I Love the Christmas Season!!!

Today which is the day after Alexis’ birthday, we had our Keepers Christmas Party.  Since I had Book Club at my house yesterday, and a get together for Alexis later in the evening, I was grateful and thankful that I did not have to plan this party.  One of our wonderful Moms did.    I know she worked hard planning the party, and everything turned out great!  The room looked very festive with red and green tablecloths and centerpieces on each table. 

This year we have our biggest group of girls ever.  !!!25!!!  Each one of our Moms has truly been a blessing to the group, and I am thankful for all of them.

We held our party at our church. What a huge blessing it is that our church lets us use the facilities to hold all of our meetings and events.  Each mom brought a dish to share.  I enjoy doing this, as I love tasting other peoples recipes.  The Mom who was in charge of the party made a delicious eggnog trifle dessert.  It was so good that I just had to ask her for the recipe.   I plan to serve it at our Christmas meal. I don’t know what else we’re having yet, but the important part of the meal is now planned. 

Each year as a Thank You to our church staff, several of the Moms and their girls bake Christmas cookies to give to them.   After our luncheon, some of the moms took the girls around the church to pass the cookies out to everyone. 

A Cookie Stop at our Church Office

While a few of the moms took all the girls on the cookie round, some of us stayed behind and cleaned up - to get everything set for the girl's craft extravaganza.  Our sweet mom who planned the party had many activities waiting for the girls when they returned.

Making Chocolate Dipped Spoons

This was the chocolate spoon dipping station.  After crushing some candy canes with the bottoms of their mugs, the girls dipped several spoons into melted chocolate and sprinkled candy cane pieces onto the spoons.  Then they wrapped them up to give as gifts, although I suspect that some of the girls made a snack out of them later that afternoon.

Painting Salt Dough Ornaments

Mitten Bookmarks

I wish I had taken a photo of the last craft station, but somehow I missed it.  The girls made swirl painted Christmas ornaments.  (The kind where you pour a couple of acrylic paints into a clear round glass ornament.)  Alexis' turned out beautiful, and is hanging on our tree now.

After the food and crafts - it was on to the award ceremony...

Each of the girls earned badges for Plastic Canvas, Special Needs, and Soap Making.  Soem worked on additional badges at home with their moms.

After the awards were passed out, the girls had a book exchange.  They all left the party with their arms full.  I am sure they had a wonderful time – I am so thankful for my sweet friend who worked very hard to make all of our Keeper Girls happy. 

I am looking forward to the 2nd half of our Keepers year.  It has been tremendous fun so far!!! 

My Baby Turned 10 Today!

I can hardly believe how fast the years have flown!  Alexis is our 3rd, and youngest child - our bonus baby!  She is 7 & 8 years younger than her siblings.  The Lord had had a plan, and knew what He was doing when He brought her into this family.  I remember the day she was born.  She was quiet!  She didn't cry, but instead looked around the room as if to say - What are you all doing?  I must be missing out on something, and I'll soon find out what it is!  She certainly has stayed observant!

Alexis asks lots of deep questions.  She wants to understand everything!  She challenges me almost every day when we read the Bible.  When she was really young, she asked why God let Adam name all the animals, and did not save any for her to name.  Too funny!!!  A couple of her recent questions were, "Where is the Garden of Eden."  and "Why  asked where the Garden of Eden is located, and Why did God put the Tree of Knowledge in the Garden of Eden in the first place?" and those are her easier questions!  Alexis is my social butterfly.

Somewhere between the ages of 1 and 2, before she could really speak, Alexis decided that she wanted to go bye bye.  Where?  I have no clue!  She could not verbally tell me, but she did her best to communicate her sentiment to me anyway!  She got my shoes and tried to put them on my feet.  After I got that message and obeyed her by putting them on myself, she pushed me to the door in my kitchen that led into the garage, (where the car was parked.)  I asked her is she wanted to go bye bye, and she nodded her head yes.  I will never know where she wanted to go, maybe she just didn't care - as long as we got out of the house...  She is still like that today!  Alexis is not content unless she has gone somewhere, or had friends over.

A few weeks ago, my husband's car had to be put in the shop so he needed to use mine for work.  Alexis and I did not go anywhere during that time.  She was sure to let me know that we were home waaay too long - and thought it was one of the longest weeks of her life.  The car was only in the shop for 2 1/2 days, but that's our on the go girl!  Most of the time she does get constant on the go time.  Piano lessons, acro and jazz lessons, book club, co-op, Keeper's AWANA, Sunday School, lots of field trips, and play dates with friends keep us running.  If she were enrolled in formal school, I'm afraid she wouldn't be able to get enough social time!!!  lol!!!  

Alexis enjoys playing the piano and practices without being told.  We call her Tigger because she is extremely active ~ so tumbling, twirling, bouncing, and rolling during acro fit well with her personality.  She loves spending time with friends, and looks forward to seeing them as often as possible.  Alexis loves the Lord and works hard at memorizing Bible verses for AWANA and Sunday School.  Alexis has a quick wit.  She has a strong continence, she's amazingly generous, tenderhearted, and kind to friends.  She is also caring toward her family.  When I am sick, she wants to nurse me back to health.  She'll bring me a tray with water, medicine, crackers, or whatever else she thinks I'll need to get better.  She is always sure to add a homemade get well card to go with it.

