Riot and Frolic

Holiday Cheer : Day 20

Advent Adventures

 

Day 20 : decorate "trees".

Confession: I am a holiday bargain hunter.  I pick out the majority of my birthday/summertime/Christmas/Easter goodies and then wait until after the holiday to pick them up for 90% off.  

All my twinkle lights? $1.94.  Score.

Last year, I snatched some little kid craft kits for 70 cents and  I AM THE SMARTEST.

We've been doing a lot of cosmetic work on our soon-to-be dance studio, so it's been a handful to MAKE CHRISTMAS MEMORIES and PAINT ALL THE THINGS.  But I unfurled this neat kit with foam pieces and they were happily making fancy trees for hours.

Strangely, Zoo was most amused by them.  She enjoyed taking the paper off the sticky backing for the smallest pieces.  

Easy clean-up, hours of fun. CHRISTMAS MEMORIES!!!!!!!1!!!!one

One year ago: Resolutions, in which I have resolve.

Holiday Cheer : Day 19

Advent Adventures

Day 19 : Go to the zoo.

"Go to the zoo."

That's what the card said.

V opened the bag to reveal the day's activity...

And read it.

Yay, V!

GO TO THE ZOO!

Como Zoo has a great Thursday morning kids' program: it's free, it's educational, and it's not annoying.  

There's one room with different stations of activities that your little ones can check out at their own pace: flash cards, matching games, memory games, fine motor skill play, puppets, art supplies: all focused on the theme of the week.  

This week was "Animals in Winter".

 

The conservatory gardens are open, so you can get a dose of heat and humidity, or just check out the sloth, or take bad family photos.

Things I liked about today's shindig: READING and HEAT.

Do you have a favorite local zoo?  What's your favorite animal to see or thing to do?  Doesn't this totally tie in with the stable and the manger and all that?  I KNOW, RIGHT?!

Holiday Cheer : Day 17 & 18

Advent Adventures

Day 17 : make your sister's bed.

Lame, right? 

WRONG.  The little ladies thought this was HILARIOUS. 

The Advent story was about Joseph trying to find a spot to stay in Bethlehem, so our story was Joseph and Mary were coming to stay at our house.  I got them to clean the bathroom for the occasion, too.

Winning!

Day 18 : watch The Nutcracker ballet.

Does anyone else find this story totally creepy?  Maybe I'm not educated enough to get the nuances or metaphors or something, but Papa Drosselmeyer gives me the heebie-jeebies, Clara seems overly fragile, and the ballet itself does nothing dancey-wise for me.  

Nonetheless, we watched it.  And then the girls pranced up the stairs for bedtime.

What's your favorite Christmas movie?  

One year ago: A Year in Pictures, in which I showcase my family un-photogenic-ness.

Holiday Cheer : Day 16

Advent Adventures

Day 16 : give toys away.

There's a bunch of ideas on Pinterest about "Santa sacks", where your kids fill up a bag of out-grown and/or under-used toys to leave for Santa under the tree.  Since the little ladies are well acquainted with Goodwill and the idea behind it, we just gathered up toys that were "not our favorites anymore", in V's words. 

I was surprised what they were willing to part with and how many toys we ending up donating.  They were excited at the prospect of other kids getting to play with toys that "might suit them better than us".

All very heartwarming.  Like this.  And this.

 

 

One year ago: Bacon, in which I speak of heaven.

Holiday Cheer : Day 15

Advent Adventures

Day 15 : candy hunt.

The story of the day in ye olde Advent book was "The Search", where the three wise men were a-lookin' for the new king.  

In my usual way, I loooooosely used that for the basis of today's activity.

Also as usual, I found it very important that I have fun doing The Thing.  And guess what?  Hiding candy?  FUN.

hint: that's not actually a candle

 

totally camouflaged by matching tractor

 

sneaky twix bar

 

so damn shiny, it might as well be an ornament

 

a gimme

 

OF COURSE we hide candy in the bar

Mae Cake FTW

 

Why don't we do more "hunts"?  Easter can't get all the fun!