Thursday 18 November 2010

Advent Adventures

Today we spent much of the day preparing for December by creating an advent calendar. We found this idea over at the Crafty Crow.
First Sienna and Kyla painted the water colours we needed to form the basis of the paper dolls.


 Then I cut out the little apron shapes and Denver wrote the numbers on them. Really proud of her as she finds writing difficult, but she really persevered.
When the paintings were dry, I joined them together, three pieces at a time, folded into six and cut them into doll shapes. Then I wrote the activities we had planned for each day on the backs of the aprons. The girls then drew faces on their rows of dolls (they picked one row of six each).

(Sienna's)

(Maddie's)


(Denver's)


(Kyla's)

Then we stuck them up on the wall, above Buddha, who I'm sure won't mine even though he doesn't 'do' Christmas.


I have a tendency to avoid Christmas, but this year I wanted to make up for the past years of grinchyness and we have a fun month planned. Our activities list looks like this.
 (Oh if you're in town and want to join us let me know!)


December 1 ~ Christmas Photographs
December 2 ~ Decorate the house
December 3 ~ Go out to watch them light up the big tree in Garden Place
December 5 ~ Make a gingerbread house
December 6 ~ Learn some Christmas carols
December 7 ~ Make salt dough ornaments
December 8 ~ Perform Christmas dance
December 9 ~ Buy our K Mart wishing tree present
December 10 ~ Make Chocolate dipped spoons
December 11 ~ Strawberry picking
December 12 ~ The Hamilton Christmas Parade
December 13 ~ Make Christmas gifts for visitors
December 14 ~ Make a Christmas collage
December 15 ~ Make Christmas carolers (craft)
December 16 ~ Write our own Christmas themed story
December 17 ~Christmas in the Park
December 18 ~ Christmas Baking
December 19 ~ Perform Christmas play
December 20 ~ Visit the Templeview Christmas lights
December 21 ~ Christmas movie marathon
December 22 ~ Mini mosaics
December 23 ~ Christmas baking
December 24 ~ Make table centrepiece 
December 25 ~ CHRISTMAS!!!!

9 comments:

Laura/CenterDownHome said...

I love this, love your girls, love their paperdolls! I even love your grinchyness! And Buddha looks like he's cool with the whole deal! :)

debra said...

I love it, too. Buddha is all inclusive, so he's cool with it, too.

Jen said...

sounds like fun :)

Anonymous said...

Won't you please adopt me?
This is awesome. What fun and I love their focus and concentration. It makes me happy that you all are being Christmasy this year. :)

Jacinta @ Hot Strong Coffee said...

Love, LOve, LOVe, LOVE !!!!

ditto, can u adopt me too ;)

{ jacinta }

PS: excuse my google account name (must see if I can change it somehow)

Hay said...

Thanks friends :)
Sure Rick, file the paper work ;)

Hay said...

lol Jacinta, we were posting at the same time! :)

Catching the Magic said...

They look fab and I love your list! I feel inspired to make one of my own. It takes mr a while to warm up to the festivities, but once I get in the flow I usually love it. I have to get all my pressies and cards organized for the UK in the next week or two, then I can relax and enjoy some crafty, baking, musical fun!

Karen said...

Oh wow--I LOVE this idea!! Maybe I'll see if Nathan is interested! I've been kind grinchy about Christmas, too--but now I've decided to embrace it. (Christmas, not grinchyness.) It's doesn't HAVE to be a pain in the ass!!

The Word Party

Loving words clutch crimson roses,
Rude words sniff and pick their noses,
Sly words come dressed as foxes,
Short words stand on cardboard boxes,
Common words tell jokes and gabble,
Complicated words play Scrabble,
Swear words stamp around and shout,
Hard words stare eachother out,
Foreign words look lost and shrug,
Careless words trip on the rug,
Long words slouch with stooping shoulders,
Code words carry secret folders,
Silly words flick rubber bands,
Hyphenated words hold hands,
Strong words show off, bending metal,
Sweet words call each other 'petal',
Small words yawn and suck their thumbs,
Till at last the morning comes,
Kind words give out farewell posies....
Snap! The dictionary closes.

-RICHARD EDWARDS.