Our Elf on the Shelf: Fred Mabed Howard

We have an Elf on the Shelf. Grant's grandmother bought him for us when Maggie was three and she decided to name him Fred Mabed Howard. She's totally embarrassed about his name now and wishes she could rename him but it has stuck!
(For those of you unfamiliar with the Elf on the Shelf, it's a little doll who is allegedly sent by Santa to live in your house for the Christmas season. He reports back to Santa in the North Pole every night, and in the morning the children have to look for him because he goes to a different location in the house every morning. If a child touches him he loses his magical power. Some people use it as a heavy-handed Our-Elf-Is-Watching-You thing but that's kind of creepy to me. We prefer to just have fun with it. This year I got lots of fun ideas from my favorite addiction, Pinterest. (Sidenote- if you want an invitation let me know and I'll send you one.)
Some mornings he was just in funny places, like on top of this little bird sculpture I have, but other mornings he did some crazy things, like dying our milk green, putting Maggie's underwear all over the Christmas tree, making snow angels out of flour on the kitchen table, or eating part of a gingerbread cookie. Another time I wrapped him up in a little doll towel Maggie had and put him in the bathroom with her doll's little soap and shampoo. I did take photos of a few of the things he did, like replace all the frames in the living room with photos of himself:or make a zipline with fishing wire in the kitchen over the sink:
He even tried on some of Barbie's clothes one night. I say this all the time but I seriously don't know who had more fun, me or Maggie. It was so much fun. However, I will admit to being a little relieved on Christmas Eve when Fred went back to the North Pole until next Christmas. It was fun but took a little planning and work to pull it all off. I HIGHLY recommend one. I'm so excited I have a year to think of more fun ideas for Fred.

The gingerbread house

Ever since Maggie's second Christmas we've been assembling and decorating a gingerbread house. This year we bought one at Trader Joe's and it's my favorite one we've ever done. I had to make the frosting out of egg whites, powdered sugar, and a few drops of vinegar, and, y'all, I totally cheated. I made the frosting in order to decorate, but I assembled the house with my trusty glue gun. I think it's totally gross to eat the gingerbread house, but I figured if anyone wanted to eat it they could just get one of the parts without glue on it (like the middle of one of the slabs). It was awesome because the glue hardened almost immediately so we could start decorating right away.
Every Halloween I try to get rid of the candy as quickly as possible but this year I convinced my kids to save some of it for decorating the gingerbread house. I'm doing that again next year, for sure.
I didn't really think about who the little people were supposed to be until my genius friend, Christin, pointed out that they were Hansel and Gretel. Maggie broke the little girl and the little boy before we even started decorating and later that day Finn ate all the ornaments off the Christmas tree and tried to eat the little dog. Sheesh.
Here are the wild hooligans right after we finished with the gingerbread house.

The post-Christmas letdown

Anyone else experiencing a bit of post-Christmas letdown? There's so much anticipation and planning heading into Christmas and then, before you know it, it's over. Boo hoo. We had such a fun Christmas this year.
Here are Carolina and my mom in front of our tree on Christmas Eve. It's blurry but sweet.
Grant's parents and brother/sister-in-law, Blake and Jenny, went together with us to buy a swing set for the back yard. We had a little slide/climbing toy and a swing for ages 0-4, but Finn and Carolina always wanted to swing at the same time, and Maggie didn't have a swing at all. The new swing set is solid wood with EXCELLENT construction (more on that in a minute) and is somewhat basic. We'd love one of the ones that's practically a treehouse, with a fort, twisty slide, rock climbing wall, etc, but those are thousands of dollars, and therefore out of our budget. Anyway, this one has three swings on it, with room for one more (I want to get one of the double swings where two kids ride back-to-back) and we're hoping to add a slide soon. There's a little platform with two ladders leading up to it, which is where the slide will go.
We ordered a kit which contains all of the hardware and the swing seats, and then Grant bought the lumber specified at Home Depot. He put it together in one day with the help of our neighbor, Chuck, whose wife sent him over to help. He's extremely handy and very sweet, and even came back over on Christmas Eve while we were gone to add a few reinforcing bolts.
On Christmas morning we opened all the gifts, ate our special breakfast, opened stockings, and then Grant suggested we all go outside to stretch our legs. You can see their reaction here.

On the video you may have noticed Maggie asking when Grant built it; she was so surprised! He actually built it the Friday before Christmas. I left the house with the kids around 8am and returned in time for lunch at 12. They thought he was at work all day. We closed the blinds and I turned music on, and also ran the dishwasher to help block out the drilling/sawing sounds. I think that, combined with them thinking he was at work, helped them to not notice the backyard activity at all! It worked way better than I thought it would.
Here, also, is a photo of my adorable nephew, Charlie, wearing the sunglasses onesie I made him for Christmas.
He lives in Miami so this shirt is always seasonally appropriate :) Isn't he so handsome?
I have several other fun Christmas blog posts in mind so check back in a few days.
I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas.

