On the first day of December

Well the first day of December was finally upon us today, and the girls couldn't have been happier. After ripping into their chocolate advent calendars, Sienna had the honor of opening our first advent fish. She netted $2 and a Santa chocolate, and was able to reveal our first activity for the month, an old favourite, chocolate spoons! We made these last Christmas, and the girls loved stirring them into their hot chocolates. 

We even got Miss Madi to take part.

There was some chocolate leftover, so while the spoons set, I dipped some strawberries for the hard at work husband to enjoy when he got home.

These ones are Kyla's

These ones are Sienna's (digging the cute lil' face, yes?)

These ones are Madi's.

These ones are Denver's.

And once set, they had to do a test run of course....

Feeling Advent-urous

I saw this adorable advent calendar idea at the Crafty Crow blog, and decided it was perfect for this years big advent calendar. The fish were a little fiddly to begin with, but once I figured it out I was an origami fish making machine. Sienna helped with the eyes. The kids still have those chocolate store brought ones, but I like to have one of these too. Each of them will take turns opening one of the little origami fish, starting from youngest to oldest.  In each little fish is a chocolate heart or Santa, a joke or activity for the day, and a $2 coin. Needless to say, the girls cannot wait until December 1!

Techno

Roger will tell you, and he's not lying, that technology hates me. I'm not a big fan of it, either. Basically I want a phone that I can text on and a computer I can waste time on. That's it. When I'm not breaking something, I'm seeking help on how to use it, often from my kids, who have adapted to each and every new device with an ease that leaves me full of envy and wonder. Recently Roger brought a tablet, and the conversation is filled with this 'app' or that 'app.' The kids pass it between them, easily negotiating the touchscreen controls which leave me baffled, and laugh, discuss and encourage each other. I'm constantly amazed by them, the world is a far different one from my own childhood, pre-internet. I can't even imagine what is to come, but I have an idea that what ever it is, my girls will embrace it fully.

You Can't Catch Me....

For a while now, Sienna has been talking about making gingerbread people. So today the two of us mixed up a batch of dough, and she patiently waited while it rested in the fridge for 1/2 an hour. Then she got busy cutting out the people. 

And sticking eyes on some. Others she left blank, to put 'icing eyes' on.

Ten minutes in the oven, a few minutes to cool, and it was time to get decorating. Miraculously, some extra helpers appeared.

(Kyla made this Santa one. She's always so creative and precise in her ideas.)

They were declared way better than shop brought ones. Tasty and fun. 

Dear...

The girls often decide to play letter writing. Today they spent well over an hour writing, cutting, 'posting' and receiving letters backwards and forth. Of course they were all written as Glee characters....do you sense a theme there?