The advent calendar is almost done. So after glueing all of the numbers down and the tree, my kids made the ornaments that will go into the pockets.
The kids made the ornaments out of Perler beads, which was perfect because it became a craft for them as well. You can find all of the patterns for the ornaments on the Perler bead site and also the pattern for the tree.
For the tree I actually traced it from my computer screen onto two papers so that I didn’t waste ink printing all of that color. Then I taped the two parts of the tree together and just drew an outline outside of the tree two times to enlarge it. I tried several other tree patterns and this tree just seemed the best for our ornaments to all fit.
Now my next decision is how to hang the ornaments on the tree. I always thought I would place little velcro dots all over the tree and the other part of the velcro would be glued to the ornament, but now I am not so sure it will hold up. I worry that the velcro will be too strong and be difficult to use. I also couldn’t find red velcro dots, so I had to cut my own circles which don’t look too great. Using buttons is an idea. I could stitch buttons on all over the tree and then thread some floss through the ornaments to hang them. There will be some tests over the next few days to figure out what looks best. I definitely want something that looks decorative even when the ornaments aren’t hanging yet.
Just a note: the tree measures about 15.5 inches tall and 10.25 inches wide at the widest part. The blue background fabric is about 34 inches tall (without the 1.5 inch pocket turned to the back so total it would be 35.5 inches before sewing) and 15.5 inches wide. I just spaced the pockets to fit. There were no exact measurements on placing the pockets.
I am also giving a kit to make all of this to two of my nieces for their birthdays. Each kid contains the already assembled calendar, but they glue on the numbers, and then all of the beads and other supplies to make the ornaments. The kit even includes a little book with all of the ornament patterns.
Filed under: Advent Calendar, Christmas, Crafts, Holidays, Kids, Sewing, Winter
I have always wanted to make an advent calendar that didn’t require filling pockets with more treats and gifts. I have seen a few of this style advent calendars out there and this is what I have come up with. First I cut the pockets out of felt measuring 2.5 inches x 2.25 inches. The hardest part was coming up with the color arrangement. Next, I stitched the pockets on using 3 strands of floss. I tried to mix up the colors on each pocket.
Here is a picture of the calendar so far. I cut the tree and centered it above the pockets. More on where I got the pattern for the tree on the next post. For the top of the blue felt background, I sewed down a little less than 1.5 inches to the back to create a little pocket to hang the calendar up.
The last thing I did for today was to cut out numbers to glue onto the pockets. I just glued them using felt glue. I also glued the tree down.
Since my mom always cooks the Thanksgiving meal, I thought I would give it a try on my own this weekend. Instead of a big turkey I made a chicken, so I will have to try the big turkey some day. Right now it is just too intimidating and expensive. I made all of our usual Thanksgiving sides though and boy was it hard to juggle all of the different times and oven temperatures. I sure have a new appreciation for all of the work that goes into this wonderful meal. Here are the recipes I made:
Chicken from Allrecipes.com. This chicken cooked quickly and was tasty.
Mashed potatoes- just regular potatoes. Next time I will try the garlic mashed potatoes.
Sweet Potato Casserole- my sister makes this casserole every year and it is my favorite dish by far. The kids really liked it too.
Green Bean Casserole- this recipe is adapted from Cook’s Illustrated. I have made it according to the website I found it on and found that I still like my green bean casserole like the one on the cream of mushroom can. So, I make the creamy mushroom sauce according to the website above, but I use canned green beans and just the fried onions that come in the can like the regular recipe states. So basically I just use this recipe for the cream of mushroom sauce since I don’t like the ingredients used in the can. This was very good as well.
Poultry Stuffing- I found this stuffing on a bulletin board and you can find it by clicking on the link and going to #26. We like this stuffing a lot. I also left out the sausage.
Pumpkin Pie- I made the Canadian Living recipe.
Fresh Bread from Safeway
Eggnog from Kroger- I will not buy Kroger eggnog again. It was too watered down.
I still need to figure out how to make gravy.
I didn’t make the cranberry sauce, but my sister-in-law makes a great one found on Food Network.
