Advent Countdown

We have been busy with our Advent countdowns.

We delivered food to the SPCA for the cats,

wrote a thankful list,

went to a magic show, which the kids loved.

 Here the kids are getting ready for another activity.

This day we read the story of the angel visiting Mary.

The kids snuggled down in some blankets, 

we had the Christmas lights plugged in on the tree

the room was dim (I just couldn't figure out how to take the picture to show that)

and we read the story

then sang some Christmas songs

The kids loved it

and we had fun!

To update you on the bird food craft,

I used peanut butter to get the seeds to stick

I forgot to mention that step!

It took the birds a day to figure out they were hanging in the tree

I was nervous how they would stay with the rain we had

but they were fantastic

they held up well

now they are empty so I've just been spreading the seed on our trampoline

we have a number of birds now so I didn't want to disappoint them

I really enjoy watching them each day

Menu Plan Monday

Ugh, I'm still full from yesterday.

I had my immediate family Christmas

and we had a good time.

My kids are busy playing with their new toys

It's wonderful!

MONDAY

BBQ Meatballs

Rice

Salad

TUESDAY

Left over Roast

Potatoes

Salad

WEDNESDAY

The mystery meal from last week

we never go to it this last week

Salad

THURSDAY

BBQ Chicken

BBQ Potatoes

Salad

FRIDAY

Black Bean Soup from the freezer

Cut Veggies

SATURDAY

I am possibly having my husband's family for dinner

for our Christmas

Turkey

Potatoes

Salad

SUNDAY *CHRISTMAS*

My extended family christmas

I have to bring buns

Have a fantastic Christmas!

For more menu planning ideas

be sure to check out

The Organizing Junkie

Advent Countdown

 We've had a some more fun things going on with our Advent countdown.  

I actually got this idea from Printerest.  

The kids loved it.

I saved some cardboard tubes.  

Filled some paper plates with bird seed.

Attached some string to the cardboard tubes so they could hang from the trees

 We rolled the tubes on the paper plates, making sure they were nice and covered with the bird seed,

then we hung them from a tree out our window so we could watch

today the birds discovered them and enjoyed.

The kids really enjoyed this craft.  

It was a mess to do.

Next time I would use a deep cake pan for the tubes instead of plates

and make sure the tubes stay in the cake pan as you transport them outside.

Even with the mess, this was really very fun to do with the kids.

 Some other things we have done,

ordered a pizza and ate dinner around the Christmas Tree

and we put up some lights on the house.

We don't normally do outdoor lights

but this little string is for the kids to enjoy

and they enjoy it they do!

Menu Plan Monday

On to a new week...

MONDAY

Baked Potato soup

Cut Veggies

TUESDAY

Chicken Tetrrezini

cut veggies

WEDNESDAY

Spaghetti

Salad

THURSDAY

Mystery Meal from the freezer

we are not sure what it is....

Salad

FRIDAY

Dad's Chili

Cut veggies

SATURDAY

Hubby's work dinner

Kids will have eggs

SUNDAY

My family Christmas

As always be sure to check out

The Organizing Junkie

for many more menu ideas

Fun Advent Countdown

This one was fun, the kids LOVED it.

I wasn't sure how it would go over

before we could find out what

our countdown task was today

we had a little repair work to do

from an over eager girly

who found a pair of scissors

with that done

we discovered our advent countdown task

was to dance around to Christmas music

my ketchup faced boy was excited

I discovered I didn't have any dance worthy Christmas music

so we put in some Santana and had a riot

Not only dancing

but some floor swimming

some flying lifts

 some more crazy dancing with Daddy

 and of course

no dance session is complete

without the floor sweeping part

and Daddy found a way

to sweep with two kids at once

 and here is our left leaning tree

the kids are totally enjoying the tree

and therefore I enjoy it also

Giving Advent Countdown

One of our giving tasks for the Advent countdown was to also give a little gift to people who do things for us and are often over looked.

We wrapped up some chocolates, wrote a little note and bible verse 

.......and waited

and goofed around

and waited some more in the cold,

we didn't want to miss him,

he only comes every two weeks,

not every week like in most places

finally he arrived, our 'garbage man'

we saw the curious look on his as he rounded the corner

then a great big smile as we presented our gifts

the dog was just as excited

so the kids had to get around the dog to give their gifts

it was super fun to see his surprise and thankfulness

we are having a lot of fun with our countdown

Sorta Wordless Wednesday - look what I found

Someone quietly got out of bed and found someplace else to sleep, unknown to me.

