Christmas Crafting ~ Painting Day

This past week I pulled out all of the wooden “things” we’ve been collecting {for gift-giving} and a box full of paints and the kiddos had a painting day.

My kids love to paint…and they had a blast!  I covered our “art table” with newspaper, got each kiddo set up with a paper plate full of paint blobs and water cups with clean brushes…and I let them loose.

They love giving gifts to their family and friends, and they were especially proud of their creations.

And my ds4 also discovered that he likes the color you get when you combine all of the paint colors on your plate :)

I need to remember to plan more painting days around here…

Christmas Cookies

This past weekend was our annual Christmas Cookie decorating day…

I’ve learned over the years that this is about the decorating…not the cookie dough ~ so I make it easy on myself and buy the refrigerated kind :)

And I always roll out the dough and get a pile of  baked up cookie shapes ready to go BEFORE giving the kiddos {and the grandparents} the decorating supplies.

We always end up with some very creatively decorated cookies {the younger the kiddo, the more densely the cookie is decorated} and big smiles on the kiddos’ faces :)

Fourth of July Fun ~ Photo Collage

Tossing “Pop-Its”…

Watching fireworks…

Christmas Day Evening

After a leisurely Christmas morning at home, we headed to dh's parents' house to celebrate Christmas with more aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, and great grandparents.

Whew! Three Christmas celebrations packed into two very busy days. But I do feel blessed that most of our family lives so near and we can celebrate most holidays with them.

Christmas Morning at Home

We like to spend Christmas morning at home. After waking up early, the kids cannot wait to head down the stairs to check out their stockings. We still have a baby gate posted at the top of our stairs ~ and even if you are old enough to open the gate, you know that you cannot go downstairs until Mom or Dad give the ok...

After we spend time emptying our stockings (which this mama fills with fun stuff like socks, underwear and mittens), we all head into the living room to open the rest of our gifts.

This year, dd5 and I received matching aprons from dh ~ dd5 helped her daddy pick them out :)

We like to keep the gift-giving simple, each child received three to four gifts from us, including one toy they had either asked for or we thought they would enjoy.

Christmas Eve

On Christmas Eve, we headed over to my mom's house to celebrate Christmas with my side of the family.

We planned to attend the Christmas Eve service after our get together, so the kids were in their Christmas finest. I figured this was a perfect opportunity to attempt to get some nice Christmas pictures of each of them.

The two oldest were happy to oblige their mama.

The 3-year old was not :)

Even bigger smiles appeared once they began opening presents.

Christmas Traditions ~ Decorating the Tree

Another beloved tradition around here is decorating our Christmas tree. The kids each have an ornament box that contains ornaments that were given to them and ornaments that they have made...Once the tree is put together, the ornament boxes come out.

Ds7 spent a lot of time reminiscing about each ornament in his box..."remember when I picked this ornament out...you and daddy gave me this one the year I was two because I loved trains..."

Ds3 doesn't quite get the reminiscing thing yet, he has fun just checking out all of the ornaments in his box :)

Then the decorating begins...

Dd5 was very particular about her placement of ornaments this year. I noticed two ornaments that were hanging on the same branch, so I moved them a bit farther apart. Soon afterward I heard dd5 exclaim, "who moved my ornament?". I told her that I moved them because they were very close to each other, she quickly replied "but they wanted to be next to each other on the tree!".

At some point during the decorating, dh gained possession of the camera and began experimenting...

Dd5 waited patiently for me to get around to hanging my heart ornament, the one that matches her heart ornament. And, of course, we hung them together, on the same branch :)

I love the memories that come rushing back each time we decorate our tree...

Christmas Traditions ~ Cookie Decorating Day

We held our annual Christmas Cookie Decorating Day this past weekend.

This is the first time that ds3 has actually participated (he slept through previous ones) - and I believe that he thoroughly enjoyed himself. He decorated a total of four cookies, and I won't even guess how much frosting he licked off his little plastic knife :)

Dd5 is now considered a pro at this decorating thing. This year she even pulled out her mini rolling pin and rolled out some dough all by herself!

And I know that ds7 had to have had a fabulous time, he decorated two full plates of cookies! He got quite creative with his cookies, he even created a few new frosting colors :)

Our goal for cookie decorating day is not to end up with a boatload of cookies. We actually have each child put his/her cookies on their own little plate, and send those home with them (if they are visitors) ~ 'cause, there's lots of frosting lickin' going on :). Our goal is just to have fun ~ and we had lots of that this year!

Happy Father's Day

Father's day started early in the morning...the kids couldn't wait to show their Daddy all of the cards that they made for him...

They then gave him their gifts ~ ds7 gave a huge chocolate bar, dd5 gave a bag of marshmallows, and ds2 gave a box of graham crackers ~ I bet you can guess what that makes, right?

Well, my dh has been wanting a firepit for a couple years now, he was quite surprised when we informed him that we would need to purchase a firepit to make the s'mores! He wasted no time, we went by the local hardware store on our way home from church and he picked out this firepit...and we put it to work that evening!

I think it's safe to say that we all love daddy's new firepit!