The Arrival of Jingles and our North Pole Breakfast

The other night Evan and I watched "The Elf on the Shelf" on TV. I had being hearing a lot about it lately and was really interested in the concept. For those who are not familiar, Sanata sends a scout elf to the homes of all the boys and girls to keep an eye on them. He reports back to Santa each night telling him if their child(ren) has been naughty or nice. Each morning he flys back to the home and lands in a different spot. The children are not allowed to touch the elf, if they do then the elf will lose his/her magic.
I decided I really wanted to do this with Evan. Last week our elf, Jingles, made his first appearance and made us a delicious North Pole breakfast.

Evan is checking everything out, and pretty amazed at all the goodies we were having for breakfast.

Jingles brough Evan an ornament for the tree which he was pretty excited about.

The snow covered donuts were a big hit!

"Really? I can have another?"

"Hey! Where'd they all go?"

We had so much fun at breakfast. So far we have found Jingles perched upon our mistletoe, sitting in our tree, and yesterday he brought Evan a Christmas book. I hope Jingles can find lots of fun places to watch from.

Leaf Art

Last night after dinner Evan and I went for a walk. It was dark so unfortunatly we couldn't play at the park, instead we collected some leaves. When we got home we made some Leaf Art. It was super easy and fun to do. Here is the result.

I drew the body and Evan glued the "wings" on. He then decided he needed to draw a circle around it. I asked him what we should call our butterfly and he said "Mommy"

He also named our turtle "Mr Crunch" and thought the boy should be called "Evan" and decided they both needed a circle aound them too.

'Tis the Season For Giving!

This weekend we went to the Amherstview Santa Claus Parade where we brougt a bag off canned goods to donate to the Food Bank. I had Evan help me pack up the bag and explained to him what we were doing. I don't think he completely gets it but he loves to give gifts so it's prety easy to get him on board.

First he had to line up all the cans and count them.

Putting everything in the bag.

Here we are at the parade. Daddy had to help Evan give the bag because he was so into the parade!


Evan's nursery school is also participating in Operation Christmas Child. Operation Christmas Child collects shoeboxes full of inexpensive gifts for boys and girls who are less fortunate than us. All you are asked to do is fill a shoebox with things like small toys, hygiene items, school supplies and other non perishables, and indicate whether the box is for a boy or girl. they'll be shipped to underprivileged children who would otherwise receive nothing for Christmas, all around the world.
Evan decorated his shoebox at school, we took him shopping and let Evan pick out most of the items and this weekend he helped me fill the box. 

Here is Evan sorting through everything. We put in some books, a flashing toothbrush, crayons, stickers, soap and a xylophone.

He had fun putting everything in the box, and yes, I had to take it all back out to reorganize it so it would all fit   :)

We have always donated to the Food Bank but this was the first time we participated in Operation Christmas Child. I think it's great that he picked things out for a child his age and understood that it wasn't all for him.  It is a new tradition I will look forward to doing with Evan every year!

Kareen~

Trick or Treat!!

This year was the first year we took Evan out Trick or Treating for Hallowe'en. We have always dressed him up and hosted a Hallowe'en party but this was the first time we took him out. He really didn't get the whole "dress up and you get treats" idea but caught on pretty quickly!

Here is Evan the past 3 Hallowe'ens for comparison.

For our Hallowe'en party this year Evan decided to be a policeman, although, his costume for Hallowe'en night was a dragon.

Officer Brown here. Ready to write up some tickets!

Here is Daddy trying to explain to Evan that if you wear your costume people will give you candy.

We decided to go out with our friend Denny. Once Evan saw Denny with his costume on he was game! Here are 2 adorable dragons ready to go!!

On our way to our first house of the night.

This adorable giraffe is Denny's little brother, Yianni. He was trick or treating like an old pro!

 On our travels we bumped into 3 adorable strawberries!  (l-r) Jacinda, Lia, Alexina, Denny, Yianni and Evan. It was tough getting a group shot as Evan was not into it.

We had so much fun. Evan and Denny did such a great job saying Trick or Treat at every house. Often Evan would yell it before the person would even open the door. And they also made sure to say Trick or Treat to everyone's pumpkins. Between houses the boys would march down the sidewalk yelling "Let's go! Let's go! Let's go!" And when we got to school this morning Evan couldn't wait to tell everyone that he went Trick or Treating with Denny!

Can't wait until next year!!

Kareen~

Our Family Tree

I've been a little addicted to Pinterest lately, however, I have been finding all kinds of neat crafty things I want to try. This is one of them. It cost me $3.50, Evan helped and I am so pleased with it!

The canvas was $2 at the dollarstore, the "family" piece was $1.50 at Michaels and the rest was all stuff I already had at home. Each of us traced our hand onto green paper for the leaves and Evan painted them with glittler paint. Then we each used our stamp pad to include our finger prints and made animals and insects with them. Evan's fingerprints are along the top, mine is the caterpillar and the other 3 are Steve's. Easy-peasy! I included the date at the bottom and although it might be a little unrealistic to do it every year, I would like to do it again in the future... hopefully when we can include another hand!

Colour Match

I found this cute idea online and thought I'd try it with Evan. It's super easy and cheap. I went to the paint store and picked up a few paint chips. I had a hook laying around and a hole punch.

Punch a hole in each colour on each card. Attach them using a ring-hook-thingy.

Let you child find things around the home that match the colours on the card. This is a great activity indoors and outdoors. Evan had fun matching the colours to his cars.

He especially liked matching the oranges to Tiger.