December 2012

December is a busy month with Christmas and the boys' birthdays.  This December is the first in three years with snow.  Christmas just feels more like Christmas when it is winter.  We took advantage of the winter weather by sledding, building snowmen, having snowball fights, and seeing the Christmas lights.

 

The experiment!  Justin wanted to put marbles and some other things into water tinted with food coloring to see what would change color and what wouldn't.

We read a little about Hanukkah and played dreidel.  I had the boys make tally marks to show how the dreidel landed and then we graphed our results.

We went to the CdA resort to have their famous gooey desserts and to see the Christmas lights in the downtown area.


 

The boys have really enjoyed building different marble runs.

We made "gingerbread" houses out of graham crackers, frosting, and candy.  Ryan ate more candy that he used on his house.

We decorated Christmas trees.  The boys really like the peel and stick foam stickers.  Basically the more they peel and stick, the better.

Sledding on Cherry Hill!  I can't believe I let Ryan go down alone.

Play doh!  Grandma doesn't mind the clean up as much as I do.  I swear they somehow get it all over.

Our snowman.

Snow angels.

Down the hill in the yard.  Not as big as Cherry Hill, but still fun.

My baby turned four.  I can't believe it.

My big boy turned 6. :)

December Activities

Christmas theme bracelets from Oriental Trading Company foam beads and bells. Big holes make stringing them easy.

Justin hard at work creating the perfect bracelet.

We used scraps of green paper to make the tree and then glued foam beads on for decoration.

We read multiple versions of the story of "The Gingerbread Man" and talked about how they are similar and how they differ.  We enjoyed some of the more unique versions such as "Gingerbread Cowboy."

Working on our gingerbread.  I noticed that most of the frosting and toppings seemed to be eaten and the gingerbread looked a bit bare.



See how pathetic the poor gingerbread men turned out.



We went to a friend's birthday party and the theme was Elmo.  These were the party hats.  Aren't they adorable?  So simple too!

   

Pin (okay, tape) the mustache on the Justin. :)



 

Justin celebrated his fifth birthday.



Ryan celebrated his third birthday.



Ryan wanted a Chicka Chicka Boom Boom theme.  These party hats were a bit much, but probably fun for a kindergarten class to make.

 



Justin wanted to make his own kind of reindeer without using my pattern.  I think it is adrorable.



Ryan followed my sample and made a reindeer puppet.



December 6, 2010

Justin (and therefore Ryan) have been really into drawing and coloring lately.  The papers are quickly forgotten and soon after disposed of in the trash.  They haven't been anything special in my eyes or the boys', so out they go!

Our "school" has become very loose and flexible  We have been playing a lot with legos, blocks, and Thomas trains.  We have been busy outside with the water table, dinosaurs, bubbles, and chalk.  Rob put in some grass and the boys are loving it.

Soon we should have some Christmas projects to post.  Going through my school stuff I found that I had more Kwanzaa and Hanukkah stuff than Christmas stuff.  Oops!  Fine to have a balance in school, but I think we will stick to Christmas crafts this year since we don't have any friends here who celebrate Kwanzaa or Hanukkah.

Ornaments from Michael's Crafts that Justin colored.

Christmas story with the Fisher Price nativity set.  Looks like Mary is missing again.  Sigh.

This advent calendar has a scripture to read and an activity (ie, show your brother you care by sharing) for each day in December.

Extend the Christmas pattern with foam beads from Oriental Trading Company.

Justin likes to help me wrap presents and then give Ryan hints about what he will be receiving for Christmas.  Ryan is oblivious.

Some of the books we have been reading.

More books.  Ryan has been into Chicka Chicka Boom Boom so we tried Chicka Chicka 123.  Not as big of a hit for him, but Justin is amused.

Chasing bubbles from the bubble train and drawing with chalk in the shade.

Running through the sprinkler on our new grass. :)

Following directions to decorate the tree.  Justin complained that I started too many sentences with "glue".