Housing a Forest

Christmas is hands down my favorite holiday! I love family time and traditions, both of which are a huge part of the Christmas season in our house. If you have read my bio, you already know that I love Christmas trees. I have a number of artificial trees, my goal is to have 1 in every room of our home. It sounds crazy, but I guarantee you it is magical! I LOVE white lights and greenery.

My love of Christmas trees is the inspiration for the name of my blog. I LOVE how warm and cozy my house feels with all the white lights and decorated trees. We store all the trees in the attic (still set up) during their “off season.” Not too long ago the cable man had to look at something in the attic and commented “wow you guys have a forest up here!” So, Housing a Forest was born.

I have had the artificial trees up for a number of weeks, but we just put up the live family tree. There is something special about a real tree. I would love to have all my Christmas trees real, but that is just not practical. The family tree is nestled in a corner of our dining room, and is the center of many special traditions. This is the tree that is the home to all the special family ornaments; the tree that we will be sleeping under as a family in a few short weeks; the tree that we makes my house smell wonderful; the tree that we will be placing all the gifts under and the tree that will be the backdrop to all Christmas morning present opening photos.

Ornaments are one of the special traditions in our house. Each year the kids receive an ornament in their stocking and I make sure to write their name and year received on each one. The kids love sorting through their ornaments and finding a special spot of the tree for each one. We also have a collection of family ornaments. These are gathered on family trips as a memory of the vacation. It is fun looking back through the ornaments and remembering all the places that we visited together. The year is written on each of these ornaments as well.

I love how many traditions are centered around this tree. It makes me smile each time I walk past it! I enjoy each of the ornaments, and how they each have a special meaning. Even with all the beautiful trees in our home, this one is still my favorite. I love how many special memories it holds.

Diplomatic Decision

We love encouraging our kiddos to be involved in family decisions. I think that it is important to teach them that they have a voice and encourage them to use it. With that said. Every year I have this ~~goal~~ challenge not to turn our heat on until November 1st. We live in the Mid West and often that goal is long after when the weather has turned cold. We spend evenings bundled under blankets and during the day wearing “millions” of layers to stay warm. Yes, sounds terrible right, well I love a challenge and really enjoy striving to meet goals. As for my family, well they sometimes question my sanity. They are pretty easy going and often can be talked into my crazy schemes.

This year we got lucky, the weather was pretty mild through mid October. Oct 21st (I know that was a while ago, but I am playing catch-up remember) we spent a weekend at the north shore enjoying hiking and playing with good friends. The cabin that we stayed at was wonderful and had a cozy fireplace in every nook and cranny. I don’t think that there could be anything better for a girl that is heat deprived than the cozy warmth of a wood fire burning stove! Love it!

Well, I think that we all got a little too cozy and “soft” during our weekend away. The moment we got home, there was a noticeable chill in the air. We were all wishing to be snuggled up next to a roaring fire. Chuck took this to be a great time to teach the kids a little social studies lesson about voting. After a quick explanation about how the United States voting system works, we set up our own voting pole. In order to vote you had to give both a positive and a negative argument for turning the heat on. It was cute to listen to the kids reasoning. Once the “debate” was finished, we were all armed with a secret ballet that simply stated…

The kids LOVED having a voice. Once the all ballets were turned in, it was quickly discovered that there was no reason for a recount. Four votes for turning the heat on and one vote for waiting a bit longer (guess who that was).

Not long after the vote, our house was all cozy warm. Nothing like turning a freezing moment into a teaching moment.

Wii Birthday Party

My sweet boy is 9! Birthdays are a BIG deal in our house. I love to make the kids feel special by transforming our home into a magical space, baking the perfect cake and spending countless hours creating a fun party. However, my caring 9 year old informed me that I did not need to go to a lot of work this year. He would be OK with just a few small decorations and just playing Wii with his friends. Really has this day come already…I don’t need to spend hours creating and playing (something that I LOVE doing) getting ready for the party? Kaleb is so sweet and thoughtful, although I am slightly morning the fact that he is growing up. I love him to pieces, and I pray that he will always be caring, sensitive of other peoples needs!

My Dad and Kaleb share the same birth date of Sept 27th. They like to tease that they are twins. It was super special that my parents were able to drive 21 hours just for Kaleb’s party! Kaleb was so thankful to have them there. I know that they wish they could visit more often, but we cherish the moments that we can steal together. Thanks for making his party extra special.

As per Kaleb’s request, the party decor was very minimal. I made a number of Wii Mii’s and placed them around the house. They looked super cute, and they did not cost me anything! Love that!

I also found a great post somewhere about making Boo Balloons , but I can’t remember where it was so I can link back. Bummer. Kaleb LOVED the balloons.

My mom made Kaleb’s Wii remote birthday cakes. She also made a couple of personal sized Wii Remotes. The cakes looked great and Kaleb thought they were perfect!

Kaleb invited 16 friends. Since all he wanted to do was play Wii and eat cake with his friends, it was a really simple party. Our house does not play video games very often so I didn’t mind dedicating 2 hours to straight video game play.

We set up a projector and 3 large TV’s all connected to different Wii’s (which we borrowed from friends). This allowed all the kids to have a spot to play and they rotated between the games throughout the party. We even had one of the TV’s set up in the kitchen to make enough room for all the friends to play. The party was a big hit with all the kids! Happy 9th Birthday Kaleb, we love you!

Fall Marble Painting

Marble Painting ~ Fall art project for kids.

Marble Painting in a container, is one of our favorite non-messy painting projects. All the mess is contained in the oatmeal container and it is so easy to set up. The best part is, even the littlest hands can shake or roll the container easily. We used this simple technique at one of the art station at our Art Party and it was a HUGE hit.

We love using old oatmeal containers since they are tall enough to fit a full sheet of paper. Any lidded container will work, you just may need to cut your paper to fit.

I Love how pretty the inside of the container looks. Sometimes it is the simplest things that make me happy!

Fall Leaf Marble Painting

We cut our paper into the shape of an oak leaf. I drew this one free hand, but you can also just do an image search for printable fall leaves. The process is so simple. Place the leaf shaped paper into the container, add a few paint covered marble, secure the lid and shake. In the past we have also used acorns that we gathered at the park, instead of marbles.

Marble painted Turkey Craft

We used the same process to marble paint this sweet little turkey. Although this time we trace the kids hands onto a sheet of paper that we had marble painted earlier. Each of the hand prints that you cut out represents the feathers. A simple Thanksgiving craft that only took a few moments to create. Happy Thanksgiving!

For more ideas check out the other Marble Painting projects we have done. I think that the marble painted Spider is my favorite.

Rotten Apple Baseball

Our family loves fall and all the fun traditions that it brings. One of our kids favorite traditions, is spending time wandering around apple orchards. There is something special about strolling through rows of apple trees and bringing home fresh apples that you picked. We often go again to the orchard in late fall just after most of the apples are picked and there are piles of rotten apples on the ground. Perfect for playing rotten apple baseball.

OK, so I cheated with this picture. It was taken at the pumpkin patch just down the road from one of our favorite orchards, but the kiddos looked so cute I could not resist 🙂

OK, back to the game my kids love…Rotten Apple Baseball. This game might not be for everyone, but it is one of my kids favorite activities in late fall. Set up is simple. All you need is a stick, a pile of rotting apples, an easy going pitcher that does not mind being splattered with flying apple pieces and empty back corner of the orchard away from unsuspecting guests.