Transform Christmas Cards to Phone Contacts

I have been busy a good part of the day putting up the majority of my Christmas decorations. My house always looks a little lonely with all the lights, trees, and greenery packaged up. I also took down my Christmas cards and put them in a pile to save. With the surge in popularity of photo cards, I love looking at all my friends and their family that we received. I know everyone put so much effort into getting their photographs done in time to squeak those Christmas cards out.

So why waste a good photo? Capture it for the next year, or however long you please. I set my cards on the table and starting taking pictures of them with my phone one by one. I was able to assign them to their appropriate contact, so I can enjoy them each time someone calls.

 

I do have to say the pictures on my phone look much better then my attempted photographs.

It was very challenging to take a picture of myself taking pictures. Ha!

 

 

Well, this project took just minutes and it is a great way to treasure my dear friends and their children.

 

I hope you all had a fabulous holiday and a safe and fun New Year's Eve celebration!

 

P.S. The winner of the Williams Sonoma $50 gift card and free pie certificate was Valerie. Thanks for all those that participated!

 

31 Creative, Unique and Fun Elf on the Shelf Ideas

The Christmas tree has been up for a week now...and our little elf on the shelf Jingle has been on the prowl. If you have never seen this creepy cute little elf, and the story that accompanies him, you are missing out! I am constantly creating new adventures for our little elf. It takes tons of ideas to keep your elf on the shelf busy. I hope to help you find some ideas you have not seen before. Here are some of Jingle's latest mischiefs.

 

 

Jingle made his own stick horse to fit in at the corral

 

Making a cheerio necklace out of the supplies we accidentally left out

 

Just resting in his hammock

Look at my son's look of surprise last year when he realized the lego men had captured Jingle.

This is the original story. It is now plastered in every book store window...but it really lives up to its publicity hype. The elf flies back to Santa every night to report on how your child is doing. Oh...but make sure not to touch him or he will lose his magic!

I ran out of clever and creative elf on the shelf ideas last year, so I am started my research early thanks to Pinterest. I tried very hard to give credit where deserved, but so many pictures only linked back to flickr.com. Thanks everyone for these amazing and fun ideas!

Snow Angel

Cars

Fishing for goldfish

Message in the snow

Soft place to snooze

Staying warm with the cold

Relaxing in the tub

Trying to keep out of the rain

(water dispenser)

Photo by RaeoFlight Photography

Parachuting daredevil

Settling for a long winter's nap

Photo by Jen Mcken

Hot air balloon adventure

Start your engines!

Bubble bath luxury

Elf Kisses by Kims Kandy Kreations with Printable



The Show is On by Clearly Candace



Elf Mummy by Clearly Candace



Christmas Countdown by Family Life is Great



Captured Elf by Thats Country Living



North Pole or Bust



Harry Potter Elf


Sick Elf



Elf with Zhu Zhu Pet Reindeer

The captured bandit by Greeneacreshobbyfarm.blogspot.com

Ice Fishing by Greeneacreshobbyfarm.blogspot.com

 

Do you have any more fun ideas to share with me? I am always up for some new suggestions! Especially when they have already been kid-tested on your own little ones. Here is where Jingle will be in the morning...

 

 

Jingle pretending to be a piggy bank robber

 

Thanksgiving Games

Are you looking for some fun games to keep the kids entertained while Thanksgiving is being prepared? Here are two unique games we made last year. I pulled them out with our tub of Thanksgiving books and they have been a huge hit again with my boys.

 

 

Click here to see how to make The Crazy Turkey Game.

 

Game Directions:

 

Each player gets a turkey head and six clothespins of different colors. The first player roles the dice. The player gets to put on the feather color (clothespin) they roll on the dice. Take turns trying to collect all of your different colored turkey feathers. If you roll a color you already have, the turn goes to the next player. The first person to have all six different feathers (clothespins) shouts Gobble, Gobble, Gobble and wins the game!

Or...you can just buy one...

 

 

 

Click here for instructions on how to make the Acorn Game.

 

How to Play the Game:

Start your squirrel at the bottom. The first player rolls the dice and moves the number of spaces on the dice. If you land on the leaves, do nothing. If you land on acorns, collect the number of acorns on the square from the acorn pile. If you land on the turkey, you lose one acorn back to the pile. Take turns rolling the dice. Once a player rolls enough to land on the acorn tree, or past, collect an acorn for making it home. Go back to start on your next turn, and try to collect more acorns and race home. Once all of the piles of acorns have been collected, the squirrel (player) with the most wins!

 

Do you have any fun games you make for the Thanksgiving Holiday???

The Candy Witch...Bye Bye Halloween Candy!

Are you wondering what to do with all of your child's extra or leftover Halloween candy?? It was about four days before Halloween, and I was already dreading the bags of candy the kids would be bringing home. They had already received Halloween treats throughout the month at various parties, events, and at school. They would beg each day to eat a few pieces of candy and I would have to carefully limit them to what I deemed a reasonable amount. The thought of a new endless supply of candy treats was dreadful!

 

That is when I dreamed up Clarabella the Candy Witch. If I was going to make this idea a success, I knew I would have to give it some gusto. I wanted to negotiate with my kids to give up the majority of their candy. Here is the little story I wrote. My boys received it in the mailbox a few days after Halloween.

 

There once was born a little witch named Clarabella. Apparently, each witch is born, and gifted by the Great witch, with a unique gift or talent of their very own. Clarabella was born with the sweetest tooth of all. She loves candy with every ounce of her body and she is happiest when she is surrounded by treats of all kinds.

