Christmas Crafting with the Kids

This week the kids and I have been busy making Christmas crafts!

Please excuse the mess in the background!!!

thumbprint reindeers

popsicle stick snowflake (painted by Alex)

handprint snowmen ornament

3D paper star painted by Alex

& this one was painted by Addy

beaded candy cane

beaded wreath

poinsettia made from a toliet paper roll

reindeer made from a traced foot & 2 hands (Addy's)

These are Hershey bars wrapped in brown construction paper & then decorated to look like Rudolph. They're another Pinterest find! I made them last week for all the kids in Addy's class. 

Last Friday

OMG, last Friday was a busy busy day! It was the last day of school for the girls before the Christmas holdiays. I still had a few Christmas presents left to buy & I really wanted to finish up my shopping before Addy was out for 2 weeks. Shopping with 1 kid is hard enough, I really didn't want to Christmas shop with 2! So I dropped Addy off at school, came home & got Alex & myself ready for the day & then went to Target. I had just enough time to buy the few things that I needed to & then we had to go pick up Maryse from school. She had 2 semester exams & got out at 11:35. So Alex & I picked her up & then we went to Chili's for lunch. We had just enough time to eat & then I had to rush home to drop Maryse & Alex off while I went to Addy's school Christmas party. 

The party was lots of fun! The kids decorated cookies, played Christmas bingo (which I led) & played a game where they passed around a bag of candy. Addy decorated the cookie but she didn't play any of the games. (And I love that her teacher didn't force her to do anything she didn't want to do!)

working on her cookie

Addy's cookie that she decorated

Addy & Avery

Mrs. Cochran & Addy (her general ed teacher)

Mrs. Cardenas & Addy (her special education teacher)

Mrs. Berry & Addy (her aide)

I took Addy home with me from the party. We were home for about an hour & then we left for the Bass Pro Shop in Pearland. Maryse's mom was coming to pick her up & I wanted to take the kids to see Santa at the Bass Pro Shop so I just told her we would meet her there. Both the kids said that they wanted to see Santa. And they did want to "see" him. Just not sit on his lap! Alex said no to that & Addy wanted to but she didn't want to wait in line. So oh well, no pictures with Santa again this year! The kids loved the Bass Pro Shop. They played on a boat, sat on a 4 wheeler, Addy shot a laser bb style gun, they drove remote control cars, colored a Christmas picture & made a snowman ornament. It was a fun time!

Maryse's mom texted her that she was there, so it was time to leave. Both Addy & Alex were sad to go so I told them maybe daddy could meet us at Chuck E Cheese for dinner. I called Nick & he said why don't we go the next day for lunch & I said ok. So I drove home. As soon as we pulled in the driveway, Alex started crying. He said "No, I don't want to go home. I want to go to Chuck E. Cheese." He was in tears as I got him out of the car. Nick asked him what was wrong & again he said he wanted to go to Chuck E. Cheese. So Nick said "Ok, let's go!"

And so that's how we spent the rest of the night, eating pizza & playing games at Chuck E. Cheese. We got home around 8pm, just in time for baths & bedtime! It was a long & busy day but lots & lots of fun!

P.S. All these pictures were taken on my phone, so they are not the best quality!

Addy's Check Up

Thursday was Addy's check up with Dr. Antekeier at the Texas Children's Hospital clinic in Sugar Land. And IT WENT GREAT!!!! 

There is always a long wait when seeing Dr. Antekeier. Addy passed the time by coloring. (Yes, those are pajama pants that she's wearing. It was Polar Express day at school.)

And by giving herself an exam, lol! First she checked her nose,

then her ears,

and then her eyes!

And finally we got to see the doctor! He ordered x rays of Addy's legs to make sure that her right leg is growing straight after her injury. (She was able to stand on her own for the x rays, unlike last time.) Then Dr. Antekeier had her lay down & do bicycles with her legs & kick his hands. And he had her run up & down the hall while he watched her gait. After examing her & looking at her x rays, he said that she looks great & does not have to come back! Yay!!! I'm SO GLAD this whole experience is over & that Addy is 100% again!

The Five Days of Christmas

I REALLY appreciate Addy's teachers! They are WONDERFUL & LOVE my baby girl so much! I feel so blessed that these great ladies are the ones who take care of Addy while she is at school. And because of that, I put a lot of thought into what to get them for Christmas. And here is what I came up with....

THE 5 DAYS OF CHRISTMAS

Addy brought them a gift everyday the last week before getting out for Christmas Break. Each day had a little poem to go along with the gift.

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Day 1
On the first day of Christmas,

Addy gave to me...

An ornament for my tree.

Addy has 2 teachers & 2 aides that I bought gifts for. I saw these cute yarn ornaments but they didn't have 4 of the same ones. So I bought 2 of each. The smaller ornaments didn't have a bow on them, so I made & hotglued a red bow to both of them.

I saw on Pinterest "Merry Christmas" printed on a brown paper lunch sack & used as a gift bag. I took that idea & did something a little different.

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Day 2

On the 2nd day of Christmas,

Addy gave to me...

A candle that smells good

And an ornament for my tree.

I got the candles for $10 each at Ross. (I gave them a questionaire of their favorite things at the beginning of the year so I already knew what candle smell they liked.) I tied a snowflake ornament onto each candle & then added the poem.

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Day 3

On the 3rd day of Christmas,

Addy gave to me...

A Santa door hanger

And an ornament for my tree!

