Advent: 9 December

Today has been a fun day as Grandma and Grandad came to visit us! This does mean that most of our time was spent with them rather than doing our activities. Not many photos either, but I thought I'd share this one of my beautiful pickles!

Caleb's surprised by the flash!

Jesse Tree Activity

I had wondered whether I'd have time to do a Passover plate with Zoë to show her some of the foods eaten in the traditional passover meal, but it didn't happen today. I have the foods so will see if we have time tomorrow.

24 Books

We didn't have a new book today as a consequence for some poor behaviour yesterday. :( Looking forward to a new one tomorrow!

Lolly Sticks

We were meant to be colouring in Christmas cards today so that we could give them to Grandma and Grandad to take back to family, but only one was half coloured in before Zoë got distracted by other things! Oh well, I'm sure we'll find time to get some more coloured in...

Jesse Tree Story

Tonight's story was told by Grandad. Up to now the stories have all been pointing to the coming of Jesus, but tonight we added in a special story, that of Joshua and Caleb spying out the land of Canaan (which was promised to Jacob in our story a few days ago). Unfortunately our own little Caleb was too poorly to join in story time as he seems to have caught a gastric bug. Really hoping that it doesn't spread to the rest of us!

Mummy Time

Still no Christmas cards written... :( But I have caught up with this blog and dealt with the sicked on washing! Time for bed now as I'm predicting a busy night... Yawn!

Advent: 8 December

Some days just don't go to plan... This post is a day late as I had to do our weekly on-line food shop and then Caleb decided he wanted some extra night time cuddles! Anyway, here we are now!

Jesse Tree Activity

Thank you for ideas! Ended up doing a painting as we had lots of red paint left over from our lolly stick activity. But I loved the ideas of putting a candle in a jar with tissue paper stuck on and a candle stained glass window. Here's the final masterpiece:

24 Books

Today's book is a lovely one, but I think it's misnamed. In my opinion 'Baby's first Christmas Storybook' is more aimed at toddlers as it contains four stories, including The Nutcracker, and four songs to sing together. It was meant to be Caleb's turn to open the present, but Zoë just couldn't help herself and wanted to help him!

Lolly Sticks

Our lolly stick said 'Decorate biscuits', but we decided to decorated the salt dough stars we made last week. I gave Zoë complete freedom to chose colours; though I really wanted to paint them gold and silver with gold and silver glitter! We've ended up with some beautiful colour combinations:

Jesse Tree Story

We read the well-known story of Moses and the 10 plagues.
"God's people would always remember this great rescue and call it 'Passover'. But an even Greater Rescue was coming. Many years later, God was going to do it again. He was going to come down once more to rescue his people. But this time God was going to set them free forever and ever." (The Jesus Storybook Bible)

Mummy Time

I really needed to start my Christmas cards (with mince pies, hot spiced apple and christmas film), but unfortunately our food shop was more urgent and then Caleb wanted some mummy time. So yet again cards are not done.

Advent: 7 December

"Mummy, is it Christmas today? Mummy, is it snowing? Mummy, is it my birthday?" And so starts my day!

Sundays are always a busy day in our house and today was no different. Steve was up and out of the house by 7.30am as he was preaching down in Watford and needed to prepare, and Zoë and Caleb had been up in the night several times each, so I wasn't fully refreshed after a good night's sleep - what is one of those?? I had to get all of us up, dressed, fed, then get the dinner on (always a roast on a Sunday) and get to church early to help set up for crèche. It was chaos, but we arrived on time with smiles on our faces; probably breakfast still there too and Zoë's hair wasn't brushed! We had a lovely morning once we'd arrived; I told the Christmas Story from the perspective of the Wise Men to five very attentive little girls who joined in the actions and remembered the story afterwards too! Success! :D

Jesse Tree Activity

We did yesterday's story at lunch today and then did the activity immediately after. The story was about Jacob and his dream, where he sees angels going up and down the staircase/ladder. Again God promises Jacob (as he has promised Abraham and Isaac) that "Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south. All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring." Genesis 28:14 This is exciting as Jesus is one of Jacob's descendants and it is through his birth and death that all peoples will be blessed.
Our activity to reinforce this story was a visit to a playground where there are plenty of ladders! Zoë is a little climber and we frequently visit playgrounds to burn off some of her excess energy. Today she climbed ropes, a mini climbing wall and learnt how to do hopscotch.

24 Books

Our book today was another Mr Men one - The 12 days of Christmas. Mr Muddle has a plan to try and remember correctly which day is Christmas and gives presents to his friends on the 25th of each month. But his plan is foiled by Mr Wrong...

