Happy New Year!

So I am so sorry that I haven't been posting much. Christmas and Family got the better of me. I will try to do better. Anyway my idea for today is making New Year's special. So here are some of our traditions that you can do with your little ones. The first thing we do is on New Year's Eve we get together as extended families and play games and eat appetizers all night. We sometimes make it to 12 and other times we move all the clocks forward and tell the kids its 12. Then the next day with just our little family, we do Fondue'. Haven't heard of it? Its fun. You can buy pots in a cooking section. You can do cheese, chocolate, or oil. This one was oil with meat, carrots, mushrooms, zucchini, artichokes, and anything else you want to try.

You can find tons on the Internet about fondue'. After that we do a year plan. We pick two things to do in every month of the new year. We also write down all the fun things we did in the past year. We then have everyone (even the baby) pick out three goals for the following year. we place these in their room so they can look at them. This is how we do it, and it makes it easy for little ones. I think my kids get it when we are talking about all the months and fun things we did and how now we are starting over.

So that's what we do! Fill free to make a comment and tell us what you do. The more ideas the better, so we can have a Very Happy and Successful start to 2009!

Snowflakes

Want to make some fun Snowflakes? This is for all ages.

http://www.papersnowflakes.com/

Fun things to d!o in the snow

Build a Snow House

Don’t worry about a roof, unless you have several feet of snow piled up. A roofless snow house is easier and you don’t have to worry about collapses. Build up walls for a snow house, a snow castle, or an igloo. Then build some furniture and play an outdoor version of house. Make paths to connect the houses and shovel out streets and sidewalks for a whole snow village.

Slippery Tug-of-War

Everybody grabs their saucer sleds and divides into two sides. Take hold of either end of a long rope and pull. Try to pull your opponents over to your side without sliding toward them.

Snow Shapes

Wet, dense snow is like sand, in that it can be formed into shapes. Bring out your sandbox toys, buckets, Tupperware containers and other molds and make a snow castle or anything else your imagination comes up with.

Snow Bodies

Lie on the ground and form a snowman shape around you. Then try a mermaid’s tail, an angel with wings, a butterfly and other characters. Make sure your kids are bundled up well for this one!

Snow Paint

• a water bottle with sprayer for each color
• food coloring (different colors)
• water
• snow (of course!)

JUMP SNOW HURDLES
Lightly pack a bunch of basketball-size snowballs and then use them to build a course of hurdles to jump over in a round of follow the leader.

ROPE TOW
Team up for a slip-sliding variation of tug-of-war. Tamp down a wide, shallow trench in the snow to serve as the midline. Then, take up positions at the ends of a long, thick rope and let the tugging and towing begin. Whichever team pulls the entire opposing group over to its side of the trench wins.

FLAG IN A SNOW STACK
Tie a white cloth to the end of a short stick or around the bowl of a wooden spoon. Then, give each child a chance to hide it by staking it anywhere within a predetermined set of boundaries. Keep track of how long it takes for the rest of the group to find it. Whoever hid the flag that takes the longest time to spot wins the game.

STRIKE OUT
For this pitching contest, first mound up snow to create three bases and a pitcher's mound. They should each be about 2 feet high and 20 feet apart. Next, build a tin can pyramid on each base. The challenge is to knock down the stacks in order from first to third base by throwing snowballs from the pitcher's mound. The child who succeeds with the fewest pitches wins.

HAT TRICK
Once you've built a plump, frosty snowman to stand sentry in your front yard, make a game of topping him off in style. Take turns trying to land a hat on his head by throwing it Frisbee style from 10 or so feet away.

GET ON A ROLL
Pair up for a contest in which the object is to finish with the biggest snowball. The contest ends when the teams can no longer roll their entries or when you run out of snow.