Alexis is extremely loving to her Grandparents.  Last week we were scheduled to take my in-laws to the doctor and my mother-in-law called to ask if we could come over early because my father-in-law was feeling weak.  She thought that he may need the wheel chair at the doctors office.  We left promptly, and as soon as Alexis and i got to their house, she hopped out of the van and went inside while I put the wheel chair in the trunk.  I planned to go inside to help my father-in-law to the van after that, but as I was closing the trunk, I looked up and there was Alexis guiding her Granddaddy out of the house and marching him to the van.  I cannot tell you how relieved I was that she was able to do this.  With him having Alzheimer's Disease, it is sometimes incredibly difficult to get him to follow directions.  Alexis saw that a job had to be done, and just comfortably took care of it.  I love her take charge attitude!  I also love to spend time with her, and feel blessed to be her teacher and her mother.

I am sooo not wishing the time away, but I am looking forward to seeing what the Lord will bring her way in the next 10 years.

Alexis made the cake, I made the frosting and spread it for her.  Then she decorated it all by herself.  Can you tell?  She was quite proud of her cake decorating techniques!

Alexis' Book Club friends celebrated her birthday with her.  We hosted and she chose some fun "Revolutionary War" era crafts to do as a go along with the book Toliver's Secret.

Alexis waited patiently until the end of the day to open her presents from family.  She still had enough energy to be really excited!  I love her enthusiasm!!!

My Most Favorite Co-op Day of the Year...

Christmas Craft Day

Maybe it’s because I love Christmas… or maybe it is because I love to see the look on each child’s face when they get ready to take their craft home.  Probably a little of both – but each year I truly look forward to this day.     

First I get to plan out what the students are going to make.  Then I get up early on the Friday after Thanksgiving – yes! – Black Friday – and do my shopping for it.  Sounds crazy… but that is the day that Michael’s and JoAnn’s give you 20%-25% off of your entire order – even on sale items.  After I buy my bargains, I go home and spend a few hours trying to find a place in my house for about 15 bags full of craft supplies.  My husband just shakes his head and says, "Here we go again!’   He says this because he knows that there will be something he has to do to help me make this happen. 

This year 18 of our 3rd -5th graders made Snowmen!   Not just any old snowmen, but candy dish snowmen. 

We used fish or ivy bowls that can be bought at any craft store.  My dear husband sprayed each of them with a matt base spray paint so that the children could paint them with acrylic paint and it would adhere to the glass.  (See my husband was right… he knew he would be helping with this project.)  He also helped with the hats.  They are made out of craft foam.  You can’t see it, but I used fancy scissors to cut the brims of the hats.  I used a salad plate to make the pattern.  Then I cut a tight hole in the center.  If it is too loose, the hat will flop.  From there, I cut straight strips of foam that would encircle the tops of the bowls.  I found another object in my house smaller than the salad plate to make a circle pattern for the top of the hat.  Then my husband wrapped the strips around the circles and stapled the strips so that the circle/tops could later be placed just inside the top of the circle/strip (to be used as a lid.)

We had the students use cut up kitchen sponges to paint a white acrylic textured pattern on the snowman.  The noses are actually wooden spruce trees – found at Michaels.  After the children painted their bowls, we had them paint the trees orange to turn them into carrot noses! 

While the bowls and carrots were drying, we started our sock snowmen.  (More on that later.)  Once they were mostly dry – about 20 minutes – the children worked on the faces.  For time sake, I found sticky googly eyes at JoAnns to use.  The eyes could easily be painted on though.  It is just that we had 2 projects to complete in 50 minutes with 18 students.  Time was of the essence!  Even though the eyes had sticky backs, they still needed reinforcing with a little extra glue.  While gluing the eyes, they also glued the  noses to the bowl.  [I found this great glue at Joann's called Beacon's 3-in-1 Advanced Craft Glue.  It drys super fast and works as good as hot glue.  It is waterproof though so be careful.]  After gluing, the children made their pink circle cheeks with some round paint brushes.  Finally they finished their part by using the back point of a paintbrush to paint dots of black for the mouths.  This was the suggestion of my daughter Amanda – who has quite a knack for coming up with great easy helpful hints when it comes to arts and crafts.   After the students placed their snowmen on some wax paper outside, two moms completed the projects by spraying high gloss finish on them and then sprinkling some sparkly glitter over it for a cute finish.  

As I was saying… They also made sock snowmen. 

We have 3 because Alexis enjoyed this project so much that she came home and made more!  Thankfully I tried making a demo of this before our craft day.  I used suggestions off of the internet, but had great problems combining rice with  fiberfill.  I also had problems keeping it steady using just rice.  I almost scrapped this project, but then went on the internet one last time to see if I could find one more idea to help keep the sock snowmen supported.  The Lord is good!!!  I found an idea that worked!  Wide mouth canning jar dome lids – this size worked well using men's ankle socks.  First place the lid down into the sock before you add the rice  Next add 2 cups of rice to the bottom of the snowman.  Straighten and adjust as needed, then place a rubber band around the sock.  After that we added 1 cup of rice and then last, another rubber band.  To finish, you just pull the remaining part of the sock down over the head of the snowman to make it look like they have ski type hats on.  The children decorated them by gluing buttons on the body, and wrapping a scarf around the neck.  They also used fabric markers to create their faces.  Some children used googly eyes, some drew their own eyes.  Some decorated the hats with pom-poms too.

As each child came back to my room at the end of the afternoon to pick up their snowmen, they seemed so pleased with their work.  I was pleased too, that their projects turned out so well.  I love working with homeschooled children.  We are so blessed to have a great group of them in our co-op.  We are blessed too, that our church allows our co-op the opportunity to use the facilities for fun times such as these.  Above all, we are blessed that God sent His only Son down to us, so that we can have eternal life – and a Christmas to celebrate each year.