To work with your hands

In Celebration of Plenty

Have a favorite children's book that I put out every November....about the first Thanksgiving and the Pilgrims.  While reading it this year, I noticed it says that the first feast spanned 3 days.  And I loved the words that the author chose "In celebration of this plenty, plans were made to hold a Harvest Festival."

We are great at the feast part of our annual Thanksgivings - aren't we?  And many times the feasting spans for 3 days (leftovers, leftovers, leftovers!!!).  BUT, are we good at being in celebration of plenty?

Plenty is a great word... more than enough... over abundance... overflowing...Why is it so easy to focus on the things we want more of and not be grateful for the many blessings we have? 

How can we celebrate our plenty this month? Because we do have plenty of a lot...

Here is one way we are giving thanks all month long... not just at our Thanksgiving Day feast.

My friend, Angela, and I made these banners last fall. (we were copying Pottery Barn's version!).  

Ok, so PB's is  pretty but our version is UNIQUE and not $70! ha!The possibilities are endless with this "countdown" idea.  Treats could be put in each pocket, a special activity for each day, pics of things we are grateful for, or a blank card to list a thanksgiving every night.

This year I have tucked pictures of our family into each day....no particular order... Just all mixed up.   At dinner, the kids get to pull out the pic for that day and we talk about why we are thankful for that person.  Then we put the photo in a little album.  It has been fun so far to think of special things about each family member and thank God for them....

"I'm thankful for Momo because she always wants a hug from me."

"I'm thankful for Uncle John because he makes me laugh."

Celebrating the plenty in our life....
 
 

 

We have a month of "fall" left!

Today, we made a ghost tree.  My mom used to make there lollypop ghosts with my brother and me as kids.... (cover suckers with a tissue, attach with a rubber band, and make eyes and mouths with a black marker - We attached ours to a branch we picked up on a walk.).  Connor enjoyed eating the ghosts the most... of course!

Our annual Pumpkin Patch Playdate was great this year.  Our kids all had a blast just being kids and playing ... getting muddy, jumping in hay, feeding the farm animals, and picking pumpkins.  Even MissPaige joined in .. It is hard to slow her down.  

 

My girlfriends and I discussed how quick these days are flying by... How it won't be long before the kids say, "Aww, do we really have to go to the Pumpkin Patch again?  That is for babies!"  We just stood there, and tried to soak up the memories.  

Only have about a month left of "fall" before the Christmas season hits us.  How much of this great season can I squeeze into a month?  Hmmm.... We'll see!

 
  

More than Enough Today

A few things that make me happy today... Snapshots in our little life just today...

Created by Connor - Affectionately named "Pepaw Pumpkin"

Our little Punkin Paige in her pink chair

My little man who loves to change the toliet paper roll...  Makes me chuckle everytime he gets so excited to reload the t.p.!

On our way to our annual pumpkin patch playdate with our old friends... Crossing my fingers that my little "punkins" will be in smiling moods and we'll get some good pictures.  If not, that is okay too - we will have fun no matter what!

 

School Buses, Rock Stars, and Dirt!

I have been working on getting caught up with my scrapbooks (I'm through Dec 07 now!).  I realized that having this blog has encouraged me to write more than I usually would.... So, when I sit down to a layout, a lot of my journaling has already been done for me - right here.  I just print out my posts and use bits and pieces that apply to each layout.  I have been just handwriting them directly onto my pages, but I also plan to use some just printed out.  One of the big reasons that I am so passionate about scrapbooking is because it provides me a way to tell my family's story.  I didn't realize this adventure in blogging would help me so much with that love! 

Three huge hits around here lately:

FIRST.... Visiting Uncle Jeff at his school and seeing his SCHOOL BUS!!!!

Connor loves school buses right now.  Uncle Jeff invited him to come to his school on a day that he would be driving his kids to a track meet.  Connor's favorite parts of the morning were opening and shutting the door, honking the horn, and pointing out to us that this was a very "old" bus!  Guess that is all Plano ISD trusts "Coach McDonnell" with! ha!

SECONDLY.... Connor has finally mastered his guitar playing skills standing up.   Watch out American Idol Season 20!  We have a ROCK STAR on our hands!

