Jingle (Our Elf on a Shelf)

I know everyone has there own ideas for the holidays and I actually worry far to much what others think about our ideas for the holidays. I am nervous about letting the children wear "Santa" hats to the nursing home to sing or should I buy a Christmas tee with reindeer or stick with candy canes. As silly as it is for Christians to judge each other by the Christmas decorations in ones house or the sugar cookies they bake...it happens people!
So I say all that to say YES Santa leaves unwrapped gifts under our tree on Christmas and guess what ::gasp:: we have Jingle the elf on a shelf that reports back to him!
I am new to this tradition saw it on Pinterest and loved the idea!...so here were are 12 years into marriage and 5 kids later and we are starting a new tradition!! Do I threaten the children that Santa is watching them so they better be good...No its kinda creepy...we are good because we are to obey...do they really think this goofy elf makes his way to the North Pole every night...NO (not even Lincoln).
So why are we doing it? Because it is FUN! I have fun finding things for Jingle to do and the kids have a blast finding him each morning! The kiddos race around to be the first to spot him, as he gets caught in some crazy activities!!
So when its all said and done our kiddos KNOW why we celebrate Christmas, the birth of our SAVIOR! AND i hope they take with them many memories made with mommy, daddy and siblings as we have fun during the holidays.
Here are some of Jingles escapades!
Making Snow angels in the rice!

Playing in my jewelry.

On a date with Barbies friend...in Barbies car!

Aghhh Pauls dinosaur was hungry!

Moments to Remember

As homeschoolers we do lots of "real schoolwork", pen to paper kinda stuff but when its all said and done I want to remember these kinda moments! It is a never ending 60hour a week kinda job to choose to homeschool and these type of moments are the best payment would could ask for!

Here is Maddie at 8 years old has taken up a passion for sewing! You can usally find her here by about 11am once her "book work" is complete. She set up at a craft show and sold items but best of all has been able to make homemade gifts for her family for Christmas! Carson curled up in bed with his reading. (he returned to the classroom and said "Whoa that was a great story!".

Maddie and Annie caccooned in the corner with their Latin, singing the Latin songs too!

Here is the view from behind the girls as they worked!

Carson is SO good about engaging the little ones throughout our morning. This was fun play with Lincolns counters!

This has become a morning routine. For Maddie and Annie to lead our morning/circle time. They are so empowered as leaders and they have much better singing voices than I do!!

The laundry room/mud room/office!

I could look at pictures for hours online drooling over the endless designs and ways to organize the multitudes of STUFF that enters the door (church papers, scout papers.. )the STUFF that needs to leave through the door(ballbags, paperwork, church bags). Here is an in progress picture of the room. The color is Inch Worm (don't ya love that color name?!) We have 5 cubbies and in the bottom right corner you can see a very simple desk (I SO hope this helps all the paper clutter from entering the house!) Under the window is a bench with more storage and of course the pesky washer & dryer! More pics will follow...

The Girls Grape-alicous bathroom!

The girls chose Grape Jelly for their bathroom color! It does kinda make your mouth water! Mommy chose the Ella chandeliers from Pottery Barn Kids. The vanity is white, the floor is white and the fixtures so the dark paint and lights kinda pop!

The girls room...

My girls have very different personalities and I was wanting to stay away from a "themey" room. Also neither of my girls like pink, and Maddies last room was lavender so finding a color scheme was tricky too! So after hours of searching I decided that "shabby chic/whimsical/retro-ish" was our style! We chose a robins egg blue and it is PERFECT! The room is a basic rectangle with a little nook. I keep thinking of all the possibilities of the little nook...a reading nook, a Barbie nook, one day a make-up vanity nook!! For the main space I chose the Mia chandelier from Pottery Barn Kids and for the nook I chose a mini-chandelier from Restoration Hardware that must have been discontinued. They look beautiful!

Here are a few pictures that I have kept as inspiration for the girls room. I have convinced the girls to let me at least paint a dresser this beautiful pink! Maddie has taken up sewing too so we have a few projects that she wants to make for the room too, like a fabric pennant.

I will be sure to post pics of the after as soon as i can!

The New Schoolroom

These first pics are just a few of the pictures I have been collecting in my "schoolroom inspiration file". Here is a great fun alternative to the traditonal bulletin board. Love the small panel of chalkboard paint. Love the stripes. Love the lights (I found some very similar from Restoration Hardware.) Love the idea of a couch for a great reading area in the schoolroom!