*I did this with my kids last year and used vinegar in the pie pan and didn’t use an overhead. They just sat and watched as I told the story. Then I used baking soda instead of Eno. I think this story scared them so I will wait until they are a little older to tell them again. I got this story from my supervising teacher.
Need: Overhead, red, yellow, green, blue food coloring, cooking oil, 1 tsp. powdered seltzer (Eno), glass pie tin filled half way with water, black witch silhouettes to lay on projector
Boys and girls, when summer is over and you are getting ready to go back to school, the Halloween witches are also very busy making plans for Halloween. they gather from all over the world, big witches, little witches, fat witches, skinny witches, ugly witches, silly witches, and old witches will hop on their broomsticks and fly far, far away to the cave of the oldest, meanest, and ugliest witch of all. Each one will bring with her a secret ingredient to be put into the pot of brew.
The old witch is ready and waiting for them. Her lazy black cat is asleep by the fire and a large pot is filled with water and hanging over the fire. Would you like to take a look inside the pot?
(remove the witch silhouettes from the overhead and place the glass pie plate with the water on it)
Watch it carefully. The ugly old witch is saying, “Fellow witches let’s begin our brew. What have you brought with you to make it more horrible than last year? I am putting some green slime from the darkest corner of my cave into it.”
(drop two drops of green food color into water)
” I will add some juice from a very evil curse,” said another
(add 3 drops of blue)
“He, he, wait till you see what I brought! It is the eyes of two dead fish,” said another.
(add 4 drops of cooking oil)
“Let me add the bile from the liver of a bat killed at midnight, ” screamed the old witch from Skimbodia.
(add 3 drops of yellow)
“I will fool everyone with a few drops of ketchup,” said another.
(add 3 drops of red)
“Here are a couple of snack eyes,” yelled another.
(add 2 drops of cooking oil)
“I risked my life getting some rattlesnake poison,” shouted one.
(add 2 drops of yellow)
And so one by one the witches added their secret ingredients to the brew. The mean old witch carefully stirred it.
(slowly stir it to swirl colors)
The fire became hotter and hotter, and soon the brew began to bubble and boil. If you listen carefully you can even hear it.
(spread a teaspoon of Eno on the brew. It will fizz and bubble for a minute and turn the mixture black)
Now the witches have made their brew for Halloween and each one will take a cup full of it and fly their broomsticks home.
A few years ago I bought this cute tooth pillow for my kids. I bought it from the Junior League Holiday Mart, but am not sure who made it. Your kids put their tooth in the little pocket on the front and then hang the pillow on the door. This makes the job of the Tooth Fairy much easier since there is no search for a tooth under the pillow. In the morning your kids can find some money traded for their tooth in the pocket. Here are some ideas I have found online to make your own:
This last pillow is one I made 4 years ago for a gift.
Books: ( My oldest was really upset when he lost his first tooth. Reading some books really helped.)
Dear Tooth Fairy
Loose Tooth by Lola Schaefer
Arthur’s Tooth by Marc Brown
I am allergic to strawberries, oranges, and pineapple so I came up with this smoothie that avoids all of those fruits. This smoothie is also dairy-free.
1 cup mixed berries ( I used raspberries, blueberries and blackberries)
1 banana (can be frozen for a thicker drink)
1 cup raspberry apple juice
1 cup ice
Blend the fruit and juice together. Add the ice and blend again.
Last night we did this little bat craft that came from No Time for Flashcards. I just love this site. We read Stellaluna first and then did the craft. Tomorrow we are going to read some nonfiction books on bats and make a little booklet with bat facts.
You can find this spooky skeleton here to print out, glue to paper and then hang in your house.
This was a quick and easy preschool craft that I found on Learning Vicariously. All you do is draw some ghosts using a white crayon on white paper and then let your kids watercolor over the paper to find them. Just make sure to use a regular white crayon and not a washable one. The first time we did this craft I had used washable and the ghosts didn’t resist that much. The kids really enjoyed this craft.
Filed under: Recipes
One More Moore has this great apple pie recipe posted. I made it tonight without the crust and turned it into a crisp. It was delicious! We used some organic Fuji apples since they were kind of tart. Usually the Fuji apples are so sweet, but this batch was tart and nobody was eating them, so they were perfect in this crisp.