Three in a crib

Maggie and Finn love to crawl in Carolina's crib with her. They barely fit but it's pretty cute (until someone starts jumping). Maggie is just pretending to suck her thumb because she thinks it's funny.

Christmas cards

I love getting Christmas cards. Who doesn't? It's fun to see friends from college (and even some from elementary school) and their families and it's fun to get something besides a bill in the mail. The only thing I don't like about them is the cluttery mess they make. I used to put them on my mantle but they were always falling over or floating off the mantle. Last year I had (excuse my humility) a genius idea. I bought some mini clothespins, like these, thumbtacked some ribbon to the wall, and hung the Christmas cards from the clothespins. As I got more cards, I added more ribbon. This year I upped the ante even more by glittering the mini clothespins. I love it. It keeps them looking neat so I can enjoy them without my OCD causing me grief.
And here's a close up of my clothespins:
(Yeah, they're prettier and sparklier in real life.)

December Fun Part 2

I mentioned earlier that I decided to give handmade Christmas presents this year. Although I really stressed myself out about it and in the end, had to buy a few presents, I really enjoyed it and to me, it really meant a lot to make things for people I love with my own hands. What I would really like is for my family to decide that we will only exchange homemade items with each other for Christmas, but since I am the only crafty person in my family, this will never happen. Oh well. I certainly didn't save any money doing this, and it definitely took more time, but it was infinitely more fun than shopping in a crowded mall.
Here are two of the things I've made this year. I got the idea for this shirt here.
I think it is so cute/funny. I love it. I made one for my niece, Lily Kate, and two for Carolina. Here is the actual shirt:
And here is Carolina, wearing it:
(Sidenote: I couldn't get a great photo of her wearing it because she kept looking at herself in the camera, which made her smile, but then she would also lunge for the camera.)
I also made a boy version of this shirt for my baby boy nephews, Charlie and Jake. Instead of cat eye glasses, I painted Ray Ban Wayfarer sunglasses to look like they were hanging from the collar of the shirt. I don't have a photo but maybe Lindsay or Kajsa will send me one if they ever put them on their babies.
Lily Kate also wears a ponytail nearly every day so I thought she could use some hair ties. I bought the hair ties but made my own fabric flowers to adorn the elastic. Here are all three.
I like them and I think they are pretty darn cute. I have no idea if they will ever be worn but I hope they will! I'll post photos of my other projects once the recipients have opened them. I don't want to spoil any Christmas surprises!

Caro and family (Thanksgiving)

I just found two more photos of Carolina from Thanksgiving in TX. First is with Grandmama (Grant's maternal grandmother). They are so adorable. I think they kind of look alike here.
The next photo Grant took while his brother, Blake, was holding Carolina. She was looking at his phone and all of a sudden she started looking very suspiciously at Blake. Grant snapped a photo to capture the look. It cracks me up.

December Fun Part 1

Some of our friends participate every year in a tour of a show called Behold the Lamb of God. It's a Christmas concert written by Andrew Peterson and the first half of the show consists of each of the ten or so artists performing a couple of their own songs, and then the second half is the actual Behold the Lamb of God (I'll call it BTLOG for brevity's sake), which is the story of Jesus' birth starting with the Old Testament. We've gone practically every year since they started ten (I think) years ago. We only missed for the two Christmases we spent living in Louisville. Anyway, it is one of our favorite Christmas traditions and one of our favorite Christmas records to listen to, and last year Grant even went along for part of the tour to film some material for possibly a documentary or maybe some promotional material. Right before the tour every year they do a free concert (really it's a dress rehearsal) at a local church and it's not publicized but anyone can come (it's actually a thank you to the church for letting them rehearse there). This year I finally got to go and take Maggie with me, which was so much fun. The real concert would keep her up way past her bedtime (and would infringe upon a special date) but this one worked perfectly. We even got to meet up with some friends (both mine and hers!) and watch it together. Some of the other children got a little antsy but Maggie pretty much was rapt the entire time. You can see for yourself.
You can see our friend, Andy Gullahorn, standing with his hands in his pockets and his wife, one of my good friends, Jill, to the right of him. They are great musicians and if you haven't heard of them you should stop what you're doing and buy all of their music :)
And if BTLOG is at a city near you you definitely need to go. It is so fantastic.

