Posts Tagged ‘activities’

advent activities: week two

advent activities on elsie marley

I loved all of your advent activity suggestions on last week’s post. Thank you! Keep em coming. We are only halfway through advent. If you say it that way it feels like it’s a long time before Christmas :)

 

advent activities: week two

DAY 6: watch a Christmas Carol.

Friday is our movie night, so we watched an animated version of this Christmas classic.

DAY 7: go see the Christmas trains.

Does every city have this? Our Christmas train exhibit is in our local botanical garden. My husband took the kids, so I don’t have any pictures, but I hear the Christmas village was completely made out of candy!

paper snowflakes out of coffee filters

DAY 8: make paper snowflakes

We make our paper snowflakes out of coffee filters. They are easier for little hands (and scissors) to cut. To make a coffee filter snowflake, first flatten the coffee filter, fold it in half, then in thirds, then in half again. Cut little triangles all over, or get fancy and look up patterns on Pinterest. I iron the snowflakes after we’re done making them. It sounds fussy, but they look so much nicer.  Then we fill up all our windows with snowflakes!

gumdrop sculptures on elsie marley

DAY 9: gumdrop sculptures

We did this last year and it was a bit hit. You have to brace yourself for the insane sugar high (and subsequent crash), but it is a lot of fun. There is a swing set in there somewhere and a dog and a booby trap. If you make gumdrop sculptures, be sure to look for short toothpicks. We had longer ones for some reason, and the sculptures were not very sturdy.

advent activities on elsie marley

DAY 10: listen to Christmas records

Nothing better than listening to Bing Crosby sing I’ll be Home for Christmas.

ice wreaths on elsie marley

DAY 11: make ice wreaths

The upside to living with sub-zero temperatures: ice wreaths. If you too live in painfully cold conditions, you can make this beautiful holiday decoration. Bundt pans work the best, but you can use any round cake pan. To make the hole in the middle weight an empty tin can down with rocks (or water). Don’t use glass! Ask me how I know.

advent activities on elsie marley

DAY 12: dress up and go to the Christmas concert

We had two kids in the Christmas concert this year and my son even had a solo! All of us got our best clothes on and trudged through the cold and snow to hear adorable little kids sing adorable little songs.

Whew! That was our week in advent activities! Have you done anything Christmasy lately?

 

advent activities: week one

advent activities: week one

Every year we have an advent calendar–this string of lights advent calendar (that you could make too). Each day is filled with some sort of christmas-y activity. It’s super fun–for the kids–but it also can be a lot of work–for the mom. I was about to skip it this year and just get the chocolate advent calendars when my littlest said in the most adorable voice, “Remember that funny thing that had papers in it and told us what to do? That was the best.” Up went the advent calendar.

Do you do an advent activity calendar? If you have any good christmasy projects, please leave them in the comments! I’m always looking for new things to do. Here are our activities for the first week of advent.

advent activities: week one

DAY 1: go to the movies.

Okay, we took it easy the first day. Plus our kids wanted to see Frozen and it was a good day for a movie.

advent activities on elsie marley

DAY 2: print out paper toys and make your mother glue them together

advent activities on elsie marley

That’s not actually what it said to do, but that is what it turned into. This paper Santa was a lot harder than I anticipated and it seems paper craft is not my forte. They are so stinking cute though, it’s hard not to want to make them. I found these printable paper toys on pinterest, where else? After all the fussy cutting and folding and gluing, I really like these little guys and they are surprisingly sturdy.

advent activities on elsie marley

DAY 3: take christmas photo

Taking the annual christmas photo is my annual christmas nightmare. There were at least a hundred shots like the one above and then Hallelujah! one decent one.

advent activities on elsie marley

DAY 4: decorate the tree

I like em naked, maybe with a few lights. The kids have a much different idea of a christmas tree. More! More! More!

advent activities on elsie marley

DAY 5: put shoes out for St. Nick

The shoes were left out last night and the kids woke up to oranges and chocolate coins and new slippers. Advent is more work, but it is magical too. Now what to do for day 6….

