Top 10 Activities of 2011

This is my first year blogging and I have really enjoyed sharing our family adventures with you. Since we are about to begin a new year, I thought I would share the top 10 activities of 2011. If you are interested reading the whole post, just click on the link and that will take you to the original post.

Dancing Oobleck – This was an AMAZING experiment! If you have not seen the video, you definitely should check it out!

Ivory Soap Experiment – This was one of the kids favorite experiments. I lost count of how many bars of soap that we exploded.

Fluffy Bathtub Paint – This is the perfect activity to use up all the exploded Ivory soap bars.

Pour Painting – This fun painting was inspired from Holton Rower’s Tall Paintings. It was fun tipping and swirling all the colors.

Marble Painting – A mess free painting way to paint with your little one. You can find more examples of marble painting here.

Raised Salt Painting – Glue, salt and water colors are used to create a fun painting.

Shamrock Crystals – Borax Crystals are are so easy to make and look so pretty sparkling in the sun. You can also find more examples of crystals we made here, and here.

Watercolor Crayon Shavings – A fun new twist on Crayon Shaving art.

Road Trip Bingo – I created a printable set of Bingo cards to help make those long car trips more exciting.

Microwave Puffy Paint – An easy paint recipe that becomes puffy when microwaved.

Thanks so much for sharing a wonderful year of adventures and learning with our family.

Christmas Morning

We had a wonderful Christmas, a very enjoyable lazy Boxing Day and a great beginning to the kids Christmas break . I love having the kiddos home from school and a break from our regular routine. I thought I would give a quick post about 2 of our families favorite Christmas morning traditions before all the trees are packed away until next year.

Christmas Eve our tradition is to sleep under the tree as a family. The kiddos are wonderful at talking Chuck into almost anything. Something that I love about my hubby. I know sleeping under the tree is not on the top of Chuck’s list, actually I’m not sure it is on his list at all. But every year he drags down the mats with out complaint to snuggle under the tree with the kiddos. I love that! I’m a sucker for tradition too. If it were up to me, the 2 of us would probably be still sleeping under the tree long after the kiddos are all grown. We will have to see if I’m as good of a sweet talker as the kids are:)

I was sure all the kiddos would be up super early giggling and waiting to open the gifts. However, they were complete sleepy heads and we ended up waking them up at 9:00! What kiddos sleep that long Christmas morning, especially under the tree. I’m not complaining, it was a beautiful Christmas gift!

When I was growing up we always had the same breakfast Christmas morning…Honeycomb cereal and fresh cinnamon buns. It makes me smile even as I’m writing it. Sugar cereals were not a regular part of our breakfast table, so it was super special to unwrap a box of sugary sweet Honeycomb cereal. I’m not really sure where the tradition started, but I love it!

I love that my kiddos ask for this is breakfast as well. However, this year we made a sugary change to the tradition. Instead of the traditional one box of Honeycomb, I turned everyone loose in the cereal isle and let them each choose their own box of cereal. Since we don’t eat sugar cereal normally, the kiddos could not be happier. Kaleb loves tradition and choose Honeycomb, Bree was drawn to the colorful Fruity Pebbles and sweet Annika picked the mini boxes with 8 different flavors. In case you were questioning the odd placement of the dining room table, it was moved here to make room for everyone to snuggle under the tree:)

After the sugar high from all the sweet cereal and warm cinnamon buns, we turned the kiddos loose on the presents. I love Christmas morning and all the fun traditions that surround it! What is your favorite Christmas tradition?

Merry Christmas – Willow Tree Nativity

Willow Tree Nativity

I love my Willow Tree Nativity. My mother-in-law started giving me pieces a few years ago for Christmas. Thanks Suzanne for this special gift! It is the perfect size and matches perfectly with the rest of my Christmas decor.

I have really enjoyed sharing all that makes Christmas special to our family over the last few weeks. Hope your family has a wonderful Christmas! MERRY CHRISTMAS!

If you don’t want to miss out on any of the fun we are having at Housing A Forest, make sure to follow us on Pinterest, Facebook and Twitter.

Mommy Date

My kiddo’s are officially on Christmas break! Yeah! Lots of time for mommy dates with the kiddos. I can’t wait to pack in all the last minute Christmas plans and events. Our house is over the top excited. The trees are trimmed, presents are wrapped and sweets are all lined up ready to be made.

We needed a quick breather before all the craziness was in full swing. Annika loves Mommy dates, and today was one of those the perfect days to steal a special moment together. One of her favorite Mommy date places is the coffee shop. I love that girl! She even knows what she wants, a Vanilla Steamer. Yummy!

What date would be complete without a fun drawing game:) I love her concentration face. Annika almost always has a notebook with her, today was no exception. I wish I had a picture of the amazing purse she borrowed from Bree for today’s outing. I love having girly girls;)

This was our first Christmas drawing. My favorite is the cute caroler singing in the corner. Just like here, we took turns adding special touches to the picture until it was deemed complete.

We then moved on to creating the most amazing ornament. I really wish that we could reproduce this beautiful drawing into a special ornament that could be hung on our tree. Hmmmm…I will have to keep thinking. Does anyone have any great suggestions to make this happen?

Our entire date was only an hour, but Annika loved it. With the craziness of the holiday season upon us, make sure that you are taking time to slow down and enjoy your kiddos. It only takes a few moments to make them feel loved and special.

If you don’t want to miss out on any of the fun we are having at Housing A Forest, make sure to follow us on Pinterest, Facebook and Twitter.

Candle Sconces

DIY Candle Sconces ~ Chippy Distressed Painting Technique

Here is a sneak peek at what I am creating over at Inspired Home Style. I love turning something discarded into something new. I found these little shutters in the trash…and could hardly wait to turn them into Candle Sconces.

Hop on over to Inspired Home Style to see how we made Chippy Candle Sconces!