One of the ways to share my kids work :-)

I am blessed to have a little artist in my home, my son loves more than anything to create and make drawings, paintings and various artwork that I love to keep and treasure.  However, with 4 kids in the house, the archives of school and art work soon mount up to levels that I have no idea where to keep!

One idea I had earlier in the year was to utilise this cute little display board that I got from Kmart, hung centrally in our home, above my craft/organisation station that I change the pictures on to suit an event that may be going on, or just because I love them.. I did a display for Mother's Day of the kids craft they bought home from school and now again, their Christmas craft.. Im just loving these snowmen! they have taken pride of place on the fridge for weeks before now moving onto the display board today..

Other areas I store the kids artwork is on their own pinboards in their rooms, on the front of our fridge (the kids love putting their piccies on their to give to me) and each of them have a folder or sketch book which I collect and collate their various artworks into.  I am of course behind in doing this, so will need to get working on this during these school holidays!

Project Life Tuesday.. A restart after slackness!

Monday 29th November - Sunday 5th December..

Monday 29th..
Iv saved this spot..

Tuesday 30th..

Last day of work before the holidays! YAY! Great time to send other teachers out their presents.. kids loved giving these to their teachers today! Hope next years teachers are just as good..

Wednesday 1st..
Bought and decorated our new christmas tree!

Thursday 2nd..
Santa Photo!

Friday 3rd..
Christmas Crackers.. Had so much fun making these from scratch..

Saturday 4th..
Christmas Baking.. We made yummy cinamon crumble muffins in santa cases!

Sunday 5th..
Hubby Cooking Dinner after a day of christmas shopping.. needed a break!

Crackers over Christmas!

This is a simple craft activity that my Mum did with us as kids and it is something I enjoy making each year at Christmastime too.  I don't think it is much more cost effective than buying Christmas crackers, because they are relatively inexpensive these days, however, you end up getting better quality items on the inside of your cracker than just a simple hat and joke!  It is a great craft activity for the kids to get involved with too and Indigo and I had a lot of fun on Friday afternoon making our first batch for the year!

What you will need:

* Cardboard tubes (toilet rolls, paper towel rolls etc) as many as you require.

* Different coloured Christmas wrapping paper

* Sticky Tape

* Curling ribbon

* Fillings for the crackers; i.e chocolates, mini toys, jokes, balloons etc.

Start by filling the cardboard tubes with your assorted fillings. For this batch my son chose, Cadbury Time Out chocolates, Freddo Frogs and some wrapped lollies, put a cross of sticky tape over each end of the tube to stop the fillings falling out.  Place the cardboard tube onto a sheet of wrapping paper and roll it up, leaving an overhang at the end of the tube.  Use your curling ribbon to tie off each end.. I find it best not to twist the ends, rather use the ribbon to tie them in, curl the ribbons to make them look pretty.  And there you have a very simple Christmas cracker. 

When the kids pull them on the day, make them say 'Bang!' lol, it adds to the fun and something we thought was good fun as kids.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

We have spent the past couple of days decorating our home for the festive season, which has been a lot of fun. I have decorated a little more than in previous years, but both the kids and I are loving it! Christmas comes but once a year after all.. so why not!

Each year on Dec 1'st we start by putting up our Christmas tree, I decided to buy a new tree this year as I happened to be in Target on Wednesday and they had 40% off all tree's and ornaments.  I did love our old tree, but I have always wanted a fir style tree (the ones with the bottle brush branches) so I decided to buy one at the right price! We have a tradition when putting up our tree that we have a full roast dinner, play Christmas carols and afterwards the kids watch a Christmas movie. 

Iv also decorated doorways, the mantel, the bookshelf and many other areas of our home this year, love wherever we go, we are reminded that it is Christmas!  I particularly love this metal sign that I purchased from Bed Bath N Table this year to put up in our entry.

I got the idea to put the greenery and baubles at the Christmas Shop in the Sunshine Coast Hinterland.

Loving this cute little bird from Bunnings for only $4

Added a little bit of Christmas to our table centrepiece.  

I don't believe my decorating is finished as yet and hubby is going to start on putting up our Christmas lights outside this afternoon.  Tomorrow I am going to post about our homemade Christmas crackers..

Gifts for Teachers..

It is well and truly the silly season and with the school year coming to a close, I had 4 teachers to buy for to thank them for looking after my kidlets over the past year - and what an ask that can be at times!

I like to purchase an ornament for the Teachers, last year I bought gorgeous silver angels as the kids all had female teachers. This year, I had 2 male teachers to buy for and didn't think pretty silver angels were going to be all that suitable! I did still buy pretty glittery ornaments for the 2 female teachers, pictured is Indigo's teachers gift, the word WISH, I thought this a pretty gift that could be used all year round.

I managed to pick up the gift bags in Kmart for $3 for a pack of 4 and made the tags up myself, I also added a metal gift tag that read 'Merry Christmas' also from Kmart (pack of 6 - only $2!). The other female teacher had the word 'Joy', and the two male teachers a clear glass ornament, nutcracker figure - all teamed with chocolate. 

I was watching on parade this morning and noticed the teachers arms laden with gifts from so many grateful boys and girls in their classes, it is good to see their hard work being appreciated! 

Advent calendars and putting the Christmas Tree up tomorrow! Can't wait..

Christmas Goodie Bags..

A couple of weeks ago, the kids created their own handmade christmas cards to give to their friends at school. Tonight we made goodie bags to attach these cards to and got them all finished so they can hand them out to their friends in the lead up to the christmas holidays (which is only one week away!) Im so glad we made the cards early as the weeks have gone by so quickly! 

In the goodie bags (I ended up getting this clear bag from Spotlight, I went on a looooong search for patterned bags, but couldn't find any!) we placed a Christmas pencil, candy cane and christmas stickers into the bag, tied it off with coordinating curling ribbon and attached one of the homemade tags. Im really happy with the way they have turned out and its just a little something to spread some christmas cheer to the boys friends!

My eldest two, rather than hand out goodie bags are opting to hand out candy canes - Tyler (10) was ecstatic to find Star Wars candy canes & Hayley (9) requested no peppermint ones.. (what happened to the good old days where candy canes were just white with stripes and tasted like peppermint???) We ended up with fruit flavoured ones (I must admit they were rather nice & taste-tested a few whilst doing the goodie bags tonight!) With only 1 month to go, Christmas is certainly in full swing! Next on the agenda, Christmas cards for family/friends & Teacher's gifts.. more posts to come over the next day or so!

Happy Birthday Hayley! :-)

I would like to take this opportunity to say a big Happy Birthday to my lovely Step-Daughter, Hayley! 9 today! I hope your day is filled with fun and laughter & your year is the best ever yet!  Dad and I are proud of the lengths you have gone to in the past year to continually strive forward and do your best to achieve everything your heart desires. Happy 9th Birthday from us all. 

Hayley's cupcakes I made were a real hit and I loved using my new cake display!

    Blow out the '10' candles (oops.. my error) and make a wish!

Only one 'family' birthday left this year, next on the agenda is hubby's on the 29th December.

Christmas is next on the planning agenda!