Our Advent Calendar

We wanted to start doing an advent calendar this year now that Emma is old enough to really understand what is going on at Christmas. There are so many options out there, but I really wanted to make something that would emphasize Jesus, be full of fun Christmas-y activities, and (of course) have sweet treats. 

I found a couple that I would love to buy, but I am content to check them out after Christmas to see if I can get them on sale. So this year we are using glass jars to hold each day's advent activities...and I love how it turned out!

Here's a look at all 25 jars:

The most important thing I wanted was to have a Scripture to read every day. We'll be reading the Christmas story from Luke, and working on memorizing several verses. I started with Emma just a few days ago and she nearly has Luke 2:11 memorized already! Now we have to play catch-up.

I found a bunch of ideas online, but in the end came up with most of my own Christmas activities.

 The top jar of popcorn is "make a popcorn garland".

I'm pretty sure we won't have enough snow to build a snowman in Delaware in December, so we'll make snowmen out of toothpicks and marshmallows!

Mmmmm...Peppermint sticks!

I used a glass marker to write the number for each day on the jars.

Emma has been asking several times a day for the last week if its time to start opening the jars. We can't wait to get started tomorrow!

Saying Bye to Daddy

Emma has become quite the early bird most days. We think it has a lot to do with her wanting to see Martin before he heads to work. She loves to blow kisses with Daddy, and wave to him as he drives away.

Watching Daddy's car (her hand is over her mouth doing a kiss)

Blowing her kiss.

Sweet girl!

Our Thankful Tree

We've been doing a bunch of Thanksgiving activities for Tot School lately, and this one turned out great! There are so many variations of "thankful tree" for Thanksgiving, but I really liked the craft portion of this one from 1+1+1=1.

The base of the tree is a paper towel tube. We don't really use paper towels, so I taped 2 toilet paper together. Then Emma used watercolors to paint the tube brown.

We used tape again to fasten the tube to the white paper so that it stands upright on its own. Then I used scissors to cut strips down an inch and a half or so. Nothing too scientific here! These are the branches! 

I printed out a leaf template that had four different types of leaves. I used the white leaves to trace on colored construction paper and cut out a bunch of colored leaves. Emma used watercolor paints again to paint the white leaves. Over the last week or two, we've been talking about things that she is thankful for, and then writing them on a leaf. She has needed a little help thinking of things besides what she sees right in front of her (bowl, paper, crayon, etc). Then we glued the leaves to the "branches" of our tree...the finished product!

She thought of this one all by herself!

Will was one of the first things she wanted to write down :-)

Food...and Pizza...she is a Dunphy to be sure!

With a spoon

We've been giving Will a spoon or a fork with meals lately, and he is, to say the least, thrilled.

He does a pretty good job getting the spoon in his mouth.

Since he's getting two more molars, the spoon is a great teether in between bites too! 

Thrilled is way too reserved of an emotion.

Ferocious perhaps?

A Photo Essay: By Emma

Emma got her hands on the camera recently and proceeded to take a number of pictures before I realized that she even had the camera! Of course, she wanted to see them all, and once I flipped through and showed her, I realized that they were actually pretty decent, especially considering she is not-quite-three. 

Her pictures also gave me a little glimpse into her world - how life looks from her perspective a little closer to the floor. And of all the things she could photograph, she picked out what was most important to her and snapped those things.

First up, bread rising in the sun.

Emma loves helping make bread. The act of bread rising is fascinating to her.

The bin of new library books.

Emma would read books pretty much all day long.

Will's new Zoo toy.

The two of them have so much fun playing with this together.

Will.

Her most favorite "play thing".

The little rocking chair.

Perfect place for reading books or rocking her babies.

 Our large cardboard box boat.

 Imagination at its finest.

Her toy vacuum.

It makes noise and collects fuzz. What's not to like?

 A picture of some clothes I was preparing to sell.

She imitated me taking pictures of things to list on eBay.

Our living room.

A little messy, perfect for playing.

HOME.

Daylight Saving Time

We all love it, that weekend each year when the clocks turn back and we get to sleep in an extra hour. How refreshing! How exciting!

How early the children get up!




We had a much easier time getting up early this morning, but of course, so did Emma and Will.




Thankfully, this is the first time change that has really affected them, but we are sure it won't be the last!