My Homemade Christmas Gifts

This year I didn't have many plans for making Christmas gifts, but I really wanted to do something. Thanks to a suggestion from my friend, Stephanie. I bought the book, Wee Wonderfuls, and LOVED it. 

I picked out three projects - one that I thought would fit each of my girls - and got sewing. 

I was happy to find that they weren't too much work. I finished in about 4 days and I was just sewing at naps and night time. I varied the patterns a little bit to my own liking and I think they turned out great for my first doll making projects.

CK's ribbon haired doll:

 L's topsy turvey doll (she was the most time intensive because of a lot of hand sewing):

 And C's Ellie bag (I added a ribbon bow to the back):

By far my favorite gifts to give the girls....and they actually like them.

Oh! and the best part, I just used extra fabric/supplies I already had so they were priced just right.

Gingerbread Cookies (delicious!)

I made gingerbread cookies today with the girls. They were so good that I had to post a link to the recipe. I followed it exactly except I omitted the black pepper. That just didn't sound like something I would want in a cookie. 

Try it. It was so easy. 

GINGERBREAD COOKIES

While the dough chilled, we read a couple of great gingerbread stories:

Gingerbread Baby by Jan Brett 

and

The Bakers Dozen: A Saint Nicholas Tale retold by Aaron Shepard

Christmas Advent: Couples Style

This is SO last minute, and I haven't taken pictures of my completed advent, but I thought I'd share it anyway in case anyone is looking for advent ideas to do with your spouse. I tried to make most "kid less" activities that are easy and fun and should help strengthen your marriage. I am excited to have something to do with my sweetheart and count down to Christmas as well.

Here are my activity ideas, if you're interested.

Thanksgiving Sound Shopping

One more Turkey Day preschool activity:

Thanksgiving Sound Shopping

A wonderful place to find literacy ideas.

*I don't know why people can't download this. I changed my sharing setting in Google documents. You can try that to see if it helped. If not, I'm not sure what the problem is. The link is working for me.

Thanksgiving Guess Who

I found these cute graphics at letteringdelights.com and had to make one more Thanksgiving game.

Thanksgiving Guess Who

Here is a better explanation of the Guess Who game rules, if anyone needs them.

Thanksgiving Games

Here a few Thanksgiving games I put together. I won't be posting a Thanksgiving Day lesson plan because:
#1. There will be millions created by other people (why recreate the wheel, right?)
#2. I already have some activities I am doing with the girls.

I did, however, put together a few easy games if anyone is interested.
I love this activity from Family Fun, so I modified it using turkeys rather than squirrels.

Turkey Hide and Seek/Memory

Turkey Bingo Game

Don't Eat Tom 

I'm having trouble with this link. I'll try to fix it later.
*Edit* I can't get the Don't Eat Tom game to upload completely. If you'd like a copy, I can email it to you.

2010 Family Halloween Dinner

We celebrated Halloween with our traditional holiday dinner. This year we themed it around monsters. The girls helped me make the decorations and everyone helped with the food. The most fun was monster mashing in our monster feet.

Favorite things: 

The Watermelon Monster

Monster Sandwiches eating the carrots

Eyeballs in our soup

Our pom pom monster garland

Great dance moves!

Monster Lesson Plan

It's been a long week and I am so tired, but I had to get these on here. Next week we're learning about Monsters in preparation for our annual family Halloween dinner which happens to be Monster themed this year. I haven't had a lot of prep/planning time, but I still feel like there are some great activities. Hope you are able to enjoy some of them.

Lesson Plan

Songs

Alike/Different Literacy Activity

Monster Say and Clap

Eyeball Sorting/Match

Math Clipart

 Slime Recipe

Halloween Costumes

These took me all week, but I finally finished the girls Sleeping Beauty Fairy costumes.

Halloween Lesson Plan

I'm doing a Halloween theme next week. Here's my plan and printables. 

Lesson Plan

Songs, Finger plays, Etc

12 Days of Halloween

5 Little Pumpkins

Puzzles

Pumpkin Sort

Spider Grid Game

"th" Ghost Game

Pumpkin Patch Book

Ghost Fliers

Witches' Stew

Happy Halloween!

Preschool Next Week

I have been on the waiting list at the library for this book:

Hooray, it finally came in! So this week we are going to use the activities at 

ONE OF MY FAVORITE PLACES!

Go check them out. She always has amazing things to share.