Lolly Sticks

After our cold trip to the playground we came home, put warm clothes on and drank hot chocolate. (That was today's dairy treat for me!) I then got our Nativity Set out and we played with it while setting it up. I'm looking forward to retelling the story lots over the next 18 days using this characters.

Zoë wearing her 'cosy'

Jesse Tree Story

Tonight's story was the call of Moses. God speaks directly to Moses through a Burning Bush which despite being on fire doesn't burn up! He is told to go back to Egypt to help rescue the Israelites who are enslaved by the evil Pharoah.
I honestly have no idea at the moment what activity I can do with a 3 year old which will reinforce this story! The idea of playing with fire is scary to say the least!! All ideas welcome!

Mummy Time

I remembered to light my two candles this afternoon as today is the second Sunday in Advent. The candles are behind the fire guard as the children were still up when I lit them. It is slowly dawning on me that there are now only two more weekends til Christmas - I really need to get myself in gear and get card writing and present buying and food buying! But for now, I'm pausing and remembering what it's all about: "For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost." Luke 19:10

Advent: 6 December

I love Saturday and today was no different... A lovely family day!

Jesse Tree Activity

We caught up with last night's story this morning before heading out to another 3rd birthday party (it's the season for 3rd birthday parties at the moment!). Our story was Isaac and Rebekah getting married; we knew that God made a similar promise to Isaac as to Abraham (more descendants than stars in sky) and thought it was more descendants than sand on beach, but it was the other way round! Should check our facts before planning our stories and activities! Anyway, we did the labels for Abraham and Isaac and hung them on the Jesse Tree. And I tried to get Zoë to do a picture of a beach but she wasn't interested in craft today.

24 Books

Today the result of the lucky dip was my favourite, The Snowman! We've read it, listened to it and watched it today...

Lolly Sticks

Our activity today was (a carefully chosen) 'Look at Christmas lights'. As it was a Saturday I'd suggested that we visited Waddesdon Manor for the Christmas Market and the artistic lights 'Winter Light at Waddesdon' by Bruce Munro. Now, I have to admit that I'm not hugely into my art and I did find some of the exhibits less than interesting! But the Christmas trees around the outside of the house were stunning (photo doesn't really do it justice).

Jesse Tree Story

After a long day the children were too tired for stories again and went straight to bed after dinner. I'll try and catch up with the story of Jacob tomorrow morning before church and then read Moses in the evening. I'm learning that flexibility is key with toddlers as some evenings are just not conducive to story times!

Mummy Time

Mummy Time was Family Time today as we visited the Christmas Market at Waddesdon Manor. It was very cold, but I had my own personal hot water bottle all afternoon!

Since getting home I've done some ironing (to warm up) and am now curled up with a blanket watching The Reichenbach Fall (I love a bit of Sherlock!) I've just enjoyed my first bar of chocolate since May! I had to give up eating dairy as Caleb is intolerant and I was breastfeeding, but as I've now had to give up due to heart medication I need to start taking, I'm able to start re-eating dairy. The reality of a Cadbury Wispa Caramel bar is as good as my memory!

Advent: 5 December

I finally got round to cooking my Maple-Mustard Pulled Pork today having forgotten to put it in the oven early enough for the last two days!! It has been lovely smelling the rich aroma all day; it's a shame I can't share the smell with you!

Jesse Tree Activity

God told Abraham he would have as many descendents as stars in the sky, so today's activity was based around stars. I had a few ideas depending on how Zoë was after her toddler group; she was happy and calm so we made salt dough stars. We added a little bit of cinnamon to make them smell Christmassy. Ok, Zoë added quite a lot of cinnamon, but as the Best Before Date was in 2008 it wasn't actually that strong! I really need to go through my herbs and spices and check the other Best Before Dates...

24 Books

We had a new book today. I'd found an immaculate copy of Dear Santa at a recent NCT sale; following the same pattern as Dear Zoo. It was lovely watching Zoë 'read' it to herself. I'm trying to encourage her to read books herself and am showing her how she can look at the pictures to follow the storyline.

Lolly Sticks

Today's activity was "Craft and listen to Christmas music" - how do I do it?! We had Mr Buble blasting out while we were making our stars.
We also did some Christmas dancing (yesterday's activity), well Zoë did while I put clothes away.

Jesse Tree Story

We didn't manage to fit our story in tonight as both Zoë and Caleb were tired and crying, and Steve was out at church youth group. We'll catch up tomorrow, as well as doing the label for Abraham and Isaac stories.