POWDER-PUFF FOOTBALL
All you need are two teams of three or more people to play, along with a spray bottle filled with a mix of water and food coloring to mark the playing field (a large rectangle with a centerline should suffice). The teams line up at opposite ends of the field (the North and South poles) for a kickoff. Once someone on the receiving team catches the ball, he tries to move it back across the defense's goal line by running with it or passing it to a teammate. Play stops if the person with the ball is tagged by an opponent or slides out of bounds. The teams then face off again on the spot. After four tries, or a touchdown, the ball goes to the other team. The game ends when either team gets cold.

Reindeer Snacks

I have done it both of these ways and thought you might want to try one of them. Last year at Christmas time my daughters class made special reindeer food. In snack sized zip lock bags they mixed oatmeal, red sprinkles and green sprinkles. They used tablespoon measures and let the kids pour everything into their own bags. They also printed off a little tag to attach to the bag that read: "Reindeer Food - Sprinkle outside on Christmas Eve for Reindeer." It was really fun to get out there with your kids and help the magic stay alive.

The other way is you take a lunch sack decorate it like a reindeer and fill it with snacks like pretzels, m&m's, raisins, Chex Mix, peanuts, dried fruit, etc. Any kind of trail mix will work. Then on Christmas Eve you put it right by Santa's plate of cookies. Its just a little variation to the Carrots!

Another fun Website

I found this website and it is really fun. It is all about kids making stuff and its easy! So go to this link and scroll down and you will find cooking stuff, crafts, holiday stuff, and coloring stuff. They had some really fun ideas for Christmas!


http://www.make-stuff.com/kids/

Custom Bingo

O.K. I went to one of my favorite sites today and I found something really cool. Go to this link and it will help you make custom bingo cards. It takes you through this process:

Step 1: Size and how many squares

Step 2: Theme (Balloons, Bugs, Holidays, School stuff, Etc)

Step 3: Black/White or Color

Step 4: Just pictures or words too (would be good for reading)

Step 5: Title (any 5 letter word)

Step 6: Print boards or call sheet (for multiple boards you just press refresh and it randomly moves all the bingo pictures for a new board)

Anyway it is fast and easy and I was really impressed with it. So try it out and be a fun mom, scout leader, activity day leader, aunt, teacher, primary teacher, etc.

http://www.dltk-cards.com/bingo/bingo1.asp

It's Family Time With Santa!

For about five years now we have been doing something that is called It's Family Time With Santa. It is a DVD you can buy that is a countdown until Christmas. It won't let you skip ahead either! Anyway it has a theme for each day: Service, love, kindness, etc. It shows all about Santa: Santa snow skiing, Santa on a sleigh, Santa at home with Mrs. Clause. The overall theme is spending time with your family and slowing down your Christmas Season. On the website you can print off a calendar that they can color each day also. Anyway my kids really love it and look forward to watching it each year. I thought your kids might like it also, so here is the website:

www.familytimewithsanta.com

One of my favorite Christmas books

Need a good book this Christmas? This is my all time favorite. I think it is so clever. The guy who wrote this is: Jerry Pallotta. You can order this book through scholastic or any book place on-line (I'm not really sure about where you can buy it in an actual store) Anyway it is really cute. He has another Christmas book also out.

If you own this book already I found on his website a little extra fun for this book.
Find the mouse in every illustration.
Find the hidden reindeer in every illustration.

Good luck!

Anyway he has lots of really cute books and each one has secret pictures hidden, and he tells you about them on his website. So check him out!

http://jerrypallotta.com

Christmas Story A Day Until Christmas!

For years I have been collecting Christmas books. When I got a few I started putting them in a stack. I would read one or two each night until Christmas. When we finished reading it, we took turns placing it under the Christmas tree. From then on the kids could "re-read" that book at anytime. I always make sure we get at least one new book a year. Then last year my sister in law told me that she takes it one step further. She re-wraps 25 of her Christmas books and they open one each day of the month. We tried it and loved it. This year I did it again. The kids still just love it. I find it gets us all in the same room, spending quiet moments together. Anyway that is today's idea for you!