Day five has arrived

Joys turn again to open the train, inside was 3 orange creme quality street sweets and one piece of paper with another activity on it! Todays activity

Read The Christmas Treasury and make christmas scenes!

Thank goodness we had a relaxing day for todays fun activity I don't think I could have coped much more with all the chaos! While I read The Christmas Treasury to Joy and Teo Donald was too busy reading his astrosaur book so after he finished the chapter in his astrosaur book he took it upon himself to read The Christmas Treasury to his brother and sister.

I decided it was a better idea to wait until Teo was napping to start the christmas scenes, it was only a two pack i bought out of wilkinsons for £1 anyways.

The pack provided double sided tape for the activity but I thought this would be too tricky for joy so she used pritt stick.

I had to cut the tape for Donald but he did most of his with the tape and used the pritt stick for the snow since it was so small.

Joy finished hers first with quite a bit of help from me

But Donald did his all by himself so I'm very proud.

We hung their christmas scenes on their bedroom doors.

Advent day 4

Donalds turn again to open the box and another crazy day. Todays plans included Donalds drama class, Joys Dance class, and Donalds trip to the panto with scouts. Todays advent activity was to decorate festive bags.

I picked up 3 decorate your own festive bag kits in poundland the other day (what a bargain!) and the kids absolutely loved todays activity! I knew Teo wouldn't really be able to decorate his own but I bought him one because I knew he would love carrying it around! I decorated it for him and he was really happy with his new bag.

Donald Started his before we took him to the scouts panto and nearly finished it but when he got home I guess he was too tired.

Joy was the most enthusiastic of all about decorating hers, she was still working on hers while Teo played with his!

20 more days of festive fun to go!

On the third day of advent..

Today Teo got to open the third box on our train, todays activity was to make christmas cards it went like this:

Our day was even more busy than yesterday so I suppose it may not have been the best day for this activity, at the time we wanted it to fall at the start of the month so we could get them posted early and not have to worry about them not arriving in time but we were SO busy today! we started after ice skating lessons and before Scouts which gave them less than an hour, since we also had to eat dinner within this time frame, but we continued after beavers for another hour.

Donald made 2 cards, one for his gramma sharon, grampa tim, and aunt kimmy, and one for his uncle richard and aunt Laura.

Joy made one for Aunt kimmy.

And Teo Made a mess.

Daddy even helped out with todays activity!

I can't show pictures of the end result because it will spoil the surprise for the recipients but we had so much fun and I'm sure the recipients will be happy with their cards. heres a few more pictures of todays activity.

The Second Day Of Advent

Today was Joys turn to open the second day on the train since Donald did it yesterday, unfortunately she was the last one awake so there was alot of waiting around to discover what todays surprise would be! Finally she woke up and ate up all her breakfast and she opened the train to reveal:

Make Paper Snowflakes!

today was a bit of a busy day so we didn't get around to it until just before tea time. Teo wasnt really able to take part in this activity so he helped daddy in the kitchen while I got some various sized circular objects such as a plate a bowl and a cup to trace. I cut out some circles and showed them how to fold them then I let them loose with the scissors.

Joy struggled a bit trying to work the scissors but did quite well despite her trouble.

Donald kept fretting about not doing it right and I insisted there was no right or wrong that once he opened it all up it would look fabulous and so he kept at it.

I am so proud of their beautiful snowflakes and Soon they will be hanging from the ceiling for all to see but for now I've taken some photos for all to see.

Day 2 of Advent has ended but we had so much fun, Tomorrow begins day 3 I wonder what our fun activity will be?

Advent Begins

This year, as we did last year we will be using our Advent train. inside each box is a quality street sweet for each of the children and a special festive activity for them.

Today's activity was to read 'pooh welcomes winter' and make marshmallow snowmen. it went like this:

I should have probably turned the tv off before starting to read the book because they didn't pay too much attention to the story, Donald sort of listened but occasionally the tv caught his attention but the other 2 just didn't even care, I may attempt it again at bedtime with the tv off. after the book I melted some white chocolate and layed out everything we needed.

*paper plates
*marshmallows
*toothpicks
*food colouring pens

once the chocolate was melted i put it in the middle of the table and showed them what to do. I put a toothpick in one of the marshmallows and swirled it around in the chocolate til it was covered, i placed it on the paper plate and used another toothpick to dip another marshmallow then i slid the second marshmallow on to the toothpick with the first marshmallow and did the same with the third marshmallow and finally slid a toothpick through the middle marshmallow for arms. we put our  snowmen in the fridge to harden the chocolate and when they were ready we used food colouring pens to decorate them. I put eyes a nose a mouth some buttons and a scarf on mine.

 Donalds was very similar.

 Joy and Teo were a bit more 'artistic' with theirs.

I took some pictures to remember them by and we ate them all up they were so tasty!

