Advent 2011 Day 16 - Fingerprint Christmas Tree Cards

It's another crafty project...We are making goody bags for some of the single soldiers we know here and the kids have been making some different fun Christmas cards to go in them. The kids love playing with the stamps and ink pads, so I told them we'd try to make some Christmas trees with our fingerprints...

I was thinking we'd do something like this....

But the kids had fun making their own style of pretty fingerprint pictures!  :)

They turned out cute and colorful and will be a great addition to the bags.  :)

Samuel loved playing in the stamps and ink pads too!

Advent 2011 Day 15 - Army Family Christmas Party

Tonight was our Battalion Christmas party... the highlight was definitely getting to talk to Santa. We've had a lot of talks about 'Santa' in our house and read the stories of the real St. Nick...but we all think that our Army Santa was pretty cool this year and the kids were excited to get to visit with him for a bit.  :)

There was a craft table at the party and Joy and Joshua both made Santa cards before we went over to see him.  :)

She's thinking about what she wants for Christmas....  :)

Didn't get a very clear one of Faith and Santa, but she enjoyed talking to him too!

Advent 2011 Day 14 - Snowman Pancakes

Tonight was our last night of Awana until January so we had a quick activity since our evening was going to be a busy one. We ate snowman pancakes and had breakfast for dinner!

We were going to use chocolate chips for the face and buttons, but somehow I was out of chocolate chips! So we used candy...I know, not the most nutritious addition to an already sugar filled meal, but it was fun. :) And Samuel was especially excited about the "M&M's"! He kept telling everyone that he had them.

Advent 2011 Day 13 - Angel Tree Delivery

Today we had the awesome opportunity to go help deliver the Angel Tree gifts from Peter's unit to the Korean kids. We loved it! And the kids are already asking when we can go back and play with them.  :)

It's a Korean thing to make the 'peace' sign when getting their picture taken...It always makes us laugh a little, but they all do it, the young and the old, LOL! :)

They were very taken with Samuel and the other blonde haired kids...

We got to share a snack and played with them for awhile before giving them their gifts.

I was so amazing at how cross cultural 'play' is. We couldn't speak their language and they couldn't speak ours, and yet all the kids had a wonderful time together and were sad to have to leave their new friends when we had to go. 

Joshua taught one the boys how to play "thumb war"....there was a lot of this and arm wrestling going on!

Joy was dancing with several of the kids.  :)

One of the girls that Joy played with most of the time we were there cried when we left...  :(

And this little boy followed us all the way out to our car and was jumping and waving and saying "thank you"...one of the few english words he knew... till we were gone. 

It was such a great experience for all of us and the kids are already talking about what we can do for them for next year.  :) God is good.

Advent 2011 Day 12 - Candy Cane Christmas Mice!

Our advent activity tonight was to make some Candy Cane Christmas Mice and hang them on our neighbor's doors after they were finished. I think they turned out SO cute! And they were super easy to make.  :)

We cut a 'mouse shaped' body out of green felt, then a long rectangle out of red felt, then we rounded off then ends of the rectangle. We cut a slit at the back end of the body and another one at the 'nose' and pushed the candy cane through from one end to the other. The curved part of the candy cane looks like the tail and the other end that just barely sticks out at the front makes the nose.  :)

Add some googly eyes and slide your red felt rounded rectangle through two slits you make on the top and make the 'ears' face forward and you're done! :)

We have 5 neighbors on our floor of our building so we made 5 mice. They all turned out so cute but are all so different looking!

We attached a Merry Christmas note to each one with a little gold thread and then set out to hang them on everyone's doors...

One of our neighbors has their door wrapped up pretty in wrapping paper and we didn't want our tape to rip it, so we just hung theirs on the wall outside their door...

But the rest of the mice looked like this on everyone's doors when we were finished.  :)  They were VERY fun and SO easy to make, so we are definitely going to make these again!

Advent 2011 Day 11 - A Yummy Dessert

Advent Activity for tonight....to make Muddy Buddies! A yummy dessert that some dear friends of ours over here introduced us too. The kids have been asking me to make it for weeks now, so tonight we finally did!

It's just Crispix cereal drizzled and covered in melted peanut butter and chocolate. Then we put some into baggies with powdered sugar to coat. (I only divided it up this much so that everyone could have their own bag to SHAKE!)

Shaking it all up was the most fun part...  :)

That was it! Then it was delicious and ready to eat....and we did!

Everyone enjoyed our evening snack very much.  :)

 A little messy, but good.  :)

Miss Bree's!

I've got a new Facebook page for one of my many hobbies...

Click on this link and it'll take you right there.... Miss Bree's  :)

I've created a Facebook 'shop' page for my handmade doll clothes and pretty things I love to make.  :) Here are a few of my newest creations...