Mummy Time

I've managed to spend some time today getting all our clothes put away; we've had piles of clean clothes waiting. And I've changed our sheets - I love clean sheets! Can't wait to go to bed now!
I was optimistic at 6.15pm that both children were asleep, but in reality it didn't happen til 7.30pm! My kitchen is tidied and I'm now watching On Her Majesty's Secret Service while writing this and about to start my Christmas cards,

A bonus photo of my cheeky little man!

Advent: 4 December

Today has been a busy day, but a fun day. We have done lots but not done much... The day started with a visit to the GP for Zoë ("my wee wee hurts"), then on to Fishes toddler group, followed by Zoë's swimming lesson. The pool was freezing but we had good fun! After swimming we went out for lunch and a playdate with friends from swimming. P is a military child and is moving away next week so we decided to have a 'last' playdate together. The girls played so well together all afternoon at the RAF community centre soft play, and A and I just chatted.

(Sorry for the poor colour!)

All this 'out-and-about' activity meant that very little was done at home on Advent stuff...

Jesse Tree Activity

We didn't do today's activity, but it would have been putting sad faces on our Paper Plate world. Maybe we'll do it tomorrow morning (depending on what time the children wake).

24 Books

Our book today was the amazing 'The Snowman and the Snowdog'. We bought this book last year and it came with a CD of the story, read by none other than Benedict Cumberbatch! I often play it for Zoë at bedtime and sit and listen to it with her...

Lolly Sticks

I was looking forward to today's lolly stick activity, but ran out of time so will reschedule it for another day. We were going to do some Christmas dancing; run like the gingerbread man, prance like a reindeer, twist like a candy cane, twirl like a snowflake etc.

Jesse Tree Story

Tonight's story was Abraham. God promised Abraham that he would have more descendants than stars in the sky - and one of those descendants will be Jesus. We had a guest at dinner tonight and it was lovely to see Zoë and her friend snuggled up on the settee listening to the Bible together.

Mummy Time

It't Thursday evening and I am tired! Caleb had been up til gone midnight last night and then I had to go and wash my hair (as I knew I wouldn't have time this morning). At least being out most of the day means there's not much washing up and tidying up to do... Hopefully I can get an early night. Now, where's my chocolate?

Advent: 3 December

Do you find that sometimes things just work? Today has been a bit like that! The Jesse Tree activity linked with the Lolly Stick activity, and Caleb had a good sleep giving me more one-on-one time with Zoë. Today was also an attempt at a screen-free day; my laptop, tablet and phone were all put away when I was with the children, and Zoë only watched 2 episodes of Peter Rabbit while I was clearing up lunch and putting Caleb down for his nap. A reduction in TV has a huge effect on the atmosphere in our house so this is something I want to keep up.

So, onto today...

Jesse Tree Activity

Before doing today's activity we needed to make the label for the Jesse Tree; Zoë drew a pink Eve and a grey Adam to represent 'God made people'.

Today's activity was about people. We added some people to our paper plate worlds and then went and made some Gingerbread Men. (I have to confess to a mummy-fail here - they were just biscuit men as I've run out of ginger powder!! Oops!)

24 Books

Our book today was the Mr Men 'A Christmas Carol'; starring Mr Mean as Ebenezer Scrooge, Mr Happy as Bob Cratchit and Mr Nosey, Little Miss Wise and Little Miss Bossy as the three ghosts! A great book which actually sticks pretty close to the original storyline...

Lolly Sticks

Our activity today was Bake for an old person. Given that Zoë thinks she's an 'old girl' as she's now 3 it gave us quite a wide range of people we could give to...
As I mentioned above our Gingerbread Men were made out of a vanilla biscuit recipe from my Be-Ro cookbook due to the lack of ginger. We also made butterflies, stars, snowmen and unicorns - and God made all of them! Once we'd finished cutting out the biscuits Zoë continued to play with the dough - she rolled it on the floor, on her hair, on Caleb's hair etc. Nice!

Are you wondering who the lucky old person was who got a biscuit from my gorgeous cook? I asked Zoë who she wanted to give it to and she said Baby E - a friend's newly adopted 18 month old daughter! Oh well, you can't argue with a 3 year old! Baby E seemed very happy and her Mum was very touched so it all ends well.

Jesse Tree Story

Tonight's story was the fall - where Adam and Eve disobey God and are banished from the Garden of Eden. It's been helpful to explain to Zoë about disobedience and consequences.

Mummy Time

Both children were asleep by 7pm so I've enjoyed writing this blog whilst watching Masterchef: The Professionals, oh and eating a hot chocolate fondant pudding! Looking forward to watching The Apprentice and later reading my Advent Devotional.