Advent Activities Rundown

I cannot believe it is only three days until I begin our annual advent activity tradition. I posted last year about the things we included in 2009, the first year we switched from candy to fun, you can find that post here. Last year I had planned to post our activities six days at a time as they happened but the month was just far too busy for blogging and I only posted the first six. Instead of blogging them in January I saved it for a more timely post...now! I've had several requests for our list of activities. I'm still working on this year's list. Many of these will remain the same since in just two years they've become things the kids really look forward to.

But without further ado here's what happened in 2010:

December 1st
Decorate Your Own Christmas Tree in Your Bedroom

December 2nd
Ice Cream Sundae Bar After Dinner

The slip of paper had to specify after dinner or the kids would've been asking for these as soon as breakfast was over.

December 3rd
Write and Mail Letters to Santa

After they created their letters to Santa we drove to the mall to drop them in the large red mailbox Macy's has set up specifically to collect letters for Santa. The kids enjoy the large Santa mailbox and I like the fact Macy's donates a dollar for every letter to the Make a Wish Foundation.

Read More . . .

Read More...

A Jasmine Yarn Wig

Princess Fierce wanted to be Jasmine for Halloween. She made up her mind in September and never wavered. I'm fairly confident the decision was based purely on the fact she wears a two piece outfit. I lucked out and found two complete blue and pink Jasmine costume including gold shoes at a local consignment store for under $30 for everything.

She wore the pink outfit to see Disney on Ice: Dare to Dream with her cousin. An excellent show if you can still catch it in your town. For the show I tried to style her short, thin hair in the best imitation of Jasmine's hair I could manage. She loved the result. But for Halloween I'd made the offhand comment that I thought I could make her a Jasmine yarn wig. After Disney on Ice she told me she hoped I could make one but if I couldn't she'd be happy with her hair this way again. Such a sweet girl.

I searched Pinterest and Google for inspiration but came up with only one other person making a yarn Jasmine wig. And she used a completely different method than I was comfortable with. I cannot crochet yarn into a highlighting cap. Nope. So I went my own way. I started with a pair of black girls tights from the clearance rack at Target. $1.50 for her wig cap. I put the waist around her hairline then tied a tight knot with the legs. 

Read More . . .

Read More...

A Rainbow Brite Birthday Celebration

Princess Fierce turned six in September. She's claimed the DragonCon Parade as her own personal birthday parade since it always happens the Saturday before her birthday. Once again this year we headed down to watch. She chose to not dress as Darth Fairy again but instead wore her Julie Newmar Catwoman costume.

I'm not sure if it was the 25th anniversary of Dragon*Con, the 10th anniversary of the DC parade or the fabulous weather but this year the parade route was packed. I snapped this pic looking down Peachtree Street when we still had 45 minutes to wait until the parade started.

The parade met the demands of the large crowd delivering the longest and best Dragon*Con parade yet.

Read More . . .

Read More...

Helping Kids Cut Their Own Food

"Mom, will you cut my waffle/chicken/pizza/cinnamon roll...?" I hear this question often...and times three kids. I did not want to be cutting other people's food at the expense of my own hot meal for years and years. I had to end this. So at a young age I set out to teach my kids how to cut their own food.

Read More . . .

Read More...