I don't know how long she was here sleeping.

I can't say it looks comfy, but she was totally out.

Advent Countdown

My kids are excited each morning to cut their advent chain and see what it says for the day.  So far we did snowflakes, made cookies, put up the Christmas tree and yesterday we visited our favorite place to get groceries.

We headed out to Neufeld's, where I do most of my shopping.  A local meat and produce store just down the road from me.  I love shopping there for the quality and they support local products as much as they can, but also for the wonderful staff who always greet me with a smile and remember my name.  They always take the time to stop and see how my family is doing.  

So to say thank you for such a wonderful place to shop we stopped in and delivered some goodies.

It was so fun to see the surprise on their faces and the joy to see our kids bring them their gifts.  My kids were so cute about delivering the snacks.

Neufeld's at Christmas time also has a treat for their customers, they have cookies and hot apple cider.  My kids gladly partook in the yummy treats.

We grabbed a few groceries while were there of course.  It finished my shopping for the week.

We headed home.  It was pretty chilly out, but my kids still had fun doing some jumping on the trampoline.

Our advent countdown is turning out to be a lot of fun!

Menu Plan Monday

Last week I didn't stick to great to my menu plan,

So I've carried over some of the things from last week

MONDAY

Ham Steaks

Brown Rice

Salad

TUESDAY

Chicken Fajitas

Mexican Rice

home made Re fried Beans

WEDNESDAY (meatless)

Spaghetti Squash

Roast Veggie

Homemade Tomato Sauce (from the freezer)

Salad

THURSDAY

Garlic Lime Chicken

Roasted Potatoes

Salad

FRIDAY

Chicken Tetrizzini (from freezer)

Salad

SATURDAY

Mexican Turkey Chili

cut veggies

SUNDAY

left overs

or simple dinner

Nothing to exciting this week

for more menu planning ideas and inspiration

be sure to check out The Organizing Junkie

Christmas countdown

This year I decided to try an advent calendar for the kids.  

However, we don't celebrate santa and we don't pretend about santa. 

Christmas for us is about Christ's birth.  That is what we celebrate.  

I'm one of those mom's who does not like to give my kids candy or small toys.  So I was at a bit of a loss, I posted a plea on facebook.  My friends came thru and gave me great suggestions.

I decided to make the advent calendar easy and easily doable.  These had to be things that I could do with the kids that didn't cost to much money and did not focus on 'getting'

I made two paperchains,

 my kids, I knew would not share

My kids can't read yet, so to make it even easier for me, I just wrote the date in each chain-link.

Then I printed out my advent list and posted it between the chains

 December 1, 

each kid cut their chain-link and our special countdown task today...

cut out snowflakes and start to memorize a bible verse for the Christmas season.

I used coffee filters so that it would be easier for my little ones to cut. 

The kids still are not super fantastic with scissors, so I ended up doing most of the cutting,

letting the kids unfold them.  They thought that was just as great.

November Things

I can hardly believe it's December today.

I'm sure you noticed that I have been absent from blog land.

With the tragic death of my brother in law that we are all still very much in grief over, we also unexpectantly lost an aunt, as well as my Grandma in the last 3 months.  

This only added to the depth of grief we are already living in.

It's been just over 3 months since the death of Darren, but it's unbelievably fresh still.  

Unreal.

This will take a very long time to not feel such pain and anguish over the loss.

Life continues and so we must keep going.  There is never a time where Darren's death is not on my mind.  It is always there, always.  Maybe not right in the fore front, but in the shadows, lurking, waiting to pounce and therefore I am always aware of it's presence.

November flew by.  And we had snow, it was as is most common in the wet west coast, gone quickly. 

It hung around just long enough for the kids to have some fun.

You can see by these pictures that it really was almost gone, 

but the kids still had fun for the short time outside.  

My man, just loves to make faces right now for the camera

And girly, she just looks cute or silly, I'm not too sure

 I have some more pictures loaded and I hope to share with you our Christmas countdown.  The kids are super excited about it.  So I will be working on some upcoming posts...stay tuned