Snowflake Ornaments

I have a bunch of the super cheep plastic glitter snowflakes from Target. They are no where as cool as the hand made snowflake ornaments my Mom and Grandmother crochet me, but I still like them. These plastic wonders have graced our family tree for a number of years. You know the ones that come in a bunch of different colors and are around $2 for a pack.

This year I decided that they were a bit too uniform. No two snowflakes are the same in nature, yet my tree was covered in a bunch of clone snowflake ornaments. So I tried altering them a bit, and I am so glad I did. I love the new look!

Since they are cheap plastic, it was simple to snap off any of the bits that I did not want. I did not bother to cover the raw end of my white snowflakes, but if you were trying this with a colored one, you may need to use paint to hide the raw area.

You can create many interesting shapes, depending where you snap the snowflake. I chose to keep each of my snowflake ornaments symmetrical. I also changed all the silver string, to simple twine which fit my decor much better.

I love my new snowflake ornaments. Why I did not do this sooner is beyond me, but I’m glad I did it now. I kept a few of them the original shape and altered the rest. SO much better!

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We just had twins!

When the kids got home from school the chickens had a sweet surprise waiting for them. Two little pullet eggs waiting in the same nest. This is the first set of eggs that the girls have given us, and two eggs in one day was perfect! I love the look of surprise on Annika’s face. She will now be running to the coup to gather eggs every spare moment.

Kaleb told us that he thought that the chickens were saving their eggs for a Christmas present to us. They were so happy to get an early Christmas present.

Chickens all lay a slightly different shade of egg. One way to tell what color egg a chicken will lay is to look at her earlobe. Yep chickens have earlobes, who knew! A hen with a white earlobe will always lay white eggs, whereas hens with red earlobes will lay either brown, blue or green eggs.

Since we only have 6 chickens with a small amount of detective work we should be able to match each chicken with their specific egg color. Four of our chickens will lay brown eggs (Buttercup, Ruby, Marty and Salt) and two of them will lay green/blue eggs (Cocoa and Chippy)

Now we just have to decide what to make with these special little gifts.

Wrapped with Love!

I just finished wrapping the kiddos Christmas presents! I love that feeling. Everything is snug under the tree and I have no fear of kiddos peeking at the stash of gifts. There was cute talk today that they knew where the gifts were hidden, but no one peeked. Funny kiddos. I don’t think that they actually looked at anything, but I’m glad to remove the temptation. I remember the year I found all my gifts. I loved the Christmas presents I received but Christmas morning was disappointing. All the surprise was removed! I would hate for my kids to have the same experience!

Over the years we have developed a simple wrapping system that works for our family. We like to keep the kids guessing which gifts are for them. I buy 5 different, coordinating wrapping papers and wrap each persons Christmas presents only in one color of paper. This way I don’t have to make name tags for the gifts. It also builds the kiddos excitement. They like to guess which wrapping paper is theirs. I love hearing them speculate. Tomorrow will begin the chatter about who’s color is who’s. Unfortunately the kids helped me wrap Chucks gifts so that narrows down the choices.

Wrapping gifts always reminds me of my Dad. Growing up we wrapped all the extended family presents together. Dad has an amazing skill to keep the patterns of the paper all lined up, edges square and looking store wrapped . Mom wrapped too, but her specialty was making all the gifts pretty with ribbons, cards and extra touches. Ken I think your skill leaned more to garbage bags and packing tape:)

As I was sitting on the floor with a pile of slightly wonky gifts surrounding me, I was giggling. If Dad was watching the chaos in my living room, he would be giving me pointers or at least bringing me the right box to fit the gift in. I’m pretty sure the wonky, wrapped with love look of my gifts is because I was to lazy to find boxes. I think that is the best way to describe the gifts…wrapped with Love!

On a side note, this might be the first post that have done without pictures. You will all have to wait for Christmas morning! How do you wrap your gifts for kiddos; do you have a fun system? I’d love to hear your wrapping traditions and memories.

Paper Mache Clay Snowmen

My kiddos just made the most adorable snowmen. The process took a few days, but totally worth it! Paper Mache Clay is so fun to work with. It is like working with a paste clay. It has a rustic texture and is so fun to play with!

We started with a base of bags, tape and tinfoil. Kaleb got creative on his baseball cap and used an egg carton.

To help the snowmen stand we used cereal box circle with the kiddos names and the year written on it. The cardboard is covered with packing tape.

This is the first time that we made paper mache clay and I LOVE it! It is so fun to work with, and easy to make. I found the recipe on the Ultimate Paper Mache. It is an amazing website with lots of helpful information on using this wonderful clay. The ingredients are inexpensive and easy to find. You will need:

Toilet paper Roll (Measure the wet paper pulp, and use 1 1/4 cups – some rolls contain more paper than needed) Regular angle soft toilet paper contains the right amount.

1 cup of Joint Compound

3/4 cup Elmer’s Glue

1/2 cup White Flour

Remove the cardboard tube from the toilet paper roll and soak the toilet paper in water. Squish as much water out of the paper as possible.

I borrowed my hubbies drill and paddle mixer which worked great to mix everything, but a hand electric mixer will work too. Mix for a couple minutes until everything is smooth. Store the clay in an air tight container. We did not use the linseed oil that the original recipe calls for and it worked great.

The kids had fun working with the clay. The second layer seemed easier for the kids to apply.

I love all the cute details that each kiddos added. Since the clay sticks well to itself they had no problem adding the buttons and eyes after everything dried.

Bree made the skinny snowman, Annika’s is in the middle and Kaleb created a wonderful baseball cap. I love that each one is unique and has its own personality. Note to self…take pictures while the sun is still up!

Annika wanted help to add this cute little flower to her snowman’s hat. So cute!

I hope that building this cute little snowmen become a tradition. I love love to have one from the kiddos every year as a cute little collection.

Holidazzle Parade

The Holidazzle Parade is another one of our favorite family traditions. This is the kids second year participating in the Holidazzle Parade. It is an evening parade, which is magical because all the floats are designed to light up.

The kids were all bundled up under the costumes to keep warm. The temperature is pretty mild this year, and we are lacking the beautiful snow cover that we usually have.

Most of the costumes light up so after the kids were all suited up they had to go to the lighting station to make sure everything was in working order.

Waiting to get on their float. Notice the wire Kaleb is holding, that will eventually hook right into the float. Each kiddo will be seat belted, and plugged in.

The kiddos rode on the Pinocchio float. Each of the lighted floats are designed around favorite storybooks, and bring the characters to life.

I love this special moment. Auntie Laurie walked in the parade with the kiddos, all lit up as a Toy Solider so we could enjoy the parade. Thanks Laurie!

Breanna and Annika rode on a couch at the back of the float and Kaleb rode on the side. He is the closest of the 4 kids to Gepetto.

They looked so cute all plugged in and glowing. He can’t wait for the parade to begin!

Annika is hard to make out, but she was really excited when she spotted us!

The circus train was the float the kiddos road last year. Santa is always the last float, ending the parade. I love that the kids have the opportunity to participate in such a fun event. I also love that I have a sister-in-law with connections…Thanks Laurie!