and Pans

You'd think the theme for the day was the letter 'p'.

Every afternoon, Sam takes a nap and the girls have to find quiet activities to occupy their time. They usually start by watching a little TV or a video - while I get a chance to get lunch cleaned up, etc. However, one of their favorite activities is doing puzzles. It is so interesting to watch how their minds work so differently. Gabrielle is really good at finding the correct piece for a particular spot. However, Allison is actually a little better about orienting the piece correctly in the puzzle. The two of them can do a 25-50 piece puzzle almost by themselves. I am usually there to help when they get stuck and sometimes prompt them for the next piece they should look for. I'm sure you can see the gate in this picture. We actually have a gate on both ends of our kitchen to keep out the pot bandit. (The is also a safety issue - as Sam like to pull out the oven drawer and stand inside it to open the oven door, "little monkey.") Anyway, today Sam was unusually fussy while I was trying to make dinner. Since I didn't have the oven on, on that particular day I decided to let him inside the gate to explore the cupboards as he loves to do. He will often dig out the spoons and start banging.

December 15-17, 2007 The Baby Is Really A King!


Our second candle for advent was The Baby Is Really A King! Our activities for this week's theme included making a manger for baby Jesus, finding baby Jesus, and decorating crowns for the baby King.

Paul and the kids make a manger out of popsicle sticksNext, they filled the manger with hay.

They then had to go find a baby for the manger.
They found that the baby from Gabrielle's dollhouse was just the right size.
We wrapped the baby in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger.

The next day, the kids each got to decorate a crown for our new baby king.
They used stickers, glitter glue and other decorations.

Sam didn't get to help, but he didn't get to check out Allison's chair at the table.
He thought he was pretty hot stuff.

After all of the glue dried, we stapled the crowns together to form one
large crown and crowned the baby King.

December 9-14 - Jesus is the Star of Christmas!

Our Sunday School Class at church went through a book this advent, on how to bring advent to a place where your children, at any age, can understand at their level. There was a flip book with a scripture each day and then there were suggestions for family activities. There were activities for older and younger children.

We were unable to do an activity everyday of the week, but did a few to get the kids focused on the real meaning of Christmas.

Week # 1 was Jesus is the Star of Christmas. Everytime the kids saw a star, they were supposed to say "Jesus is the Star of Christmas" It was pretty fun.

I didn't get a change to get our advent wreath right away, but then Nicholas and Gabrielle came home with handmade wreaths they made in Sunday School. They were just a paper plate with toilet paper rolls for candles, and a piece of yellow tissue paper for the flame. When you light a candle you pull the tissue up from the inside of the roll. I decided to utilize their creations and have a flame-free advent wreath this year (well actually two of them).

Here are some of our activities for the week re: Jesus is the Star of Christmas

Decorating their wreaths with star stickers

We made Star Christmas cookies

They used markers to decorate little wooden stars. Then they each got to help Papa drill a hole in them for a ribbon, to make them into ornaments.

Even Sam had to try to get in on it.

The arrival of our new Fisher Price Nativity

Star Shaped Brownies for Friday Night movie night

December 8, 2007 - Mmmmm, Pancakes and Sausage!!

Sam, our child who not long ago would eat anything and everything and as much of it as possible, has started to become a little bit more picky. If you put something on his tray that he doesn't exactly, shall we say: appreciate!, he will definately let you know it. He grunts, arches his back and sometimes get downright agree. Hopefully, this is just a phase, but it the meantime - Sam was definately enjoying this meal of pancakes and sausage!

December 2, 2007 - A Christmas Tree and A Christmas Card

We decorated the Christmas tree with the kids today. We took the opportunity to do so while Sam was napping upstairs so he couldn't get into everything. The kids were all dressed up so we could take some pictures decorating the tree and hopefully snap some good portraits to use for our Christmas cards.

Nicholas had the privilege of turning on the lights

Helping Papa put some of the ornaments on.

With each passing year we get more and more handmade ornaments and no more room for my ornaments. It is so neat to see Nicholas and Gabrielle remembering when they made some of them last year. It is truly amazing how much they can remember at this age - of things that happened a whole year ago.

Time to take some pictures in an effort to get a good card.
Would you believe I took over 150 pictures in the process?

I decided that the key to getting a good shot of Sam, was to keep him occupied. So....I wrapped up a great big empty box we had in the basement and put some bows and ribbons on it and let him explore it and the tree. It worked, we got quite a few great pics.

A Christmas Card Success (picture #135)

After the photo shoot, Sam got adventurous in the other room and figured out how to climb up onto Gabrielle's rocking chair. He is a mischief maker in the making.

End of November - First Part of December - These feet are made for Walking!!

Sam has definately found his legs. Here are some of his first steps. Following in the steps of his big brother, Nicholas - Sam is walking at 10 1/2 months.