25 Days of Christmas

When I was growing up, my grandmother would always get us a chocolate advent calendar to count down to Christmas. While I still love chocolate, I went with this advent calendar instead from Garnet Hill:


Instead of chocolate or tiny gifts, I decided to have 25 days of doing Christmas-y things together as a family to celebrate all month long. I brainstormed holiday activities, added events from the community, and stole some ideas from here. This morning I explained the advent calendar to Emma and she chose our first activity:


Stay tuned to follow our adventures.
PS. to our local friends: feel free to join us!

Maddie Sits

I think Madeline is a little late to this milestone--probably because every time I'd try to prop her up she flopped herself down on her tummy so she could crawl. :) But she has the hang of it now.

Maddie Crawls

She's not up on all fours, but she definitely gets where she needs to go.

Maddie Speaks

German, apparently.

Maddie Eats

As the second child, poor Madeline sometimes gets the shaft on the blog. I record her milestones, I take pictures and videos, but sometimes it takes a while for said pictures and videos to get uploaded to the computer and then published. So.... Welcome to Maddie Week! Wherein we will catch up on all of the things our busy little girl has been doing lately. Way back during the first weekend in October, we started Madeline on solids. Getting ready for the big moment: > She immediately took to the rice cereal and gobbled it up like a champ:

Emma's Birthday: The Details

I started researching birthday party ideas about 2 months before the actual event. I chose ladybugs because it was cute, classic, non-commercial, and there was a clear color scheme to tie everything together. I had a lot of fun putting together the details and decorative touches.








Things to remember:
*I gave prizes (to everyone) after each game, which each child put into a bag that became the "goody" bag. I thought it was a great idea, and it might be for older children, but three-year-olds can't keep track of their own bags. Plus they had so much fun playing the games that it didn't really matter about prizes. Next time I would keep all prizes for the end.
*Loved these tissue paper pom-poms from Martha. They could work at almost any kind of party.
*Party games! We played classics that I remembered from the backyard birthday parties my mom used to throw for us. Frankly, I could probably play a version of the same games for the next 6 or 7 years.
*I kept a party notebook for ideas and kept internet links on xerpi. I am going to keep that notebook to replicate ideas for future parties.
*I made a schedule for the party and posted it in the kitchen to help myself remember everything in the midst of the controlled chaos. You need to keep toddlers moving!

Emma's 3rd Birthday

For Emma's 3rd birthday we had a ladybug party. You might think that with Emma's Halloween costume, she has a thing for ladybugs. Rather, she has an enthusiasm for life, and when I suggested ladybugs as a theme because I thought it would be cute, she responded with a resounding "Yeah!" We invited over several girls from church for our adventures.

Group shot Pin the spot on the ladybug Throwing beanbags on the leaf Playing Musical Spots Ladybug Pinata Collecting the loot from the pinata


It was a great party, and we all had a lot of fun, even Maddie! Though after it was over I spent the evening with my feet up. :)