Ocean Preschool Activities

Autumn may not be the time for an ocean preschool lesson in Utah, but I wanted to do it before next Spring and the weather is still warm enough to go outside. My sister-in-law made the plan so this week I just came up with a few extra activities to go with it.

Ocean Letter Match

Build a Crab game

Number Spelling Cards

Ocean Spell Match

Ocean Animal Race

Witches Britches

I finished the girls "Witches Britches" (aka bloomers, pajama pants, Hammer pants made with Halloween fabric) just in time for their witch party tomorrow. Luckily, my mom taught me how to make cotton shorts back in the early 90's because I made these without a pattern. I also didn't hem them because I was going for a rough "witchy" look. At the last minute I decided to sew on ribbons so we could tie plastic spiders onto them. Pretty spooky!

Cowgirl Chaps

I finished the girls chaps just in time for the party. I would love to have a tutorial for you because they are so easy to make, but at this point of my life, I am lucky just to get them made. They are cute, though. I especially love the back view with Lucy's skirt hanging out. Can you wear skirts with chaps?

Cowboy and Cowgirl Party

This weekend we had a combined birthday party for Brigham and Charlotte. It was a lot of fun to plan and get ready for, but it was a lot of work (and my last dinner birthday party:).

For Brigham's birthday, my theme was "Pardners". I made a craft paper banner printed with the word "PARDNERS" on it. One pennant said "Through the..." and the other pennants had opposites like "ups and downs", "rich and poor". I gave Brigham a small gift that represented each of the ways we are "pardners".

Here are a few pictures of the "treat table" and banners. Those treat tables are so cute and popular right now, but after this party it made me wonder how many people in the world spend the weeks after the party eating all the candy that looked so cute but didn't get eaten. I'm getting a major head start on Halloween and the holiday sweet season.

Preschool Lesson: Space

My sister made me a preschool lesson about Space that we are going to use next week. Here are a few activities I made to add to it.

Planet Cards

Planet Hide a Number 

(original idea from Applesauce and Flipflops)

Constellation Lacing Cards

Space Songs

Number Rocket Ship Activity

Enjoy!

Cowboy Birthday Invites

Here's the invitation for Brigham and Charlotte's combined birthday party coming up this week. Party details to soon follow.

Western/Cowboy preschool printables

Here are a few western printables for preschool next week.

Western syllable clothespin cards

Cowboy letter matchup

Cactus Poem - print, cut out, laminate and put cactus on tongue depressors

Dress the Cowboy activity

I don't know why my pictures keep "breaking". If you know, let me know. 

Preschool Lesson: Water

Here's my lesson plan and activities for this week. Enjoy!

Lesson Plan
Fingerplays and Songs
Introduction to Water
Science Experiments
Amazing Water Trick
Aluminum Foil Boat Sink
Ice Cube I Spy
Ice Cube Transfer
Ice Treasures
Water Bottle Xylophone
Wipe Off Waterproof Writing book (laminate for waterproofing)

I got many ideas from other places but didn't write them down. Thanks for everyone who shared.

Preschool Lesson: Money

I just finished next week's preschool lesson on money. If anyone is interested, here it is.

And the activities I made:

Songs and Rhymes

Piggy Bank Money Mat and Cards

Recipe and Ingredient Cards

Chore Wage Cards

Here's a link to a purse template that I'm planning on using, too.

ENJOY!

Vote for Brigham!

My husband has entered the RC Willey Most Inspiring Furniture Contest. I know we have a lot of RC Willey lovers who follow this blog. Please follow this link to vote for "Brigham in West Jordan, UT" (Entry 129) as soon as possible to help him win.

Each person may only vote once. For this reason, please encourage each of your family members to vote once. Thanks!!!

**His entry really is the best. If you don't believe me read through the others. We'd love your help!

By the way, the picture you are voting for looks like this.

M&M Counting Cards

I thought I'd share these cards since they took me such a long time to make.

Enjoy!

Get your free

M&M counting cards

here.

4th Wedding Anniversary

Brig and I celebrated our 4th wedding anniversary. This year I went with a golfing theme and played off the word "FORE". We had fun frisbee golfing and eating club sandwiches (well, we never actually had the sandwiches because plans changed, but that was the original idea). I gave him a golf shirt and a coupon to go golfing with his brother. I also hid golf tees and let him know that when he found them he was supposed to remember how much I loved him. 

Here are a few pictures to remember.

The hole markers for frisbee golf:

The back of the hole markers: