Sunday, December 29, 2013

Cinderella IS magical…

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So this is love…ahhh yes. Cinderella. I just had the distinct joy of watching my daughter, Eden, watch with wonder this magical movie. While “Princess” is very “in” at the Williamson house, Eden hasn’t seen any of the movies.  Perspective and context of these lovely ladies is not in Eden’s body of knowledge…until now. To say that she loved every minute of this movie would be an understatement. Tensing at all the tense moments, laughing at all the funny moments and being indignant at all the unjust moments all registered on my sweet Eden. She talked back to the film several times. One time in particular was when the king and the advisor kept the glass slipper, but Eden didn’t know they would use it to find Cinderella. She yelled at the screen, “They can’t keep that!” She also was very angry and sad when the step-sisters tore up Cinderella’s dress. In order to keep her from coming unglued I asked her what color Cinderella’s dress really is…
“Blue.” Cue the sparkles! As the sparkles started to show up on the screen she asked in a whisper what they were. I told her that good things ALWAYS come from sparkles. Shock and awe at the pumpkin carriage was also fun to watch. Consequently, she wants to do a pumpkin craft tomorrow involving stickers and gems. All in all it was great. When it ended she simply said, “I want to see it again.” We shall my sweet, we shall. As she got her jammies on for bedtime she ran out and asked me to help her because the pair she picked had buttons. After buttoning her up, I drew her attention to the buttons. They are red glitter “sparkle” buttons. Grinning big, she giggled and I told her, “Good things always come from sparkles.” I scooped her up in my arms and twirled her around the kitchen singing and humming, “So This is Love”. We danced into her room to, “Someday My Prince Will Come…” The bedtime story for tonight was a retelling of Cinderella with Eden and Yaya as major players in the story and Noah starring as the Prince. Finally drifting off to sleep she said, “I wish there really was a Cinderella, but there isn’t.” Big sigh. I whispered back, “Oh but there is! And she is at Disney World, her castle is even there!” That brought her straight awake and she informed me that she wanted to go to Disney World tomorrow morning. Oh, how I wish we could…bippity boppity boo!

Tuesday, December 24, 2013

Truth in the Tinsel– Day 24…It is finished.

Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. When he appeared in human form,he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross.Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honor and gave him the name above all other names, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.  - Philippians 2:6-11

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Truth in the Tinsel–Day 22 & 23

Wise Men were marginal at best, jewels and glue were involved so that was a plus. Being the 3rd craft of the day, (Mom got a bit behind), they were pretty burned out on crafting. The next day, however, the gifts craft was fun for the girls as it was another playdough like activity. We made our own cinnamon applesauce ornaments. Noah couldn’t take the strong smell and shoved a cookie cutter into some dough and called it a day.

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Monday, December 23, 2013

Truth in the Tinsel–Day 20 & 21

Know what else is magical? Glitter and macaroni. Yep. Shake enough glitter around and everyone is happy. I had to come up with an alternative star craft from the one in the book because it was going to be freakishly hard. Macaroni it is!

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Saturday, December 21, 2013

Christmas Angels

How unbelievably cute are my girls here?! Their preschool teacher took these picture of all the kids and gave them to parents as Christmas gifts from our kids! So precious! The color photos are actually in homemade cards from the girls. I snuck them out of the homemade frames/cards and scanned them in so I could have a digital copy.      

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Birthday Beginnings…more to come.

Me and my girl making cupcakes for her party. She insisted on having homemade cupcakes. Making them together was so much fun, she is a great helper. Sadly, these did not turn out right due to a butter faux pas. However, I had another cake mix in the house so all was not lost. We put individual cupcakes, with lollipops in them, in pink and purple Chinese takeout boxes and handed them to her friends after the party. Huge hit! Great memory! So fun!

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Truth in the Tinsel–Day 18 & 19…kill me.

I wish it had been cotton balls...enuf said...but not really.
It is my OCD vs. Meaning of Christmas. I feel like I’m in a battle with Truth in the Tinsel to actually make it to the end of all the ornaments! We are so stinking close! Today was a blur of boringness. But we did get to talk about the story again and that is valuable. The kids enjoy seeing their ornaments on the tree even if they aren’t jazzed about making them. I console myself with that thought. Bwah ha ha!

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Thursday, December 19, 2013

Truth in the Tinsel–Day 16 & 17

Cotton balls are magical. Enuf said.

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Truth in the Tinsel–Day 15

Nothing says Christmas like dough ornaments! Again, I was apprehensive about this craft thinking it would be a nightmare. Lo’ and behold it was a raving success! The kids ALL loved making their mangers. Going one step beyond, Noah also made his own Joseph and Mary. Not to be left out, Eden made a Holy couple as well. She even remembered to put on Mary’s “hat”. Eden’s people have big long legs and huge eyes. Yaya really enjoyed poking the dough with a tooth pick as I fashioned some of it into a manger. As I began making the “hay” to put on top she got involved and put all the hay on top of baby Jesus. Eden and Yaya played with the dough for about 40 minutes. Later, after we baked our ornaments we grabbed paint made our masterpieces! Such a fun craft. Who knew?

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Truth in the Tinsel–Day 13 & 14

Bethlehem was a fun craft! Painting up a storm, Yaya’s Bethlehem was a combination of several colors and probably looks the most like the buildings of Jesus time. Eden and Noah picked colors they liked and while I think a pink Bethlehem is cool, it is not likely representational of the times. The stable was boring but the kids are really learning the different pieces of Christ’s birth story. Eden can tell you at any time where Jesus is born. Noah knows the entire story. Yaya just likes to yell, “Jesus!”

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Wednesday, December 18, 2013

Truth in the Tinsel–Day 12

Surprising craft! This has been, by far, the kids favorite craft! Hence, me featuring it alone this time. This was the census. We colored rice with food coloring and talked about how many people were in Bethlehem to be counted. However, there were two people more important than all the others, Joseph and Mary. They are represented by the tiny pompoms. The kids got to pick the color of rice they wanted and shake up the bags to spread the food coloring. They picked out their tiny pompoms to represent the Holy couple. Then...they proceeded shake and find Mary and Joseph again and again and again. Even Noah enjoyed doing this for quite some time. You can see each child’s pompom Mary and Joseph in their jars.

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Truth in the Tinsel–Day 10 & 11

While initially intimidated about the pillow craft, all of us really liked the dreams craft. Why it’s fun to stuff cotton balls into something and make it puffy I’ll never know. There seems to be something magical about cotton balls. The Jesus’ Name craft also was enjoyed. Glue. That’s the ticket for them. If it involves glue, I’m golden. Yaya of course loved seeing her name, as did Eden. Noah is playing along nicely even though most of the crafts are a bit young for him. I love that boy!

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Tuesday, December 17, 2013

Truth in the Tinsel–Day 8 & 9

The sun was a fun craft especially after we realized that the glitter foam had an adhesive back! Noah decided then to forgo the mosaic route and just glitter it up. Eden was upset that she couldn’t glue her pieces with the paper still on the backing, so we peeled of the paper and she glued sticky foam anyway. Yaya had a great time making this craft but she wanted silver for her sun. For the Josephs, I abandoned the felt and went to paper but I pretty much did this craft for them, not as much fun as the others.

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Nostalgic about November

Friends…she is asleep. Like knocked out asleep. I did finally move her to a prone position but I couldn’t believe she fell asleep like this!

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This was featured in the First World Family post but I wanted to really highlight it here. Eden is so funny! Putting on the helmets was her idea!

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Sporting their silks…I have no idea why they wanted to wear these  since they normally don’t like their Chinese silk dresses. I try not to ask to many questions and just take lots of pictures.

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That same day, headbands and mittens came in the mail from Aunt Bobbie so we had to put those on too.

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The girls wanted to sleep in the same bed one night. Though we thought it a bad and impossible idea, they actually both fell asleep. Later, Eric moved Eden to her own bed.

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Here we have just some funny and sweet faces from the month of November. In the Lego Store Eden actually built the little tree house you see.

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Monday, December 16, 2013

Out of Order…More Thanksgiving

Yep, just getting to this, c’est la vie. Well here we are at the girls preschool for their Thanksgiving feast. They sang some cute turkey songs and ate almost none of their feast. Noah got to come with me to  the party so that was fun for the girls. Ms. Mary is so creative, check out their costumes! When Yaya goes with the flow of the class, it still shocks me. So proud that she wore her costume without complaint. She didn’t eat any of the food on her plate, so it was good I packed her a lunch…same with Eden.  I was thankful that people were willing to take my picture with the girls, however, each person had trouble with my phone camera so we look all blurry and my cheeks look weirdly huge. I don’t much care though I’m glad to be in a picture for once!

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Monday, December 9, 2013

Truth in the Tinsel–Day 6 & 7

Mary and Elizabeth was a much better craft for most of the children. Yaya isn’t as jazzed about painting with watercolors as the other two, but she did well for her. I glued them to popsicle sticks and we acted out Mary visiting Elizabeth with each set. Sadly, Noah was not enthusiastic about puppet play. So while he was playing his computer I snuck his puppets up behind his screen and started acting out the story. While laughing and protesting, Noah swatted at Elizabeth and slapped baby John clean off her tummy. I told him that Jesus was crying over that action, and I guled John back on. Good times! The CD’s were a HUGE hit, it was by far Yaya’s favorite. She covered that CD up with rocks, it is HEAVY! I feel bad for the poor tree. I really liked Noah’s wreath alternating green and blue. Eden simply likes anything involving glue.

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Friday, December 6, 2013

Advent: In Progress

Advent is in the air! We are advent crazy around here! Please direct your attention to the Hershey’s Kiss countdown chain. You have to “give a kiss” to “get a kiss” and we focus on remembering Love during this season. We have a wreath with a gaudy bow...a bow you won’t see next year. We have have our old school advent calendar that we open a box each night and the nativity scene is magnetic. Plus, we have clues to turn around on our wall calendar each day  that we use for our Advent curriculum and we top it off with a link countdown chain with reminder clues on each link! Bring on Advent! Bring on JESUS!

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Truth in the Tinsel Day 4 (revised) & Day 5

Out of the frying pan and into the fire with the ornaments this day. We attempted a different Gabriel craft that the kids could actually do it themselves. Voila! Indeed they enjoyed coloring their “stained glass” angels. Whew. Dodged that bullet. On to Day 5...Mary. Okay, yet another craft not suited to small hands, or even big ones, even I struggled with this one. The good news though is that they each “like” their Mary. Plus, tomorrow is the Mary and Elizabeth day where they will paint little Mary and Elizabeth paper dolls. So it is sorta like a do over for Mary Day 4. Our tree is filling up nicely now.  I’m feeling quite accomplished in that I not only have kept up with the crafts for 5 solid days but I have scrapped it all. Perhaps it’s an early Christmas miracle. Here’s to hoping I can keep this up!

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Thanksgiving Day (a little late)

Simple. Easy. Thankful. We had a low key Thanksgiving this year. Fay and Elwyn, Eric’s parents, were supposed to celebrate with us but they were not feeling well enough to travel. Disappointing to say the least. However, our precious niece, Halli, came to celebrate with us. I. Love. This. Girl. How I wish she were ours. She came bearing brownies, always a hit at our home, and she left bearing leftovers. After stuffing ourselves the kids played, Eric and I cleaned and Halli took a much needed nap...with Yaya. Well Yaya, didn’t sleep, instead she chose to sit up and read a book next to Halli while Halli slept. Pretty darn cute. The kids ate next to nothing and Eric and I gorged ourselves on leftovers for a week. I am thankful for all God has blessed us with and I look forward to what he has in store for our family.

P.S. What happened to my family when I jumped into the family picture?! Check out all our faces! So typical for us!

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The Forest and the Trees

Sweet Eden was thrilled about this craft since in included icing, ice cream cones, and mini M&M’s. Shockingly, Yaya was the biggest fan of frosting, while Noah was really focused on the M&M’s. At one point Noah just turned up his bowl of M&M’s into his mouth. Not to be out done, Yaya was spooning green colored cream cheese frosting in her face as quickly as humanly possible...by herself. Toward the end of the edible craft I tried to read some history of why we use a tree at Christmas time to symbolize Christ and such, but it fell on deaf ears as the children were hopped up on sugar and wanting to bite into their trees. Sadly, they did not taste as yummy as they looked. P.S. Notice the girls “red noses” that was curtsey of Elf School at their preschool, they came home twice this week with Rudolph noses.

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Thursday, December 5, 2013

Truth in the Tinsel- Day 3 & 4

So Zechariah is scary beyond reasoning, but here he is nonetheless. That is a bubble wrap bubble for the mouth that we were supposed to pop at the end of the craft signifying when John was born Zechariah could speak again. But only Yaya wanted to pop her bubble, which she did, with a fork...repeatedly. Also, the multicolored yarn was all the yarn I owned. It would have been nice to have had black, brown, or white, but alas, rainbow Zechariah it is. The Gabriel’s to the left were made by me. They turned out pretty but the kids took almost no part in making them. It was a rough day. So I will attempt a revised Gabriel craft tomorrow and see what happens. All in all we are still enjoying our advent adventure.

I promise to get other pictures and stories up here but I do want to document our advent journey. We are finding some of the crafts to be at a higher difficulty level than we would like but my good friend Jewels sent me a modified Truth in the Tinsel ornament craft blog and it is going to make some of these days way easier.

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Tuesday, December 3, 2013

Truth in the Tinsel–Day 1 & 2

The family this year is trying to focus on the Advent season, the coming of Christ. I have chosen a book called Truth in the Tinsel. It walks us through scripture for 24 days focusing on a specific aspect of the story of Jesus’ birth each day. It teaches us how His story is our story. To help us remember what we are learning, we make an ornament each day. That’s right, 72 ornaments in 24 days...just purchased an Advent tree to house them all. Can’t wait to see how it will look on Christmas day! The kids seem to really enjoy what we are doing, even Noah. We are using our daily calendar as an advent calendar of sorts. Truth in the Tinsel has little clue cards you can print out that help focus the kids while reading scripture. For example you see my adaptations of the first two clue cards below. So when we read Isaiah 9:2-7, the kids listened for the word light on the first day and kingdom on the next. It is also a clue to the ornament we will be crafting. The book gives you the option to make a countdown chain out of the clues and it has printables for that as well. We are doing both. We tear off the ring at night and read our clue again. Since a paper chain “countdown” is something we do each year anyway, might as well make it more adventy and less wrapping papery. I also purchased an actual advent wreath this year. Noah is currently obsessed with lighting the candles now that he has figured out how to work the lighter. Clearly this is not enough to drive home the advent season so we still have our wooden/magnet  advent calendar as well as a count down kisses chain (I will focus on that in a separate post). So we have gone from clueless about the advent season to overkill. What can I say? We like living in extremes lately. So here’s to Advent! Here is to focusing on Jesus this year…what a novel idea!

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