Someone Should Have Warned Me!

So, I am using my lovely Expedition Earth curriculum and studying the country of Germany. Everything is going splendid, if I do say so myself. The children are enjoying it, I am enjoying it. We are learning some Geography but also getting to make this time of year special for Christmas. We have a lot of books, songs, and activities to do each day that help us to think about what time of year it is. We get to think about the history of this holiday, how it is now, and the true meaning behind it all.

You can find the expedition earth curriculum here:
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When I was a kid we made nativity cookies every year at Christmas time and last year I had purchased some nativity cookie cutters so that I could carry this tradition on with my own children. You can find the cookie cutters I bought on Amazon.com




So we have these nativity cookie cutters, we have traditional cookie cutters. We are looking in our Expedition Earth curriculum of Germany, and it says to make gingerbread ornaments. We decide this is a fantastic idea! We can make nativity ornaments even! What a fun, festive, cute little craft!  We printed the directions. I expected a little bit of trouble because my mixer was broken and it is made of things like molasses.

Needless to say, my arm hurt. Now comes the funny part. That recipe makes like 8 majillion ornaments! I just kept rolling out dough and the kids kept cutting and I would put it in the oven and there would still be more! It felt never ending! I was starting to think it was some Christmas miracle like the widow who's jar never got empty, except with a tiring craft! I only have 2 kids and one of them is only 3 so while this is awesome for those of you out there with a lot of kids, it was way too much work for little old me to be doing with only my 8 year old participating.

Here is the box of ornaments we had when we were done baking them:

Here is the dough still left in the fridge because I got tired, ran out of pans and energy, and the kids eventually lost interest in cutting them out:

Will we get to it? Who knows! It was a super fun craft! We just have such a small little family...After our ornaments set for a couple of days to finish hardening (during which time I constantly warned all house guests not to try the "cookies") we finally go to the fun part this morning! Painting! Cute pictures start now!

They really loved the painting! Alex kept sticking out his tongue to help him concentrate but every time I tried to take a picture he would stop. It was frustrating me! Bella takes such time and puts such thought into her ornaments, Alex paints them the favorite color of whomever he intends to give them to. (I am getting a bunch of green ornaments, his Aunt Megan, purple). I had to guide Alex to another activity eventually so that he wouldn't rush through painting them all and leave none for his sister to paint. So now we have tons of gingerbread ornaments. If you are reading this and are related to me, guess what my kids got you for Christmas this year? :D

Blogs Are Addictive, Which is Why I Can't Maintain One.

I have not been posting lately, which is crazy because we have done plenty of interesting stuff since my last post! We are doing crafts and activities almost every single day because of the holidays, plus I have become super addicted to quite a few blogs. I just love all of the creative, fun, free ideas that are out there! In fact, I feel all of those addictive blogs are partially to blame for my not posting. I can't quit perusing other people's long enough to post in my own!

In the past couple of weeks I have had quite a few adventures. I am in a walking boot now, and start physical therapy on Tuesday. This has slowed me down a little, but mostly just from shopping and laundry. It doesn't affect making crafts much so boo-yah bad foot!

My mixer broke while making cupcakes for co-op on Thursday, and I forgot lots of the supplies, but I am the queen of improvisation. Using only coffee beans, my class and i still managed to create these cute Panda cupcakes:

After that, the kids and I covered Thanksgiving. We made lots of lovely crafts that I got from the Craft Lady's blog, which you can find here: Craft Lady

The kids loved these crafts a lot, but the Turkey bags were their favorite. That was probably my favorite, too. I didn't think to use my scrapbook paper-cutter to make the squares for the corn until halfway through when my hand started cramping up from cutting so many things out with scissors. It was a lot of cutting!

We also read a new book called Thank You, Sarah.

This book is about the woman who wrote the song "Mary Had a Little Lamb." Apparently the same woman is responsible for why our country all celebrates Thanksgiving together. She wrote thousands of letters to 5 different presidents before 1 finally agreed to make Thanksgiving a national holiday. It was very interesting, fun for kids, and something that even I had never learned before!

Other things that happened this week is that Alex learned to read and write his name:

Bella made a picture entitled "Rainbow Valley" using crayons and tempra paint that she is very proud of  and that I immediately matted and hung on our kitchen wall:

The last thing that happened this week is I purchased the Expedition Earth curriculum. I am very excited to start it! I got a lot of the books to go with it from the library, but I had to purchase a couple of them. We are starting with the Christmas Around the World unit since it is so close to Christmas, and our first country is Germany. Last night we made felt gingerbread men cookies. The tutorial came from the same blog as the Expedition Earth curriculum, which can be found here:

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Honestly, this is probably my most favorite blog. It is where I get a lot of my ideas right now and I just can't get enough of it. I am on their every day, sometimes several times a day. I would like to do 12 hour school days just to fit in all the fun ideas this lady has! She is great!

So, as you can see, it has been busy around here! All the crafts were actually done this week, and we are already gearing up to do more. I was up until 1 am last night trying to plan out when to do all of the fun things I have found. Of course, I was also watching a special about Prince William's wedding, but that is besides the point. Silly television distracting me with gorgeous royal weddings and sparkly tiaras. Tonight we are going to a craft swap where I will get to see some friends I haven't seen in a while, make some new ones, and hopefully come back with even more inspiration! I love the holidays!