Clarabella loved candy so much that she built her entire house of candy. She has chocolate bars on her doors, licorice sticks on her window panes, and sour straws to tie her shower curtain up. Each piece of candy serves as an important part of her home.

However, each summer the chocolate on her home melts to candy puddles. The licorice becomes sticky from the rain and falls off her window panes, and the sour straws become loose and her shower curtain falls to the floor. Her candy home usually only lasts one year and then comes tumbling down.

Clarabella asks each year for help from little boys and girls just like you. She desperately needs your candy to help rebuild her home. The best part is Clarabella wants you to keep some candy for your very own. Fill a jar for you to keep, and mail the rest to her to keep. In exchange for your generous gift, she will mail back your box with a load full of little gifts.

Now that Halloween is over, and your treat bag is overflowing…Could you help Clarabella rebuild her home?

Please mail packages to:

Clarabella Witch

2202 Candy Expressway

 

Please wait 3-4 days to allow time for Clarabella to receive your package and return your box with new treasures.

*********************************************************

 

My oldest (4 ) was already playing outside when I handed him the letter. He quickly asked me to read it. He had a puzzled expression on his face while I read it. I was thinking...oh no...maybe this is not going to work after all. When I stopped reading the story he looked at me and said, "Mom, do you think it will work?" I of course replied yes. Then he said, "I need a jar fast! I have to send her my candy!" He jumped off the toy he was playing on and ran inside.

I sighed with relief that it actually worked. He quickly filled up a box with the candy to send and kept a mason jar of candy for himself. Yes, the jar was cram packed with candy, but it was a LOT less then was in the cardboard box.

I "mailed" the box of candy off to the Candy Witch. The day after I "mailed" the box of candy they were already asking, "Now how many days until I receive presents back?" A few days later, my boys received their box full of treasures back. I used a bunch of garage sale finds, but you could easily go to the dollar store and pick a few fun things up.

 

My boys tore into that box like it was Christmas!

 

They were obviously excited with their new treasures.

 

There was definitely no regret in trading in their candy. They played with their new toys and read their new books all day.

Clarabella the Candy Witch will be sending another trade in offer next year for sure!

  

Here is another cute idea I saw about a Book Fairy by East Coast Mommy. Click here to check it out.

 

 

 

Halloween Party Games, Food, and Fun

We had the best weekend! The boys had a little Halloween party for some of their friends. My four year old helped with a lot of the planning and it was so fun to watch him get excited about setting up the party. We had set the date a few weeks ago, but we did not get around to planning until the week before. Apparently,we do our best work last minute. We had a 10 am party so anyone that had other Saturday plans could hopefully make it.

 

We started out by having the tables inside set up with Ziploc bags full of foam sticker crafts for the kids as they arrived. It was so adorable to see them all in their Halloween costumes in the daylight. They also decorated some white treat bags with spooktacular Halloween stickers. This kept them busy and away from all the games until everyone arrived.

 

 

 

I think the biggest game hit was the pumpkin pop game. My husband helped me adorn a piece of plywood with treat filled balloons. I filled orange and black balloons with candy, Halloween rings, and prizes. We attached the balloons to the plywood with push pins. (It took a hammer to get them in)

 

 

The kids walked up one by one and carefully selected their balloon. They took a push pin and popped the balloon of their choice.

 

Even the little ones loved it. They hardly jumped as the balloons made a large POP!

 

We had enough balloons for each child to take two turns. They were jumping up and down in line to go again. Ha ha! Precious.

 

 

The night before the party, I decided to make pumpkin name stakes for all the kiddos. With the porch light on, I cut out these little cuties with a jigsaw, painted them, and wrote the kids names on them with a black sharpie marker.

 

I had a large stack of monster masks from oriental trading in my Halloween storage tub. The kids put them on and walked around and danced in a circle to some monster music. We would stop the music and they had to freeze in their monster poses. (This would have gone much better if I had showed them how silly to be first.) However, the parents all got a kick out of taking pictures of their kiddos in the funny masks.

 

Our next game, was a ball toss into some ghost buckets. Each game had a separate "participation" prize. We handed out mini Halloween puzzles, Halloween bubbles, Halloween books, and Halloween activity pads. I tried to stay away from too much candy because we had desserts and a pinata to go still.

 

After a round of different games, the kids played outside while lunch was prepared.

 

 

Pumpkin Toss Game (make me)

 

I filled a medical glove with water and hung it up in my freezer with a clothespin. It made the perfect floating hand in our vampire blood (Kool Aid).

 

 

I also made a batch of red jello and filled syringes with it. I think it was my husband's favorite. It made me giggle to see him act like a big kid. These took only minutes to make the night before.

 

 

My sweet friend Melissa brought these adorable monster puddings with Oreo cookies crumbled on top. (These were my favorite!)

 

These precious orange pumpkin cups were a find at the dollar store. We labeled them with each child's name so they would not get mixed up.

 

Everyone is standing around anxiously awaiting the pinata.

 

Here is my little pirate giving it his all!

 

 

We ended up having just as many helpers on the rope side as we did in line.

 

Now off to the hay ride...a huge hit!

 

When we announced it was time for the hay ride the kids took off running. I never expected them to be quite that excited.

 

 

We had hung some fake spider webs through the barn and some Caution tape. As we rode through the spooky all barn we realized there was already plenty of natural spider decor.

 

What fun things do you have planned for a Halloween party??