The Adventures of Elfie 2012: Part 1

It seems to have become an unintended tradition. During the late fall and winter months, this little blog becomes extremely neglected. It's not that I mean to, or want to, there just are not enough hours in the day. For the past few weeks, our adventures have been never ending; from the first day of pre-school and Kindergarten for each of our little guys, spending time in the classroom, a birthday celebration and cramming all of the holiday prepping into a few short weeks. One day, I will begin sporadic Christmas shopping in July and have it all completed by Thanksgiving. One day.

 

We have also been especially busy chasing Elfie from one end of the house to the other. I have decided to create a 2-part post on the Adventures of Elfie 2012, to share some of the fun we've been having.

 

For those of you who are not familiar with the Elf on the Shelf concept, Santa sends a "spy elf" to homes around Thanksgiving, to keep an eye out on the children and observe their behavior. Each night, the spy elf flies to the North Pole to report back to Santa - good or bad - and then flies back to a new spot in the house. Elfie arrived last year and spent a couple of weeks with us before flying off with Santa on Christmas Eve. Over the past year, I have amassed a drawer full of letters to Elfie and Santa that the boys sent, pictures they have drawn and gifts they have sent. Daddy Elfie was sweet enough to write back to them twice, and you'd have thought they hit the jackpot! Needless to say, Elfie was missed every day while he was gone.

 

So, this year, we decided to make things a little more exciting, rather than just having him sit in different places around the house. Thanks to Pinterest for many of the initial suggestions that help us get going when we hit a block.

 

Elfie arrived the morning after Thanksgiving - and while I was worried at the end of last year that we'd possibly forget to bring him out, we had two little boys who counted down the days to Thanksgiving, knowing their little friend was going to return! He made himself at home with a hot chocolate and slice of pumpkin persimmon pie.

"Mom! Elfie is here! He came back!"

Elfie has been found all over the house... playing the Memory Game...

"flipping race cars" like Clayton taught him the day before...

playing in mom's jewelry box (this was daddy's idea!)...

making a snow angel with shredded coconut he found in the fridge...

chatting with the snowmen about what their cousins in the North Pole have been up to...

Elfie even got a hold of a dry erase pen and marked up the boys' pictures! (another one of Daddy's ideas).

I picked up these hat and antlers window stickers at Target for $4 or $5 and wasn't sure what to do with them... Elfie found them! Looks like he's still got that dry erase pen...

One morning there was even a report card (Daddy again!), Whew! So far, they both still made the good list!

Hanging out on top of the "castle" as the boys call it.

This is a great reminder that there is nothing more important than good friends! Elfie rounded up the snuggle favorites while the boys were asleep, for milk and chocolates. The boys spent the day sharing chocolate kisses with these guys!

The morning of Clayton's birthday, Elfie found the extra crepe paper, left over from the curtain I hung on his bedroom doorway, and created a swing for himself over the dining room table.

The Rudolph in our living room must have been making Elfie homesick... he slung up some reins ... maybe they went for a ride during the night... we will never know... ;)

When Elfie heard that Grammy and Pop were coming for the weekend, he decided he needed to look up this Pop guy... and where else than the Grand Slammers section of the big horn sheep magazine.

The Lego table was a lot of fun, building a village and a train with the farm animal friends.

While Grammy was here, Elfie left a trail of mini-marshmallows from the boys' rooms through the house to where he'd filled their stockings with more mallows. (I didn't get a picture of the trail in time... little fingers ate the trail from the bedrooms within about 5 minutes!)

Catching up with friends at the 49er Stadium in the 49er village.

Mom and Dad got some giggles out of this one! We thought that maybe the new guy was making the rest of the snuggle friends a little bit jealous, so they decided to break in the new Nerf birthday gifts and "rough him up a little"!

 

We've got more Elfie adventures to come, after Christmas, I'll post the rest of the photos.

 

We wish you all a Very Merry Christmas!!

 

Halloween painting project

Since I've become somewhat of a Pinterest additct pro, I've decided that I really need to be more serious about actually trying out things I've pinned, instead of just collecting them.

 

I have discovered that Baking Soda is a fantastic cleaner, especially with some of our hard water issues; a simple 15 minute workout can leave you searching for the handrail in the bathroom for two days; there are some Yummy recipes to be found and there are Tutorials for anything I could ever want to attempt on my own.

 

Here are some of the kids projects that I've pinned... that I've never tried! What's the point of searching out activities to do with your kids if you're not going to do them? A couple of months ago I came across this adorable canvas snowflake painting project! I thought it would be a perfect rainy day activity, the only problem was ... I didn't want to wait that long!

 

So... I ran out and picked up a couple of canvases, put them in a drawer, and waited for the middle of September to pass, so we could do our own Fall rendition!

 

First we gathered our materials: canvas, masking tape, paints, brushes

 

 

 First, use the masking tape to outline your print. The pin I found was for snowlfakes - we opted for Jack-o-Lanterns! Be sure you press the tape down cleanly on the canvas.

 

Then choose your color palate - we went with brown, red, orange and yellow.

 

 

Paint your canvas - All Of It! Cover the tape, the full board and around the edges. This part was a bit harder to explain. The oldest was doing his best to paint a "real" Jack-o-Lantern!





The next step - Wait. Wait until the paint has dried completely. We opted for over night. This was the hardest step of them all! 

I get a kick out of this one! Their personalities really come through in the end result of their paint trays!

 The next morning, we peeled off the tape... aaannnddd... 

 



  Ta- Da! I used a Sharpie to outline the paint border as suggested in the snowflake post. This makes a Huge difference in the image.

 These adorable works of art will be with us through Thanksgiving! We are already on the hunt for a canvas sale, so we can make one for each Holiday!

 

Red, White & Blue-berries!

Thank you to Kelly Rivard for letting me share this fantastic 4th of July message! Check her out at kellymrivard.com!

In honor of our Nation's Birthday, we celebrated with a Red, White & Blue snack! Beautiful strawberries, blueberries and a dollop of whip cream!

The boys were extra excited to use the blueberries that they bought at the Farmer's Market!

Deee-lish!!

From our family to yours, we wish you a very

Happy and Safe 4th of July!

It is time for the tree to come down

First... one small disclaimer... Do. Not. Try. This. At. Home!

On New Year's day, our Christmas tree finally came down. I do not say "finally" because Christmas passed all that long ago, merely a short week before... No, I say "finally" because the poor thing was dried to a crisp. It had stopped taking in any water about a week before Christmas, and would drop no less than 75 needles if you so much as happened to brush against it walking past.

While our little guys were sad to see it go, we saw it as the opportunity to discuss proper fire safety. Our older son knows that if there is a fire, they are to get out and go to the office across the yard to wait for help. It is difficult to convey the fact that you just might not have much time to act.

So we took our tree to a clear spot on the property, where there was water on hand, should it be needed. The tree was laid on it's side, since we had already removed the stand. Keep in mind, the results would have been more drastic had it been standing upright.

All it took was a single wooden match near the lower portion of the tree...

And there it went...

It helps to note that our tree was in the 7-foot category, and the flames are instantly shooting Much higher in the air than the length of the tree.

The heat was Intense, and in an instant, the entire tree was engulfed...

and gone. I took these photos as fast as my little Cannon would let me. From match to charcoal, the whole thing took Less than a minute and a half. I am sure that it would have gone even faster had the tree been standing upright... even upright, inside our dining room, with added fuel nestled beside it.

The girls were very curious as to what was going on!

So just a friendly reminder... if the Christmas tree is still a part of your home decor, you just may want to rethink your theme.

From all of us here in Central California, Happy New Year!