Halloween Advent FREEBIE!

We just hung up our Halloween advent calendar!  I searched for some fun Halloween activities to do each night and not all of them fit what I wanted, so I decided to make my own borrowing from others' ideas and adding my own.  I also used a spidery font.  The "Watch a Halloween show or movie" and "Read a Halloween book" are listed more than once since we are just more likely to do that on more than one occasion.  It also helps for nights when you won't be able to cook or make a craft because you are too busy.

For the "Spooky Movement Cards" you can download them as part of Alison's AWESOME H is for Halloween packet HERE :)

 

 

Ready for your FREE Halloween advent cards?!?  JUST CLICK HERE!

Happy Fall Y'all!

It is officially fall and I am SO excited for the holiday season this year!  As I mentioned in my previous post, we moved in June, so this will be the first year celebrating the holidays in our new home.  Isabella started preschool and, thank God, it has been a smooth start.  I prepared her for weeks by role playing (I pretend to be the child and she leaves me at school, etc.) and I can't begin to tell you how much this helped her.  I also made a photo book of her classroom prior to the school year and we looked at the pictures each night and talked about it.  Lastly, we read a bunch of books about starting school and being nervous. 

My absolute FAVORITE thing we did was our Kissing Hand necklaces.  We read The Kissing Hand and retold the story with our felt board a million times.  The night before her first day of school I gave her a special Kissing Hand necklace. 

It has her name on the back of her's and mine says Mommy on the back.  I purchased it from this wonderful Etsy seller HERE if you are interested.  Speaking of the night before her first day...we had our School Year's Eve party!

 Her Magic School Year's Eve pillowcase designed to bring her sweet dreams and take away her fears.  The racoon is Chester from The Kissing Hand :)

The Kissing Hand felt pieces.

 



Her first day of school was awesome!  There were tears when I left, but she did not cry long.  We had a blast in the moring!  She had heart-shaped waffle pops and got her Shultute.

 

She came home with a smile on her face and very proud of her first day certificate and coloring.

 She called Daddy and then Grandma :)

 She had a First Day of School lunch!

 And for dessert we celebrated with cookie-brownies and sparklers!

We have only had tears on two other occasions.  I am so proud of her!  Her time at preschool allows me to get some stuff done around the house or time to read my Bible and devotionals.  The best thing is that she has the opportunity to socialize with other children her age. 

Groundhog Day!

I realize that few people truly celebrate Groundhog Day, but I absolutely LOVE it!  Did you know that Groundhog Day was actually Candlemas?  Candlemas is a Christian holiday which celebrates one of the earliest events in the life of Jesus Christ ~ his presentation at the Temple 40 days after his birth.  This was also the time that Mary was "ritual purification".  Jesus was presented to Simeon.  The significance of the presentation to Simeon in particular is that it was prophesied that Simeon would live to lay eyes on the Savior.  


In older times Candlemas was a day to have your candles blessed by the priest.  This is connected to the fact that Jesus is known as The Light of the World.  Candlemas was also a day that was to foretell the weather.  This is a traditional German poem about Candlemas Day:

If Candlemas be fair and bright,

Winter has another flight.

If Candlemas brings clouds and rain,

Winter will not come again.

The Germans used a hedgehog, but when they came to America, they had to settle for a groundhog.  So, what exactly should one do on Groundhog Day?  Well, first the day should be spent by candlelight!  Kids, especially, will have a ball with this, but who doesn't love to have dinner by candlelight?  Since it is still so dark in the morning, a candlelight breakfast is a must! Now, I have read about many connections between pancakes and Groundhog Day, but I have yet to understand exactly WHY pancakes are traditional on Candlemas/Groundhog Day.  But, since it is a celebration, why not go all out?  I found this post about Groundhog Pancakes that I thought was adorable:

Alison, the author of the AMAZING blog HowDoesShe has some great ideas too!  And how can I talk about Groundhog Day without mentioning Secrets of a Super Mommy's blog!?!  She does an awesome Silly Socks Valentine Day Advent/Countdown that includes lots of Groundhog Day fun!  They dined on the floor and ate a groundhog-shaped meatloaf!  

I decided that I would extend the fun to my students this year and made them Groundhog Grub treat bags filled with gummi worms.  I really like how they came out:

Last year, we planned on attending the Groundhog Day ceremony at the Staten Island Zoo to see what Staten Island Chuck's prediction would be, but we had a bad snowstorm!  So we didn't attend, but we did stay home and have fun anyway!  We cooked chocolate chip pancakes and I picked up a store-bought cake that I decorated with a groundhog statue that I have and buried him in graham crackers to make it look like he was coming out of the ground.  It came out cute!  And our daughter had a lot of fun too :)

I would love to hear about any fun things/traditions or ideas you have for Groundhog Day!

