North Pole Breakfast

I am having to play catch-up because I was having issues with uploading pics here. So let me back up to right after Thanksgiving.

The Sunday after Thanksgiving is when we decorate for Christmas. This year I decided to jump on the "Elf on the Shelf" bandwagon because I knew the kids would have a blast with it. We started the day off with a North Pole Breakfast, which was all set up for when the kids woke up. They loved it. They even had a present to open!

The table set-up

Rudolph Donuts

So excited!

Daddy introducing them to their elf, whom they named Rocky.

Soy milk is always better if you drink it through a fun straw!

The favorite item on the menu!

After breakfast we got cleaned up and headed up to a tree farm that was about an hour north of us. Jamey and I had both grown up cutting our own trees for Christmas and we haven't been able to do that with our kids because of where we were living. When we moved to Colorado I knew there had to be a place to cut your own tree, so I looked online and found a few. We decided to try out this one, but we will try a different one next year because there was such a slim selection. Here are a few pics from the farm.

When we got home it was time to pull out all the decorations. The kiddos enjoyed helping me decorate the tree, though I secretly moved a few they had hung so the tree wouldn't be too loaded around the bottom front!

All lit up at night and so pretty!

Our Friday Christmas Activities

After we spent time in our classroom, we headed off to the library, so our structured school time was pretty short today. Josh is really loving his school time and gets excited when he knows it's his turn. Today's activities came from Over the Big Moon and Confessions of a Homeschooler.

Playing at our play dough table. I made a Christmas tree for Callie and she decorated it.

Josh: "Mommy, take a picture of this!" So I did.

Scooping rice into a container.

They were really good about picking up any rice that spilled.

Putting snowmen in order.

Cutting. After I took the pic, I had to go hold the paper for him because he can't do it by himself yet.

Matching pictures to their shadows.

Counting the pictures and placing a jewel on the correct number.

We made pipe cleaner candy canes.

Very proud of his candy cane.

Counting the candy canes.

Another set of 3 part cards.

Story time with daddy!

A few of our Christmas Activities

We haven't really done that much this week as far as school work goes. I don't really know why, it's just been one of those weeks. The activities that Callie is working on in these pictures came from Over the Big Moon and PreKinders.

Developing their fine motor skills by making their own lunch. I also allow them to cut soft things like bananas and olives with a butter knife.

Playing with playdough. The playdough ABC mat came from 1+1+1=1.

Callie working on some Christmas 3 part cards.

She was supposed to color each tree the correct color. I wasn't watching closely and I cam back to find that she had colored the first tree green (though she did color the star red). She wanted the color the trees the color they should be in real life. When I gave her the instructions again, she quickly became bored and didn't want to do it, so we moved on and never completed this one. Oh-well!

Sorting activity. She got a little glue happy!

Using our pattern blocks to make a wreath.