{kinda not so cute} christmas sweater day at school

I love a good student council that chooses activities that gets everyone participating. Amelia's school has a some pretty great activities and 'ugly sweater day' peaked a lot of interest I am sure ;P

Amelia talked about it during the week so we brainstormed a few ideas and then I picked up a few tiny ornaments and we got creative so it was ready for today.  I had also saved a reindeer hairstyle on Pinterest to see if little miss would like to have her hair done up all festive too, a big YES!! She was so excited going off to school today and was eager to tell me about the different shirts other kiddos had. A junior high class came to help her class with a craft today and she always has a blast with her big 'buddies'. School is cool!

~ Mrs. P

Gingerbread Date

We have some great friends here. Momma's who I admire, who are real and who I can seek their insight on parenting 'stuff'.  Tina and Liane are gems!!!!  Liane has their house listed so I feel like any playdate I have with her is so precious.  Tina hosted and Liane brought a fun activity for the kids, gingerbread men.  The littles loved it and it is such a fun activity for the season.  Stella was so proud!

~ Mrs. P

Cookies & Milk with Santa

The local historical society runs a lovely program through early December, 

Cookies & Milk with Santa.

When we heard last year that Santa gets invited to the local museum I knew it would probably be pretty special and it was. This year our cousins, Jacey and Neely were able to join in so it was pretty special.  Graham sent me these pictures and seriously how lovely.

Love this time of year and all of the beautiful little things we can do with our children.

~ Mrs. P

Ward Christmas Party

The girls were able to have a super fun day, Cookies & Milk with Santa and then the Ward Christmas Party at the church....a day full of absolute delight for them!

The flu has hit our house and after the girls I was the next casualty sadly having to miss the days events. Sickness is just not cool, not cool at all.  Graham ended up being the solo parent. For the ward party my Young Women jumped right in and made sure the little ladies had a blast at the photo booth. I have some really great YW and feel blessed to serve them. The girls were able to have a visit Santa again.

We have lived in Fort Saskatchewan for 10 years now so the saying 'Ward Family' really feels quite true.  The people we see each Sunday (and Tuesday for me with YW) have become not just friends but folks who I know we could call on if we were in need.  Church provides such a great support system.  There are families there that we admire and strive to emulate their parenting ways and there are ladies there who I feel like I could go to with mom questions. We are blessed!

 

PHOTO BOOTH FUN

 Oh such little dears! hehehe

 

Each little lady received a gift bag from Santa and Amelia's contained a mustache, she insisted that her dad put it on haha!!

~ Mrs. P

toothless

 

This girl has been eagerly waiting for her teeth to get loose. She has been working away at the bottom little tooth for a while now. We knew that it was so very close to coming out, we both tried but really wanted to let her make it happen.  After school colouring at her little table, all of a sudden there was excited screaming and the tooth was out!!!!!!! We had two books that we read and an adorable pillow to leave out for the toothfairy ;)

More excited screaming in the morning when the discovery of the $ in the pillow! These are thrilling milestones I tell ya.

~ Momma P

'R' is for Riendeer

Our little Stella Bella has a great little Joy School group.  They are darling and so capable! I was a wee bit sad to only have one day in December (we rotate), I immediately knew what I would do when I checked the sheet and learned we would be focusing on the letter 'R'.....REINDEER!!!!

Snacks can't always coordinate BUT I had seen an idea on Instagram for the rice crispy squares and simply had to duplicate. They were sooooo cute. We had extra candies and chocolate so decided to make some of our ginger snaps Reindeer too!  

It ended up that the two other little ladies in our group were sick, so just Stella and Will became Reindeer and were my crafting/kitchen assistants.  They were just the cutest!

~ Mrs P

tis the season {new CHRISTMAS decor}

I just LOVE LOVE LOVE the holidays!!!!

Every year about this time I have oodles that I want to document on the blog but about a bazillion different Christmas activities we are doing like most people...blogging sometimes takes a back seat sadly.   Added to our usual traditions, concerts and parties I was actually hired (as in someone paid me) to help decorate their home for the holidays. It was unreal!!!!  I have never helped anyone for money before but it was both nerve wracking and fun. So the last week and a half of November I was busy working on that, while simultaneously getting our house decorated. The client was pleased and through my shopping/DIYing/secondhand store looking for her home I ended up creating a few new things to add to our own home.  A friend came and took photos so I will blog those once I get them back.  I really want our home to be clean and uncluttered but I love a lot of 'things' and lots of them are meaningful so not everything gets put out every year.  I am super pleased with the additions to Christmas decor this year though, a few are likely to become musts.

Snowman mugs and a Hot Chocolate Station: I saw this idea and promptly had to copy!! Since the picture below I added the words "Baby it's Cold" in vinyl to the jars.  The girls think it is the coolest thing ever! The mugs were a great find at Value Village, you just never know what gems you might find there :)

HOHOHO: This marquee was a must buy, it is the coolest thing ever!!! I thought it would look so rad on the ledge in our house next to the globes. Then I had this vision of a tacky light up Santa up there too.  Alas the Santa I found just didn't fit up there. I am pleased with it's final spot though.

  

Santa: Generally for Christmas I like to focus on the Savior but the HOHOHO got me pursuing the magic of Santa a wee bit. I have been on a second hand store/Value Village roll.  This Santa was $7...a steal! It is old and worn and perfect next to my vintage wood sleigh which was a great find last year for $10. I love a good vintage piece.  Graham and I made the believe sign.  

I was also so pleased to see the fresh wreaths were out last week and promptly picked some up for our front door. Hanging fresh wreaths is right up there with Christmas cards for me, seriously love them.  I LOVE making up our wreaths and I added two little baskets of greenery beefed up with some of my red and gold supplies (I have a bin I pull out with random supplies). 

Such a little pleasure for me!

 We put the tree in a different spot this year but we had such a great time decorating it as a family. The girls were ever so patient because we set it up one weekend, I worked that whole week on the client's home and then finally the following week we turned on some Christmas music and got things looking pretty at our house.

Wood wreath/Christmas Word Sign: So the wreath we hung up on the fireplace isn't fancy BUT I wanted it simple and am pretty happy how it looks 10ft up. The Christmas word sign wasn't planned to be on our mantle, I put it up there to hang out till we pulled out all of our other decorations but it totally ended up needing to be there this year :)

 Mat: I might have an addiction to stenciling on mats. I taught a class for our Super Saturday at church last week, helping ladies make entrance mats. So easy and so cute...I think!

 New Chalkboard Message: This board isn't new BUT the message is! I really enjoy changing our chalkboards up. It is such a pleasure for me.

 

I have other plans but we will see what else I can convince my husband to help me with and what I can carve out time to create.  Our big girl just came down with the flu :( home from school and said her tummy was hurting and it started, yuck! Poor girl. Hope it doesn't make its way through our family.

~ Mrs. P