These were the canvas Santa's that I made.

Click here to read the post on how to make them.

I also made these autism awareness ornaments.

Click here to read how to make them.

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Day 4

On the 4th day of Christmas,

Addy gave to me...

A Redbox movie night

And an ornament for my tree!

For this present, I made up a little movie night basket. I bought popcorn buckets at HomeGoods for $2 each. I put in them 2 bags of microwave popcorn , 2 bags of M&M, each teacher's favorite soda (I also know from the questionaire), and a $5 gift certificate to Redbox.

The ornaments were another Pinterest find that I made. They were very easy. Fill a clear ornament with fake snow, draw a snowman face with a sharpie & hot glue a baby sock for the hat. They cost about $1 each to make.

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Day 5

On the 5th day of Christmas,

Addy gave to me...

Some coffee & hot chocolate

And an ornament for my tree!

I bought these really cute mugs at HomeGoods for $3.99 each. In them, I put a few hot chocolate mixes, a Hershey bar & a $10 Starbucks gift card. I got these snowflake ornaments from Target for $1 each. And I made cute bags again from brown paper lunch bags.

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So yes, I did spend quite a bit of money & time on Addy's teachers, but it was well worth it!

Autism Awareness Snowflake Ornament

I saw on Pinterest a snowflake ornament made from painted puzzle pieces. They were really cute so I wanted to make them as one of the ornaments for Addy's teachers.  I started thinking that since Addy is on the autism spectrum & that puzzle pieces are the "symbol' for autism, I wanted to incorporate that into the snowflake somehow. So here's what I did.

First I (with some help from Alex) painted the puzzle pieces with Kilz primer. I gave them 5 coats & then let them dry overnight.

The next morning, I took 12 puzzle pieces for each snowflake & painted them with silver glitter glue. And I took one extra piece & painted it light blue. Then I cut a small round circle from posterboard to use as a base. I hotglued the ends of 2 pieces together & did this 6 times to make the 6 parts of the snowflake. Then I arranged them on the posterboard circle & hotglued it all together.  I hotglued a blue puzzle piece in the middle and a white ribbon on the back.

Ta-Da, an Autism Speaks Puzzle Piece Ornament!

Disclaimer: Obviously, this is not an official "Autism Speaks" ornament. But, if anyone from Autism Speaks happens to read this, my husband has a few thoughts for you...

He thinks you need to ramp up your marketing. At the walk this year, he thought you should have been selling shirts & pens & cups & koozies & everything else. Make & sell these ornaments too (but make them from metal bc the puzzle pieces get kind of flimsy after painting.) I know you sell stuff on your website, but it's not very publicized. He says that if we win the lotto he will quit his job & he will volunteer to be the new marketing person for you! Or better yet, email me now & I'm sure he'd be happy to share some ideas with you!

Santa Door Hanger Craft

A couple of weeks ago, Britany & I went to the Nutcracker Market. We saw this Santa door hanger. I thought it was so CUTE, but it was $35.00! I thought it looked like it would be pretty easy to make so I took a picture of it so I could remember it for later.

I needed a roll of canvas for this project so I went to Hobby Lobby. I bought the smallest & cheapest roll that my store had. (As you can see, it was still a huge roll of canvas that was pretty dang expensive, but I used a 40% off coupon so only ended up being $30.00)  I already had plenty of paint & ribbon, so the only other thing I needed to buy was polyfil. (It was $2.99)

The first thing I did was to make a pattern for my Santa. I did this by sketching each section of the Santa out on posterboard. I started with the fluffy part of Santa's hat. I drew it & cut it out & then I laid it on the posterboard & drew the hat around that piece so that they would be the same size. I did that for each section. Once all the pieces were cut out, I put them together like a puzzle & traced an outline around the whole Santa. Then I cut that out. (I had just taken down my Fall Fun for the Family poster, so I just used that piece of posterboard instead of buying a new piece. That's why there are random words on my Santa pattern, lol. And I only cut one eye & just traced it 2x on the face.)

Next I traced 2 Santa outlines on the canvas, one for the front & one for the back. Then I took a pencil (so that it could easily be painted over) and traced each section onto one of the Santa onlines.

Then it was time to paint Santa. (Make sure to lay something under the canvas because the paint will bleed through.) I painted all red first & then let that dry for about 5 minutes. Then all the white & let it dry. And etc... for each color.

When I was done painting, I let Santa dry for a couple of hours. Then I cut out both my Santas (the painted front & unpainted back.) Next I used a black Sharpie & traced around each pattern piece on top of the paint. (You could also use black paint, I just thought the Sharpie would be MUCH MUCH easier!!!)

I cut 2 strips of ribbon & hotglued them to the unpainted inside of each Santa.

Then I took some polyfil & put it between the 2 Santas & hotglued them together. Then I tied a bow with the 2 pieces of ribbon & that's it! Finished!!

 I think it turned out just as cute as the one at the Nutcracker Market. And even though I still spent basically the same amount ($35.00) I've made more than one. We made 4 more at Make & Take Night & then I made 4 more for Addy's teacher. So 9 of them for $35.00 is around $4 each! And I still have a ton of canvas left. I'm thinking I can make something like this for each holiday. A heart for Valentine's Day, a shamrock for St. Patrick's Day, the Easter Bunny or an Easter egg for Easter, a flag for 4th of July, and a pumpkin for Halloween & Thanksgiving. And by the time I make all that it will probably be around $1 or $2 for each one!