Elf Update

Our Elf, Jingle Bell, has been around for a while now and she's just as clever as ever. Some nights she's too tired to fly home, but the kids are okay with that. Mason always searching for her and usually runs to where she was the day before only to realize she's gone. It's pretty cute. Here's what she's been up to since last time.

Poor thing got tied up by some of the other toys and here comes a train! 

I've seen several of these on Pinterest and I finally had some kisses so I placed her in the bathroom window. Marley seemed upset that she wasted chocolate. 

She climbed our fireplace rocks for two days, must be hard work. 

Mason actually found her first this day. He didn't seem to care that she was up there though.

Looking for coffee. She must be getting tired of all these late night North Pole trips. 

Jingle Bell will fly home in just a few days so I'm really trying to come up with some great ideas. What has your elf done? 

*You can see all our Elf on the Shelf adventures here. *

First Day of Gymnastics for the Kids

A couple weeks ago both kiddo's signed up for gymnastics.  They've had a few classes each and so far it's going really good. 

Mason took about 10 minutes the first class to get used to it, but he jumped right in when the teacher pulled out the slide.  He's been doing rolls and other tricks ever since. 

Marley did great at her first class. She jumped right in and wasn't afraid to try anything they did. I think it's safe to say she loves it too. 

Mason doing his table and Marley doing her backbend.  This is an everyday thing now. 

Can't wait to see how much they both improve and hopefully they really enjoy gymnastics for a long time. 

Healthworks Children's Museum

Last month, I decided to take the kids and head out to the Healthworks! Kid's Museum in South Bend. We had never been before but when I showed Marley pics of it she was so excited to go. 

It was smaller than I expected but they kids had fun running from one thing to the next. We were the only ones there for a while so that was nice too. 

This was probably her second favorite thing after the virtual dodgeball game

They had a little garden and grocery store set up. Marley liked this a lot too. 

After we left the museum we headed over to the South Bend Chocolate Factory Cafe for lunch. It was delicious. We ate, bought some candy, then headed across the street for cupcakes before heading home.

It was a fun day just me and the kiddos and we will definitely go back some time soon. 

Busy Bag Swap Ideas

In the past 6-7 months we've participated in two busy bag swaps. If you don't know what busy bags are, they're basically just small learning activities that help kids engage in fine motor skills. The nice thing is they fit into a small bag so they are great for in the car or at a restaurant. 

With the swaps, each mom made multiples of the same bag, then when we met we each took one from each mom and ended up with lots of different bags. We have 25 total now and Mason plays with them all the time. 

Here's what we ended up with after our second swap. 

The next day I went and picked up some pencil pouches at the Dollar Tree to put them in because Mason was tearing the bags. Each pouch has two compartments so there's two activities per pouch. So nice to just grab one as we're walking out the door. 

I'll be back with some more posts later this month looking closer at what each bag is in case you're interested in making some of your own. 

Mason's big boy room

We moved into our house in May of this year, and I don't feel like any room is really complete. Until now. Mason's room is about the only room that has the right furniture and decorations.

He is no longer in his crib and we got him this awesome firetruck bed.  I also picked up some car border on clearance at Menards and a few car canvas prints also on clearance at Hobby Lobby. 

He does need new carpet like all the other bedrooms, but for now his room is complete. 

He does great in his bed and doesn't get out at night time or when he naps. He waits for us to come get him out, which is awesome.  

Next room to finish is Marley's and I have huge plans for her closet / soon to be art space. Can't wait to get started. 

Salt Dough Handprint Ornaments

The other day I came across this salt dough ornament on Pinterest. I decided to do it with the kids this past weekend. All you need is 4 cups flour, 1 cup salt, and water.

Mix the flour and salt and then slowly pour in water until it forms a dough.  Flatten it out on a cookie sheet so it's large enough for your child's hand to fit. Press their hand into the dough and slowly lift it out.

I used a straw to make a hole at the top so we can hang it. After you do that, bake it at 150 degrees for 1 hour (my oven only goes down to 170 degrees so I used that).

Remove from oven and let cool completely. You can then leave it how it is and hang it from the tree with a pretty ribbon, or you can paint it. I painted them so the handprints would show a little better.  On the back I also painted 2014 so we'll always remember when we made then. These are something you could do every year or you could even do footprints.  I'm sure grandparents would love them too.

This post also appeared here as a guest blogger post

Halloween Festivities

Here it is almost Christmas, and I realized I never shared our Halloween activities from this year. 

Mason was Elmo and Marley was a Ninja Turtle.

The Saturday before Halloween we decided to head to Zoo Boo at the Potawatomi Zoo in South Bend. They had booths set up all over the zoo handing out candy and the zoo was decorated. Usually around Halloween time, it's cold at rainy but on this day it was sunny and close to 65 degrees. We couldn't of asked for a more perfect day. 

Both kids crashed out on the way home and kept on sleeping through the night once we got them inside the house. 

The Thursday before Halloween, I took Mason up to the library for trick or treating and story time.  It was cute but there were a ton of kids. 

I didn't take any actual pictures on Halloween night because it was about 30 degrees and raining/snowing and there were crazy winds, so we were only out for about 20 minutes. Since the weather was awful there weren't many kids out and the houses were practically pouring the candy into the kids bags. 

Overall, we had a good time and Marley is already planning out what she will be next year. (another ninja turtle)

Our Elf is back

Well, it's that time of the year again. All the elves have made their way back to their families and ours has shown up right on time. We first met our elf 2 years ago, Mason was just 8 months old so he didn't understand and Marley hated it. She said it was creepy and scared her.  She did name him Jack though, but never really enjoyed it.  Last year, our elf didn't come because we were in the process of moving into our rental and he must of been lost.  This year, Jack didn't come again. A girl elf showed up instead. Mason's older and Marley still wasn't thrilled to have an elf, but we read the book and decided to name her Jingle Bell.  She's been around for almost two weeks and so far so good. Marley seems okay with her. Maybe because Mason likes the elf, Marley decided it's not too bad. Not sure, but glad there's no tears over an elf on the shelf.  Here's what Jingle Bell has been up to so far.

You can see all of our elf adventures from 2012 here- part one, two, three, four, five, and six