Love this fun whimsical way of displaying the ABC's!

I love these globes! I am collecting globes to do something similar (so I will take hand me down globes if you are clearing out!). I also love the desks!!

This is a TOO cute writing center for the kiddos...the cuteness speaks for itself !! Right?!

This room is in the color scheme that we are doing (that orange desk is the wall color!)

Love the jars of crayons, the orange piece, the table, love it all!

Here is my room a few months ago...

Below is the room currently. So we went with Creamsicle paint and I LOVE IT! The floor is laminate and is much cheaper version of the wood in the rest of the house (Love a way to save money!) The lights are from my favorite store Restoration Hardware! So here is the room currently! Now on to figure out how set the room up for our first day of school!

New Years Eve!

Let me start with a disclosure! I CANNOT get more than 5 pics uploaded per post on blogspot?!? Sometimes I canot even get 5 loaded?!
So I am bummed because I had to narrow down the pics to....well...FIVE!!!

So on to New Years! We have been out of the "get invited" to a party loop for quite a bit now. Somehow once you have a handful(no pun intended) of children the invites sorta drop off! So the last couple of years we have just stayed home. Last year we mostly watched movies but that was kinda BORING! There is just no interaction with each other. So for a few years I have wanted to use this cutey patootie idea from my sweet friend Marcy, and it just never happened.
So this year I was determined to make memories with the kiddos...(okay there was a little prideful push by Maddie who exclaimed with dissapointment, "it's NOT a party of no one else is coming!!!!!") I was determined to please the littles and of course daddy with my little surprises!!

So each hour there is a cute little poem in a bag filled with anything related to that hour.
I drew a clock on each bag from 5pm to 12midnight! Each hour we opened a new bag and did the activity inside. Beware the night went SO fast! The kids have never watched a clock as much! And in between hours in the down time we danced it out to Wii Just Dance (yes i did hold the record for the night!!!)Oh and I also still hold the family record for Perfection!!just sayin!


5pm (filled with horns, hats, and leis) So we dressed up like crazy people and they blew their horns until I made a steadfast rule of NO horn blowing because it was bad luck!
"It's time to start the party
Count down to the new year
We'll open one bag each hour
Until 2011 is here!"

6pm (Inside the bag was Brownie mix and we made homemade icing for them. Paul and Carson do not like sweets so they wanted chips and cheese!!)
"I think it's time to have a treat
Beware its gonna be very sweet!
For my big boys I'm sure this won't please
But don't worry there's always chips and cheese!
7pm (Inside was the cube version of Pictureka. As a sidenote we LOVE Pictureka! We have 3 different versions and it is a game all of us can play together!!)
"We must be careful and not let this party get lame
I think it's time to play a game!
No more time in front of the tube
Its time to find the picture on the cube!"

8pm (this is where we ate all of the appetizers and snacks we bought for the party!)

"2010 will soon be gone.

In will come 2011

Let's eat some treats and have some fun

This is gonna be heaven!"

9pm (filled with Yahtzee game)

"The time has come to play a game

Can you guess which one?

Roll the dice, score a full house

Score the highest and you've won!"

(FYI Cam was the winner of all! Scoring 2 Yahtzees!!!)

10pm (we recently had our old movies put on DVD and we had never watched them. This was the best part of our night! The kids have not stopped talking about them and it was SO much better than watching a rental movie!!!)

"It's time to laugh a little, remember a little

And popcorn too!

Some old home movies

Will have to do!"

11pm (hot chocolate was in the bags, however we were all too full to eat anything else!)

"I know you are getting sleepy

Only 1 more hour 'til a new date!

So lets have some hot chocolate

While for 2011 we wait!"

12pm (I was actually going to let them all have a sip of Mt. Dew but they were so busy kissing, hugging and BLOWING horns that they never even asked about the drink!They did enjoy opening the door and blowing the horns for the neighbors! How cool is it that mamaw & papaw live across the street and they heard the racket and opened their door...which increased the horn blowing!! The neighborhood also had quite the firework display they kids watched from the front door. Oh and we only had 4 that lasted until midnight...Annie went to asleep about 10 minutes before!!)

"It's time to say good-bye to '10

watching the ball drop will be revin'!

A hug, a kiss and a sweet drink for the toast

Happy New Year, its 2011!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(Notice Maddie's face because of the people kissing in town square!)

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2011!!!!!!!!!!!