Then and Now

Yesterday's Advent Activity was inspired by a project that my Husband did in 1974 or 1975 during preschool

December 10 - Make Toilet Paper roll Santa's.

A few kids came over today to make the craft. I have to admit this was also a little more than a 3-4 year old can handle on their own so there was a lot of "helping". I hope that Sarah has her Santa as long as John has had his. Can you guess which one is Antique?

On Stage....

December 9th - Christmas Program at School -
It was time for Sarah's Christmas Program at School. She was so excited to "get up on stage" and sing her song. Each class performed 2 songs with props/movement etc. It was ADORABLE! Keep in mind each class is either a 3 or a 4 year old class so it is pretty impressive to see them "act". The entire sanctuary was FULL and it is a pretty big church. man those kids were brave! Sarah's class sang Little Drummer Boy and Looking for a King

She was SO proud and really serious about her bow.

Too many crafts

I am not sure that there is such a thing.. but I think over half of my Advent boxes are filled with crafts!

December 8th - Do a Christmas craft.. pretty vague, right?.. originally yesterday's was to decorate the tree.. but we did that earlier in the month and I had forgotten to put a new activity in yesterday's slot. While Sarah was eating breakfast, I slyly switched it to Christmas Craft. At that point I had no idea what we would do.. . I decided to go with the basics, some paper and cotton balls... a Santa in the making. This was Sarah's creation - don't you love the stray cotton ball on the one cheek? Sometimes 4 years olds are so easy to please (notice I said SOMETIMES!)

Daddy Daughter fun

John totally got ripped off on helping make the Gingerbread house but yesterday's activity was ALL a daddy-daughter deal:

December 7th - Hang Christmas Lights outside

We picked up one strand of LED lights to hang in our hibiscus outside as well as some snowflake stakes for the front yard area. John and Sarah unpacked the packages and got to work. The results are fun!

Good enough to eat

Yesterday Sarah was on the road to recovery.. but not well enough to go anywhere. So it was a PJ day and we had a great time just the same!

December 6th - Put together a Gingerbread House

A month or so ago I picked up a great Gingerbread House at Sams Club and Sarah has been so excited to break into the box. Yesterday was finally the day! I forgot how messy it is icing a Gingerbread house. It was a fun project. John was the official photographer since Sarah had her ideas of exactly how things needed to be. Fun Christmas memories

Yesterday I had to totally improvise what the Advent activity was. In the morning Sarah was still pretty lethargic and yucky so we stayed in the resort in our PJ's until it looked like she was feeling better. When we thought she had started to get better, we decided to head to Downtown Disney:

December 5th - Trip to downtown Disney

For a little while Sarah was fine.. enjoying "checking out the scenes"of the Lego Store, the Princess statues and the sites and sounds of the themed restaurants.

Around 1:30pm We were starved so we decided on Rainforest Cafe. Up to that point Sarah had only eaten 2 Ritz crackers all day. We got seated and Sarah went down hill quickly. All she wanted to do was go back to the hotel so we got up and left. She fell asleep on the 5 minute drive back and slept for 2 hours. When she woke up we drove back to Tampa. Our Disney weekend was a bust. Sarah was NOT happy when we went home. You gotta do what you gotta do to take care of your little ones :).

Flexibility is key

I am a planner.. if you know me you know that. I have all 25 days of the Advent box planned out, written on my calendar and in the Advent box. Then life throws you a curve ball.

December 4th - Pick out a new ornament for the tree -

I knew we were headed to Orlando for the weekend so I figured we would go to Downtown Disney last night and she could pick out an ornament. Things didn't work out that way. Sarah came down with a stomach bug our first evening there so no shopping was done.... Poor thing. Needless to say we are back in Tampa after a short but LONG 24 hour trip. No Disney for us this weekend (so more changes to the Advent calendar).

The Advent calendar activities for the rest of the weekend will be by the seat of our pants, based on how Sarah is feeling. Good thing I am flexible!