And LAST... DIRT!!!  We have been learning about the word "patience" - SO to help understand what it means to "wait quietly for something" we planted some beans in some cups to wait for them to grow.  We have had a ball "patiently waiting" for the roots to spread, the stems to shoot up through the dirt, and now the leaves to grow. 

Today, we tried to trick Daddy and made pretend dirt that we got to eat at lunch (with oreos and chocolate pudding).  We even added some of our mint plant from our herb garden.  Connor loved sharing that we "ate dirt!"  Can you tell which one is our "edible variety?" 

Now I am off to some more scrapbook pages and I think there is another cup of "dirt" calling my name!!!

Why St. Patrick's Day?

Our Little Irish Man Decked Out in Green!

Someone recently asked me why I decorate for March 17th - why I care... Well, not only is it fun to just have a random "celebration" thrown in the midst of day-to-day life, it means family to me.

Both Sean and my families have Irish heritage.  Sean's grandmother is an Irish citizen still - a war bride.  I love to hear her Irish lilt and her funny idioms.  She still has family living in Ireland.

We had a fun day yesterday... wearing green, making green eggs for breakfast, eating cabbage at dinner.  Sean's mom gave me an Irish cookbook and I read the whole thing. Found some neat recipes to try out.

After that whole day of green, I found a neat explanation of why Irish celebrate St. Patrick's Day... today - oops.  I will file this away for next year for sure. 

Veggie Tales did a short video on who St. Patrick was and why he was a blessing to Ireland.  Really cool stuff to share with kids next March 17th!  We tried to make shamrocks with potato stamps this year - but Connor isn't into "projects" right now.  He would rather play outside. ha!

So... why do we make Shamrock decorations anyway?
God called Patrick to return to Ireland as a missionary. Patrick used a small three leaved plant growing there to help teach people about God. The Shamrock has three leaves in one plant, helping to illustrate the Christian doctrine of the Trinity: God the Father, God the Son (Jesus) and God the Holy Spirit.

Hope you wore your green and ate your cabbage - If not, consider yourself pinched by the McDonnell Clan!

Making my list for next year already!

I'm already thinking about Christmas next year!  Since I have only 5 days left this year, I guess I should just focus on getting my presents wrapped - instead of some huge craft project!

Thought I would pass along a really cool website that my friend Kara has been using this season.  This is a great website for kid's Christmas Crafts and Activities -

Danielle's Place

http://www.daniellesplace.com/html/christmas_page2.html

Kara pointed out the Advent Activity found at the bottom of the page.  Danielle has compiled a great list of things to include in a Christmas Countdown - along with the list of explanations for each item.

Here are a few examples:

December 1 - A quarter! That equals 25 cents. But 25 also stands for the number of days till Christmas, when God gave us His best present. Jesus told about one woman's gift and the way she gave it. Read: Mark 12:41-44

December 5 - A birthday candle? As you know, we are getting ready to celebrate Jesus' birthday. However, Jesus talked about something else that is related to this candle. Light! Read: Matthew 5:14-16

Another friend said she has done a similar activity with her kids.  She used a similar list of items, made them into mini ornaments, wrapped each one , and put these tiny "gifts"under a mini Christmas tree.  Each day of December, her kids got to open a tiny ornament, read about it's symbolism, and hung it on the mini tree.  She added a few pieces of candy in each little gift too - so the kids had a treat each day too! 

I loved this idea.  My friend actually put together this project with her women's group from church.  She said it was quite the assembly line - but all the ladies really enjoyed doing it together.  AND, it would be really easy if someone else did all the organizing and buying for you already!

Danielle's Place has some great winter themed crafts for kids too - snowmen, etc.  Always looking for something fun to do at a playdate or with Connor.

Connor's "Aunt" Stacy sent us this little craft project to do together.  Thanks, Stacy.  He had fun sticking down the Santa, Reindeer, and Snowman.  Cute, easy project to do with a two year old with a short attention span!  Just peel and stick!  It gave me the idea to use stickers more often with him.  We will be asking Santa for stickers in his stocking.  Good for long car rides too!

Drum Roll Please!

The Winners of our Door Prize Drawings are:

Megan H.

Carita C.

Lacy B.

Stacie O.

