Advent Calendar

Last year when I first started reading blogs I came along a post on the Crafty Crow about advent calendars. After just taking down my first ever Thankful Tree, I just HAD to put something up in it's place and I LOVED the idea of an activity advent calendar.

So... I made this one. I LOVE it. It looks pretty and elegant in my kitchen and it's full of holiday charm.


The BEST part is that my kiddos LOVE it too! The day after Thanksgiving, they were begging to take down the thankful tree in order to put up the advent calendar. I did go ahead and put it up but, too bad for them that they'll have to wait until December 1st to do their first activity.


Our activities include:
~Many local events: Holiday Walkabout, the Parade, Lights of Lakeland, PALS Christmas Dance, Christmas Lane, and Ice Skating.
~Special Gifts: Christmas socks, PJ's, and a new Christmas book.
~Fun times together: having a tea party, making ornaments, watching Christmas movies, making pizza for dinner, game nights, going to the park, going on a nature hike, making Holiday crafts, and making candy and cookies.

Completed Thankful Tree

LOOK how beautiful our Thankful tree turned out!!! Just like last year this tree was such a hit. Every night as we sat down to dinner the kiddos would be jumping to tell us what they were thankful for that day. You could tell that they'd been thinking about it because we never had to wait to hear their response, they were ready right away. I am so thankful to have such grateful children!!

Aidman was thankful for things like "The Whole Wide World" and the "Lovely Fall".
Lyssy was thankful for different family members, classmates, and "Seeds".
Mama was thankful for "hugs and kisses" and "the Thankful Tree".
Daddy was thankful for "The Yankees winning the World Series".


I truly hope to and am determined to keep doing this tradition year after year!

Thankful Tree

Last year I got this bright idea to cover my blank kitchen wall with a tree. The idea was for every member of the family to add a leaf to it everyday. The leaf was to say what we were thankful for that day. Each family member has a color leaf, that way we know who is thankful for what. It was a GIANT success!!! My children really touched my heart in so many ways and really learned about being thankful.

The day after Halloween, Aidman said to me "Mom, Halloween is over. When are we gonna get our Thankful Tree?" Well, how can I deny him??? I was actually already planning on putting it up, I just wasn't fast enough for my 5 year old boy!

So here is 2009's Thankful Tree. It's going to be beautiful by Thanksgiving!!

If you wanna see how it will look at the end of the month you can see a picture of last years tree here.

Cute Easter Decor

WOOHOO! It was FINALLY time to take down the rainbow! It was cute and all, but way to bright and busy for my taste. I saw this cute Easter Egg Decoration today and just had to do it! It looks great on my wall.

Ravishing Rainbows!

Yesterday we went to a Rainbow Playdate. My friend had her house decorated in Rainbow color streamers. We read a Great Rainbow book (the title is escaping my mind at the moment).

We made a Rainbow out of fruitloops.

We had Rainbow Jellow and Rainbow colored goldfish for snack.

We made a Rainbow out of a Train Track.

The playdate was filled with LOTS of Rainbow fun!!

THEN during nap time, Mama put up her new wall art!!!

It's a Beautiful Rainbow made out of our handprints! Every day we are going to write on a handprint something that we want to pray about as a Family, then we will pray about it together. This will be a nice way for us to pray together more. I am also going to add a cloud with the Irish Blessing on it.

Irish Blessing

May God give you...

for every storm

a rainbow,

for every tear

a smile,

for every care

a promise,

and a blessing

for each trial.

For every problem

life sends,

a faithful friend

to share,

for every sigh

a sweet song

and an answer

for each prayer.

The WALL

Forgive the few mixed up photos, I'm still trying to figure out how to do photos in a blog.


We have this big empty wall in our kitchen. I have looked and looked for something to put on it, but nothing ever jumps out at me.


This past November, I was feeling crafty and really wanted to do a fun Thankful Tree with my kiddos. I really had nowhere to put one since we have a small house, except for this wall in my kitchen. Well, what I expected to be a small bulletin board like display turned into a giant wall covering display. I LOVED it!! It added so much color and fun to my kitchen. Plus there was something wonderful to do with my kiddos everyday.


When it came time to take down the thanful tree I was so sad. S,o I made an advent calendar to replace it. It was also very cute and something fun to do with the kids everyday. Of course, after Christmas I had to take it down.


We had a very empty and very boring wall for a couple of weeks. Then, I saw these cute heart animals on a great blog and just HAD to make them. After we made them, we had nowhere to put them, so they went on The WALL. They have made a very cute display, but it will be time to take them down soon.


I REALLY don't want another empty wall!!! I NEED your cute and crafty ideas!! PLEASE help me find something to put up on the WALL for the next month or so!! I really like interactive things that I can do with the kiddos (like adding leaves of things we were thankful for, or opening an envelope every day to find a new fun activity that we would do with the family), but the child and mommy made was nice too. PLEASE help me!! Send me any ideas that you can think of!! PLEASE!!

Thankful tree when it frist went up.

Up close of our envelope advent calendar.

Thankful tree on Thanksgiving.

Advent Calendar.

WALL of Love!