Countdown to Christmas Day 10 & 11

Day 10

The girls had a blast. The first time around the ice with them was difficult to say the least but after that we got better each time, towards the end both Kate and Sara were trying all by themselves. Eric doesn't skate due to the fact that he has no feeling in one of his feet and so I would go around the ice with one of the girls and switch them out each time I passed Eric, it actually worked out pretty good and the girls are excited to go again.

Day 11

Kate was not excited at all about this activity but it turned out to be really good. These are the Utah Valley Handbell Ringers and this is part of their Holiday Concert Series. They were amazing and its all volunteer and so is free, all I had to do was go and pick up tickets a few weeks ago. Their performance was at the Springville Art Museum and they do quite a few concerts over the Christmas season. My pictures didn't turn out great and below is a video of them playing Sleigh ride with a short cameo of Sara, the video of them from the front is a traditional French Carol called Sing We Now of Christmas, my video's don't quite do them justice it was much better in person. My favorite was the Carol of the Bells that they played at the beginning. Afterwards I asked the girls if they liked it and Kate said "sort of I got a little tired" and Sara said "yeah, all you gotta do is listen". Q - which was your favorite? A - Kate "the last song" Sara "me too" Q - would you like to go and do that again? A - Kate "maybe I would" Sara "yeah". Tonight for prayers Kate thanked Heavenly Father that they could see the bell ringers so I think she did actually like it.

Countdown to Christmas Day 9

Last night I made the examples of two cards for the girls to copy, courtesy of pinterest, I had in mind to have a few different ones they could try but realised late last night that simpler would be better. Also a good craft because you can use up a lot of scraps of paper and ribbon.

The girls crafting away, and yes we are very messy crafters.

The finished products, I think they turned out awesome.

Countdown to Christmas Day 8

This activity was easy and fun, I got the idea here, I especially liked it because it gives me a keepsake for my tree and the grandparents.

Paint hand and then place ornament in painted hand. Grab the ornament, I found that I had to help kind of press their little fingers down so the whole print went on and not just the fingertips.

Decorate, I was being cheap and didn't want to splurge on colored sharpie markers, I have some scrap booking markers lying around but honestly I say splurge because Sara wanted colorful hats and the scrapbook markers didn't really show. BTW does Kate look tired or what? she kind of had a meltdown doing her homework, glad she had the craft to look forward to.

And voila, there you have it, cute tree decorations.

Countdown to Christmas Day 7

Tonight I needed an easy one as I was at the Temple doing baptisms with the youth and this fit the bill perfectly. I used this cute template found here, Kate opted for just a blank sheet of paper. Kate is asking for a 'romote control helecopter' and Sara would most like "a squeeze a burp, because, it macs a jint burp' (it makes a giant burp) and if you don't get where that is from it is courtesy of Junie B Jones, she would also like 'a rapunzl borbey, stor for our trey and a unicorn toy' I love the way kids write their words when they are just learning, I also love that Kate only has one thing on her list.

Christmas countdown day 6

There are so many things you can do with flowerpots.

Countdown to Christmas Day 5

The girls were super excited for this, always feels more Christmassy once the tree is up. Honestly though, we need to invest in some more decorations, it needs to be a little more put together. Maybe next year, for now it works and the girls had fun putting on it what we have.

Christmas countdown day 4

I redeemed myself with this one, the girls had lots of fun crafting.