Thanksgiving

It has been some time since my last post I know, I'd like to say I've been busy but truthfully I probably haven't been. although this past week has been absolute mayhem. I decided to invite my grandparents and father in law over for thanksgiving dinner. I haven't really celebrated thanksgiving since being back in the UK but for some reason I decided I should.
My father in law had not yet been to our home and we moved here a year ago so I wanted it to be nice I cleaned the house thouroughly and spent 2 or 3 days trying to keep it that way which I must say was much harder than the actual cleaning.
I noticed that the renfrewshire home ed group was meeting on thanksgiving and set about arranging some thanksgiving activities, I got some books from amazon about thanksgiving and found a recipe for marshmallow pilgrim hats, I got some 'I am thankful for...' print offs and some black card to make pilgrim hats with, then after thinking about it I decided we could make indian hats too since they're quite an important part of thanksgiving too.
I spent several days making sure I had everything I was going to need and arranging a schedule for the day. the group was meeting at 12 til 3 I would be home by 4 have dinner by 5 then I remembered Donald had anchor boys on a thursday night and they don't get thanksgiving off here, so I squeezed that into my schedule too.
The day before thanksgiving The car wouldn't start and knowing the next day we had to drive to paisley and back and pick up my grandparents and father in law and get Donald to anchor boys and then my grandparents had commitments from 6:30 as well I was worried I was going to have to cancel thanksgiving after all the preperation for it. We phoned my cousin to bring some jump leads and I had gone to get a bus to town since I had a dentist appointment I didnt want to miss (and I am thankful I wont have to go back for 6 months) while I was at the bus stop William managed to get it started and phoned my cousin to let her know not to come, he said all it needed was a good shake... car abuse if you ask me but hey it worked (and I am thankful that it did) so who am I to judge.
That night we got the turkey cooked and peeled the potatoes so next day all we would need to do is switch on the oven/cooker. we made sure the whole house sparkled and we slept well.
we had planned to take Teo and Joy to toddlers that morning but teo slept until 9:50 so we didn't make it. we were also hoping the car seat I ordered would arrive before the long journey but it didn't so it was off to Paisley. We were right on time but nobody else was there so we had to wait a while and when others arrived we had lunch. after lunch I set out the crafts and some of us made pilgrim hats and indian hats, then it was off to the kitchen to make marshmallow hats to eat YUM! while some tidied I read the story of thanksgiving to the children, which was a bit long I really should have highlighted the important parts and cut it down but it was fine, I know better for next time. another mum read the second book i brought (which I am thankful for as my throat was hurting by the end of the first book) and afterwards we sang songs and then it was over to the park for a treasure hunt one of the other mums had arranged.
3 o clock came fast and we were back on the road rushing home to start dinner. I got everything cooking while William went to collect our guests. everything was going well until the gravy, it seemed to be going all wrong until I re-read the instructions and realized what I missed, It eventually worked out and soon we were sitting down to yummy Turkey, Mashed potatoes, roast potatoes, veg, and gravy with some shloer in plastic wine 'glasses' to make it seem extra special. after we ate we all wrote what we were thankful for and I served apple Pie and Ice cream for dessert. I wish we could have enjoyed the evening for longer, it felt as if we ate dinner, ate desert, and shoved everyone out the door but Donald had to get to anchor boys, my granda had dominoes and my gran also needed to be somewhere so thanksgiving came to an abrupt end but it was a wonderful thanksgiving and I have alot to be thankful for.

sun sea and puddle suits?

Okay so Puddle suits don't work well in the sea. I already knew this though, I certainly did not need Pink and Blue to demonstrate! But lets go back and I'll start at the beginning.

I wanted to get the kids out for the day to let my husband sleep as he's night shift so I asked my friends who was available and fortunately we had some friends available! we were warned it was to rain all day though, and sure enough when I awoke this morning I looked out the window to see the rain. I armoured the kids in puddle suits and welly boots and by 12:30 we were ready to go out! However, as we stepped outside the rain had stopped! 'wheres the rain?' asked blue. 'largs' I replied. so we jumped on a bus to largs and as we stepped off in sunny largs blue again asked 'wheres the rain?' I didn't know I was told it was to rain all day..

we met our friends and went to the boat pond. using plastic cups and stones to balance them they launched their 'boats' but soon they became bored and wanted in the water so knowing what would happen if i let them in with their puddle suits and welly boots I took off their clothes and boots and put their puddle suits back on and let them play. the heat was starting to get to me so I took off my 2 jackets as well.

Soon after, I was watching dark clouds rolling in so I told the kids to come get their clothes back on so the clothes wouldn't get wet! we-redressed and I got my coats back on and over to the park we went! Red was having a blast pouring sand over his head and I felt a sense of dread as I watched it slip down inside his clothes.

Time passed and rain finally came but in no time at all it had stopped and we headed down to the sea. Pink and Blue were so fast they soon became like little dots to me. Red and I much slower sauntered along the shore towards the sea and red had a great time sploshing about in the water. I didn't realize how far in Pink and blue had gone until pink came back and declared she needed the toilet.

We headed over to the vikingar to use the toilets and half way there we stopped to empty their welly boots. water poured out, their boots were full and their clothes were soaked. I knew that would happen. I just left Red in his boots for the time being as he was sitting comfortably in his pram.

When my husband finally came for us we took off Reds puddle suit and welly boots and he was bone dry! I was shocked. I think Red deserves a great deal of praise, well done to him for managing to stay dry after all the time he spent sploshing and sitting in the water! If only the same could be said for Pink and Blue. But they had a fantastic day at the sea and that's what matters! anyways, we're home and dry now.