Winners, keep your eyes open for an email with more information about your prizes!

Congratulations!  Thanks for visiting our Open House.

My Etsy shop still has lots of goodies that need homes!  The calendars are great Christmas gifts for anyone special in your life - The larger ones would be especially great for teachers (I would have liked one during my teaching days.)

I am enjoying my Christmas card holder already. I have it hung in my kitchen.   I only have a few cards on it so far, but I expect the flood of greetings to begin this week.   I have hung some of Connor's little Christmas creations on it for now.  It is a great place to display kids' artwork. 

We made a fun craft with our kids at a play date yesterday.  We did these footprint/handprint Rudolph's several years ago too.  Connor's foot sure has grown!  I will try and do one every year.  Fun, easy project.

Fall is in the attic and Christmas is closer

Fall is put away at my house.  Now I must get rid of the layer of dust that has settled, and then we can start making it look like Christmas around here! Everything looks a little bit bare, but that will make it more fun to pull out all the goodies.  Last night, we climbed into the attic , pulled down all the boxes, and made a home for them in the corner of the garage.  Tonight, we will crank up the Christmas music and put up the trees.  I'm excited!

I've been working on a few more things for my Virtual Open House next week.  Today, I put together a few more flip photo albums and some cool Christmas card holders.  I saw a card holder at Target  - made with clothespins.... so I came home and made my own.  I think it is cuter than the Target one! As the Christmas greetings begin to fill our mailbox, I will clip the cards and pictures to the banner to enjoy through the month.  I will put a few in my Etsy shop to sell.  This one says, "Joy to the World."  I attached a few cards and pictures so you can get the basic idea.

This is another banner I made - "JOY HOPE PEACE"  It stretches 58 inches - across my whole mantle.  Would also be cute over a door way or window.

One more mini album for Christmas... This one has a little more contemporary feel.  Perfect for pictures of this Christmas or maybe even a few from each year - to keep out during the season.  More ideas to come in a future post about uses for little albums.

Thought I would share with you the project we did with Connor and Cousin Jake this weekend.  Got this idea out of Family Fun magazine again.     Super easy - all we needed was paint and some paper(you could use googly eyes - but we ran out).  I will add a ribbon to hang it on the tree.  The boys loved helping make the hand prints.

Gobble Gobble Play Date

Kara and Julie and I have been friends since the beginning of our time here in Dallas - about 8 years.  We all shared our "young married" years together, had our babies together, and countless other great memories together.  We use to have coffee nights once a week - before kids... And gradually we have moved to playdates twice a month.  Our kids range from 5 to 1 1/2.  The playdates are more for the moms than the kids... Isn't that the case most of the time for all moms?

They came over to play yesterday.  I planned a few Thanksgiving activities to do with the kids.  First we did these turkey bags.  They were super easy - Found the idea in Family Fun magazine.   That magazine has so many wonderful ideas.  All three of us have a subscription now.  We also played a game of "Pin the Hat on the Turkey."  Fun!  Even "Baby Grant" joined in on the fun.

    At the beginning of the month, we celebrated Julie's birthday.  The kids like to join in on our birthday parties.  This year, Kalli and Abby actually took our picture with Julie's birthday dessert.  The picture isn't perfect- we had to stoop down so the girls could see us - but it is PRICELESS to us.  It means our kids are growing up!  And it means that the three of us can be in more pictures together. 

Give Thanks in Song

Connor and I worked on two different projects together this week. The first thing we did was make an "instrument" out of a paper towel roll filled with some rice.  Connor painted a piece of paper and I covered the tube with his art.  We talked about what Thanksgiving is and how we should tell God "thank you" for all the things He blesses us with.  We read the Bible verse Psalm 28:7:

"The LORD is my strength and my shield;  my heart trusts in him, and I am helped.  My heart leaps for joy and I will give thanks to him in song."

He has enjoyed practicing giving "thanks to him in song"  all around the house with his paper towel tube shaker.  Cute!

Next, we put together a "CONNOR COUNTS" mini book.   He is really enjoying counting things now a days.  I let him help me count things, line them up (his favorite pasttime) and then take pictures of them.  Then I glued pictures on tags, put a large numeral on the other side of the tag, and essembled them all together with a binder ring clip.