La Befana

Befana comes tonight!  This holiday really involves very little as far as preparation.  Befana comes and leaves a basket of goodies (and some small toys if you wish).  I made a broom bag with candy that I saw on Pinterest.  I also left a poem/letter from Befana.  Lastly, our daughter is getting three more animals to add to her Little People Zoo Talkers.  Here are some pictures:

 This is the broom bag filled with candy :)

 Close up of the poem...please note this is an original work protected by copyright :)

Have a blessed Feast of Epiphany!

New Year's Eve Mantel

The Christmas decorations are down and the mantel is now all set for New Year's Eve!  I created four bags: one for each hour from 9 to 12 (of course this is 12 NOON since we do NOON Year's Eve for our toddler).  The first bag is filled with fun things to wear: silly glasses, beads, hats, etc.  The second bag has noise makers such as horns and clappers.  The third bag has games: Pin the Nose on Frosty, the Year-in-Review BINGO I spoke about HERE, the Scavenger Hunt I blogged about HERE and New Year's Eve trivia for the adults :)  I also found these awesome printable mustaches and props for a DIY Photo Booth that I am DEFINITELY going to use!  How adorable are these!?!

The fourth and final bag has confetti poppers, sparklers, and silly string.  We are going to toast with our champagne glasses filled with milk!  And of course we are going to eat milk's favorite cookie: OREOs!  

Here are some pictures of the mantel and the bags:

 REALLY in love with the stocking holders that spell out WISH!  Found them at Target 50% off :)

 The "i" is a candle which is perfect next to our New Year's Eve Bayberry candle.

The last thing I want to share is a bag topper that I created as a gag or a fun party favor.  The front has Baby New Year and is labeled BABY NEW YEAR POOP and says "Out with the old..."  The back has the year 2012 and says "Hoping too much shit doesn't happen to you in 2012!"  I tried to upload it on Google docs to share, but it changed the format on me :(  I will figure out how to share documents in the near future :)

More New Year's Fun!

I have been crafting (and shopping!) all day long and I am really excited about what I have come up with to add to our NOON Year's celebration.  First, I made this awesome centerpiece.  Our daughter LOVES M&M Candies...so, I had to find a way to incorporate them into the fun!  I found a HUGE champagne glass at Michael's and I had a 40% off coupon so I got it for $8.  The M&Ms were on sale at Target and the party horns were a rip-off at Party City :)  Here is the M&M Masterpiece"

There are also a few Dark Chocolate Hershey Kisses in there for Mommy ~ LOL!  The other thing I made was a New Year's Eve Wish Box.  This was quite simple...all you need is a box of your choice and you can put the words "Wish Box" on the outside in whatever manner you choose.  I found a purple glitter box on sale at Target and used silver glitter sticker letters and some embellishments I had.  Here is the New Year's Eve Wish Box:

This is our personal version of the New Year's Eve Wishing Wall in Times Square.  There is also a Virtual Wishing Wall!  My hubby and I are just going to fill in the blanks to answer the questions on these great cards I found here.  

Next, I made a simple NYE Scavenger Hunt.  Our daughter is only 2 and a half, so I wanted the items to be things she could easily find herself or with our help.

 

I can hardly contain my excitement over this next item!  I spent some serious time Googling a way to do this and finally found a teaching website that you can use to upload PHOTOS and create a BINGO card!  I uploaded favorite photos from 2011 and created a BINGO game for NYE:

Now, I suppose I am missing all the "magic" of Christmas already: Magic Mints, Magic Reindeer Food, the Magic Pillowcase...because I went ahead and made some Magic New Year Wishing Bubbles!  This is really simple ~ you just use a bottle of bubble that you already have and cover the label with any paper you would like and make a cute label that says "Magic New Year Wishing Bubbles."  I also have a beautiful pewter bubble wand that I purchased from Chasing Fireflies that goes perfectly with the Magic Bubbles :)

I also wrote a little poem to go with it.  Naturally, this is protected by Copyright, so please do not copy my work for any reason.  You may pin it or link to it :)

It’s NewYear’s Eve

And the yearis through,

It’s time tomake new wishes

And your hopesand dreams anew!

Then closeyour eyes and make a wish

When blowingyour magic bubbles

Focus on yourhopes and dreams

And they willcarry away your troubles.

Be sure to check back because I have some more to share before the New Year!