 

diy summer passport

diy summer passport

I mentioned last week that I was thinking about making a summer passport. And would you look at that: I did! It was super easy and I’m going to tell you how to do it.

small moleskine

diy summer passport

materials:

  • a small moleskine plain journal with a kraft paper cover. They are called Cahiers and are sold in sets of three (for 7 bucks).
  • crayons, markers, pencils, whatever
  • a list of activities (see below)
  • stickers, or a date stamper

summer passport diy

directions:

1. Make your cover. We went with the basic, Summer Passport 2013. You could get a little more exciting, like THIS IS GOING TO BE THE JONES’ BEST SUMMER EVAR!

summer passport diy

2. Write something fun to do on every right hand page. This ends up being about 30 activities, which I think is doable for summer. It also leaves the left page open for writing about when you did that activity (optional, obviously).

summer passport diy

3. Draw a box under the activity. This is where you will put the stickers (or stamp the date) when you do that activity. If you plan to do something often, make sure to draw a big box. My daughter seems to think we will be going to the pool a lot this summer. :)

summer passport diy

4. Go do something! Here’s a list of 40 things to get you started:

list of summer activities

  1. run through the sprinkler
  2. blow bubbles (last year, we made super big bubbles!)
  3. eat watermelon (in star form maybe?)
  4. make a giant fort
  5. make grape sculptures
  6. eat corn on the cob (and make your own awesome holders!)
  7. buy a treat from the ice cream truck
  8. go to the farmer’s market
  9. sign up for your library’s summer reading program
  10. play in the rain
  11. write a letter to Grandma
  12. make your own gummy treats
  13. wash the car
  14. find a new park in your town
  15. go swimming!
  16. make paper airplanes
  17. learn cats cradle
  18. paint with chalk paint
  19. build a fairy house
  20. feed the ducks
  21. get your face painted
  22. watch fireworks
  23. play sidewalk simon
  24. catch fireflies
  25. play badmiton
  26. sail boats down a tin foil river
  27. water balloon fight!
  28. be a super spy–make invisible ink
  29. make ice cream or popsicles
  30. make your own stickers
  31. exploding paint bombs!
  32. go to a local fair
  33. have a magic potion lab
  34. make saltwater taffy
  35. have a lemonade stand (or a tattoo stand!)
  36. camp in the backyard
  37. go fishing
  38. go bowling
  39. see a concert in the park
  40. pick strawberries

 

What are you doing this summer? Add your ideas in the comments!

 

advent activities

pompom garland and my christmas tree

Today is the first day of advent! Did you make your advent calendar yet? We are still using the string of lights advent calendar I made a few years ago. I put activities in each of the little bulbs and I love it. I write up the activity the night before (surprise your kids, not yourself!) and all the projects keep me on task for christmas.  If cookies need to be made, or christmas cards written, or gifts wrapped it’s going to happen if it is in the advent calendar–the 4 and 6 year olds will demand it!

A friend of mine (hi Ellen!) asked me to write up a little list of activities she could use, so here they are! I divided them into effort needed, because sometimes you really need to drink some (spiked) eggnog while the kids watch a movie.

meringue snowmen

big projects

gingerbread mobile

little projects

hot-cocoa-mix

if it’s cold and snowy projects

 

snowman coloring page

phoning it in projects

  • hot chocolate with marshmallows
  • call grandma and grandpa
  • dress up like an elf/santa/wise man/christmas tree
  • dance to christmas music
  • camp out under the tree (this may or may not be an easy one)
  • color christmasy pictures–oh look I have a bunch right here
  • look at pictures from christmases past
  • I think one year I actually wrote down “eat christmas cookies” for an activity

our little christmas tree

for the whole family

  • drive around looking at chrismtas lights
  • dress up in your fanciest for dinner
  • make popcorn and watch a christmas movie
  • go see the nutcracker/christmas carol/holiday concert
  • cut down a christmas tree/ put up your christmas tree
  • decorate the tree!
  • put up lights outside
  • go for a evening walk

string of lights advent calendar

This list is my no means exhaustive. Some of these we do every year, some are new ones I’d like to try. Do you have any christmas activities or projects for advent? I’m always on the look out for good ones.