Maggie's Sixth Birthday (Superhero)

So I think it's well-established that Maggie loves The Incredibles. She wanted to have an Incredibles-themed birthday party for her sixth birthday. I generally shy away from licensed characters on clothing, toys, or even for birthday party themes. I really wanted her to love her party though so we talked about it and decided to do a Superhero theme. This was the first year that she had a big school class to consider (her preschool only had a handful of people in it), plus we want to include church and life friends, and since it would have been too much for me to handle a 30+ guest list, we decided not to invite her school friends. Maybe next year we'll do that.
Anyway, we ended up with about 14 children and I got the idea to make some easy superhero capes for all of them, with their initial on the back. I loved the way they turned out. See for yourself:
Here's the view from the other side of the table:
So we had a theme and we had the capes, now what else were we going to do? Well, I thought it would be fun to make an obstacle course for the kids and call it Superhero Training Camp. Since we had decided to hold the party at a great playground we had access to the jungle gym. First the kids had to run up the stairs to the top of the tallest slide, go down the twisty slide, then hop on one leg through eight hula hoops I had laid out on the ground. Then they had to crawl through a fabric tunnel I borrowed from my mom, then they each had to rescue (find) a toy animal from a mulched area, then run to the paved area and throw a water balloon on a chalk drawing of a giant monster (which washed away by the time everyone had thrown their water balloon). After they completed Superhero Training Camp, they received their cape.
We also played another game, which I called X-Ray Vision. For this game I put about 10 everyday objects into cloth bags, had the kids get in a circle, and then I walked around, letting each child stick their hand in the bag to feel the object. I put in things like legos, a doll, a comb, etc. No one was allowed to say what they thought it was until everyone had felt it. Then, on the count of three, the children would shout out what they thought it was and I would pull it out of the bag. I thought it would be fun but the kids were SO into it. They were cracking up and squealing with excitement when they got it right, and then cracking up when they got it wrong. It was so much fun.
After that we ate pizza and cake. I love to bake but I just couldn't handle baking a cake on top of everything else, so I bought a delicious cake for $15 from Costco and had them just ice it with plain chocolate frosting. Then I made some buttercream frosting, dyed it my colors, and decorated the cake with the special logo I made for the back of Maggie's cape.
Here's the up close, artsy shot:
I also made these superhero lollipops where I took a regular Tootsie Pop and made a little eye mask and cape out of paper. I put a bunch of them in a jar with some beans to weigh down the jar, and the kids each got to take one home with them.
All in all, it was a big hit and all the kids (especially Maggie) had fun. What more could I ask for?! I loved it. Happy Sixth Birthday, Maggie!
Oh, I almost forgot. For the thank you note we took a photo of Maggie in her cape and I used Picnik (free photo editing software) to put words on the photo, saying, "I'm SUPER glad you came to my party!" I can't find that version with the words but here's the photo we used.

Maggie's (non-Grant) film debut

Maggie recently had the opportunity to be in a PSA produced by one of Grant's coworkers. It's for a nonprofit company that provides mattresses to orphans. Get your hankies and settle down to watch her. It's only about two minutes long, but feel free to click on the "Extended Version" once you get to the Vimeo page. That one is about three minutes long.

Fall 2011 Promo from 4theORPHANS on Vimeo.

I was so proud of her; she didn't complain about a thing and did exactly what they asked her to do. They paid her in doughnuts which was more than generous enough for her.
Enjoy!

This and that

I know all of you (both of you? dear readers!) have been wondering what we've been doing lately since I haven't updated the blog in a few weeks.
Well, I'm so glad you asked. Here are some photos of what the children have been up to lately. Maggie went to a tea party with Mimi and her doll, Felicity. Are those three cute or what?
Maggie's been practicing her ukelele.
We drove in our wonderful new minivan to TX to see Grant's parents for Thanksgiving. After trying several methods (driving during the day, driving all night) I think we stumbled upon the best option for us which is wake up at 3am, put the kids in the car in their pj's, and hit the road. They slept for another couple of hours, had some good naps in the car later, and did really well. After Maggie got dressed I looked back in the back and noticed she had put together this getup.
While we were in TX for Thanksgiving Maggie and I got pedicures (well, Maggie had a mani/pedi), courtesy of Grandma Howard.
The day we returned from TX, my sister, Lindsay, and her husband and son arrived in Nashville. We got to have them in Nashville for almost a week before most of my family went to Chattanooga for a long weekend. While Lindsay was here we went to Pancake Pantry and Finn got the blueberry pancakes.
Otherwise we've just been busy, busy, busy, like everyone else! I got a harebrained idea that I would make by hand about 90% of my Christmas presents. I should have started in June. It looks like I'll be finished in time, with any luck at all. I'm very excited to show off what I've made so I'll try to make a little post about it.
To leave you, let me ask you a few VERY important questions:
What is your favorite Christmas song (sacred)?
What is your favorite Christmas song (secular)?
What is the Christmas song that you would like to ban from the entire world? (I'd like a sacred and secular answer to this one, too!)
Here are my answers:
Favorite sacred Christmas song - How can I pick?! They do call me the Christmas elf, so I'm going to allow myself three answers here. Three! Piggy of me, isn't it? O Holy Night, What Child is This? and O Come, O Come Emmanuel.
Favorite secular Christmas song - I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm
LEAST favorite Christmas songs - (secular) Feliz Navidad
(sacred) Do You Hear What I Hear? I mean, I really, really, really hate this song. I love Christmas but when I hear this song I want to scream, "YES! I DO hear what you hear. And it is ugly and annoying."
What about you?