Christmas Crafts

I always love pulling out my Christmas decorations. It makes me happy! We got them all up the day after Thanksgiving because Eli kept asking to put up the tree. I wanted to make a Christmas wreath this year so I looked online to find ideas. I saw several tutorials on Christmas ball ornament wreaths, so I hit the dollar spot at Target and found containers with 8 ornaments for just $1. Then I went to my closet and found an old wire hanger. You just take the wire hanger apart and form a circle, take the tops off the ornaments and hot glue them back on, thread them on the hanger, and cut the extra wire off you don't need. Then I used craft wire to wrap my hanger ends together and tied on some ribbon. Love it! I also made a couple of banners to hang. One with scraps of fabric & mini felt stockings I also found at the Target dollar spot. (Love that section!) Another with scrapbook paper glued to triangles I cut from empty cereal boxes. Just ink edge the paper, punch some holes, tie with twine, and hang! My most recent project I just finished last night was the tree skirt. I had an old tree skirt I didn't love anymore and it didn't match my green, red, & white tree too well. So I found a tutorial for this cute ruffle tree skirt where you don't even sew! Just some hot glue & time.(Visit The Crafted Sparrow blog if you want to make one too!)

A visit from Santa

A week or so ago we had a special visitor come to our house. When Eli answered the door he was so excited to see Santa! Kelsey's father-in-law was nice enough to make an extra stop at our house. Eli sat on his lap and told him he wanted toys. Ava didn't want anything to do with him.

Thanksgiving Day

We started off the day with singing to Eli & opening gifts. He was SO excited for this part! It was fun to skype with my mom, aunt, brother, & grandma so they could watch him. We even got them in a picture. :) Thank you to all who sent cards & gifts! The big hit was his scooter. He got right on and took off, and has been on it constantly since then. We invited Kaelub's cousin and her husband over for dinner and they have a sweet little baby boy who is 3 months old. It was a lot of fun to have them and I completely forgot to get pictures! But I did get the fun turkey cake pops Eli & I made. We relaxed after dinner and then Kellie & I went shopping later that evening. Nothing too crazy, but found some good deals on Christmas gifts for the kids. I like what one of the doctors I work with said about Thanksgiving. It's a nice time to get together with family & friends, have good food, & not have to buy any gifts!

Thanksgiving Birthday Boy!

This year Eli's birthday was on Thanksgiving. (Along with my mom's and Aunt Jill's---happy happy birthday to them too!) So I decided to have his party the day before with a few of his friends. I had seen some really cute ideas for a golf themed party, and thought it would be perfect since he was turning 4. It was a lot of fun making everything for it and coming up with ideas. If only it hadn't been so windy! I had foam golf visors & foam stickers for them to decorate, but it was just way too windy. In fact, my tiered platter that held the blackberry "Par"-faits actually blew off the food table and shattered all over the ground. (Kelsey got a great pic to document this awesome moment.) But the kids still had fun playing on the toys and eating the yummy food. Eli was spoiled with some great gifts that he has enjoyed playing with since. And sometimes he will even share them with Ava. Thanks to all of you who came & helped set up and clean up. And to my great friend Kelsey for taking such great pictures for me! I swiped these off her facebook page because I was so excited to get them up. :)

Schnepf Farm

We finally made it to the farm this year. Every year they have a fall festival with hay rides, pumpkin patch, carnival type rides, shows, etc. And it was so much fun! We met Kelsey and her girls there and the kids had so much fun. Eli didn't want to leave! He and Brookie went on the roller coster first, but they said it was too scary. So we rode the Bee ride, airplanes, & carousel. Then before the kids and I headed home I took them on the train. Eli was in heaven & didn't want to get off it! I think we were there for a good 4 hours. Glad we finally went.