Elf Adventures Continued...

Day 16: Marshmallow bath

Day 17: Playing Sneaky Snacky Squirrel Game

Day 18: Sleeping all cozy in bed

Day 19: All tied up

Day 20: Going for a ride!

Day 21: Zip line from the Christmas tree!

Day 22: A sweet snowman breakfast

Day 23: Feeding baby

Christmas Eve - Day 24: Jesus Birthday Party & G'bye letter

Candy Cane went back to Santa, but we're excited to see her again next year! :)

More Elf Adventures!

We've still had fun each morning with Candy Cane our elf!  Here's some of our latest fun Candy Cane has had in our home!

Day 7: Turned the milk green so it's more festive!

Day 8: Fun w/stickers and writing Santa a note.

Day 9:  Riding the monkey train under the tree!

Day 10:  Reminding us what Christmas is *really* about..

Day 11: Sack races with Stuffies

Day 12: Reading the Christmas Story to friends

Day 13: Climbing the Christmas Tree

Day 14: Counting down the days...

Day 15:  A Giant Surprise!

You just never know what that lil' elf will do next... ;)

The Christmas Season has begun!

I can hardly believe it's here already, but after a lovely Thanksgiving we started all our fun Christmas traditions!  We put up our tree and Kaia's been enjoying re-decorating it ever since.  Daddy did a great job and put lights up outside this year!  We were the first on the street to be festive too!  Whoo!

A new tradition we started was our Elf.  Yep, I got sucked into the Pinterest craze of "Elf on the Shelf."  I didn't exactly like the book and the way it's kind of used to threaten kids to be good for Santa.  But I found this blog entry from "Following In My Shoes" about how she incorporated Jesus and the true meaning of Christmas into their elf.  So I modified the letter a bit and did it the same way!

Our elf showed up on our doorstep with the letter from Santa while we were decorating the tree.  Kaia gave her the name "Candy Cane".  So Candy Cane the Elf has been up to some silly things since we've had her...

Day 1: Tea Party

Day 2:  Driving with Ken 

Day 3: Flour-Snow Angels 

(getting ornery)

Day 4: TP'd the play tree

Day 5:  mmm..Syrup!

Day 6:  Making Snowflakes

Haha... so far its been a lot of fun!  In the beginning, since I did not follow the book where they introduce the idea that if you touch the elf they lose their magic, Kaia knows its a toy.  So the first few days she says, "Mommy what did you do!?"  I laughed it off saying "what a silly elf Candy Cane is!"  Today was the first day she laughed at what Candy Cane did (w/the snowflake).  The syrup day kind of backfired because she wanted to drink syrup too.  But I explained only elf's can do that.. :)

More Elf Adventures to come...

Birthday Celebrations!

Kaia turned 3 already... my baby is a baby no longer.  She seems like such a little girl now and of course picked out a Disney Princess theme for her birthday party!

Since her actual birthday was on a Monday, we let her open her gift from us on Sunday afternoon.

                               "I'm 3 now!"

 

A dollhouse!  So fun! I think she likes it! :)

On her actual birthday we did try and make it special.  We celebrated by going to the park in the morning and baking cupcakes (for 2) as a dessert after lunch.  She chose chocolate cake and chocolate icing.  After work & dinner, Brad and I took her to get a birthday treat.  She chose a chocolate ice cream cone.  I think I see a theme here...   She also got to go to the toy store and pick out a fun gift from Grandma & Grandpa Taylor!  What a day!

She had to wait another week for her party, but we made a little paper chain to help her understand when her party day would be.  She still asked me every day if it was her birthday though. :)

The day before the party I attempted a princess cake.. and thank goodness it was a success!  I was very prepared to go out and buy a cake the night before - ha!  At first Kaia wanted Rapunzel but once at the store she fell in love with Snow White.  I was just sure that she would later ask me where her Rapunzel cake was, but luckily she didn't - she seemed happy with her choice.

The finished product! Whew!

We were called crazy for planning this, but we had her party at the park in the middle of October.. and it turned out just fine.   Here's our princess in her crown, enjoying her birthday!

On to another fun year with our Kaia love!

X, Y & Z!

Letter 'X' day was a pretty tough one, but we squeezed in a few things.  

Between MOPS and my work day we made an X-ray picture with white paint and black paper.  

Later that afternoon we had fun making banana slices into X shapes for a snack and then played on her Xylophone!  We made some great music with her "drum", keyboard and xylophone lemme tell you. 

Letter 'Y' day took me by surprise when our power went out in the morning.  We ended up over at Grandma's house so I could work and Kaia was super excited to be playing at Grandma's house all afternoon.  So we mostly talked about 'Y' words and pointed out "yellow" items throughout the day. 

We made sure to paste a Yarn 'Y' in her book that night.

Finally we made it to Letter Z day!  And we ended the 'Letter of the Day' series on a very fun note by going to the Zoo!  We were blessed by a kind stranger with a free "complimentary" ticket they had, and since Kaia is still 2 years old for a few more weeks, we only had to pay for 1 adult!  

Kaia wanted to see the Zebra's first, and luckily for her they were one of the first things around the bend. She really loved the Giraffes, Penguins and Orangutans.  Something I'll never forget is her "waddling" around the zoo like a penguin and making sure we waddled too. "Waddle Daddy!!"  From one animal exhibit to the next..waddle waddle. :)  Also, Daddy kept her happy by making Mickey talk back to her (who she brought along for the day).  It was a beautiful day and I think we saw almost everything there!

Yep she kept asking to see the snakes!  

Then when we left "Bye Snakeys!!"

'W' is for Wonderful Waffles!

Kaia loves "waffles & dip"  (meaning syrup) for breakfast.  And today we had a lovely morning brunch with a great friend at Village Inn.  So when she said she wanted "Waffles & dip" and I asked her what letter Waffles starts with she proudly proclaimed "W!!!"

We also made a paper Watch Kaia can Wear, out of a dixie cup I cut in half and some paper.  She had fun Wearing it for awhile but then ran around and wouldn't let me catch her picture...typical busy 2 year old. Here's the best I got:

Soon after we had to get our Wiggles out!  That was fun wiggling around all together like we're Worms!

We also made a 'W' out of scotch tape in her book and then colored over it with blue like Water.

Very 'V'

We had a very 'V' day and it started with a fun activity of making a play dough Volcano.  First, I looked up pictures of real volcanoes on the computer to show Kaia what they are.  Then we built up the mountain part out of the play dough in a pan, and then I had her poke down a hole with an end of a spoon.  I filled it with a tsp of baking soda and gave her the red "fire" vinegar to pour in the hole and watch it explode!  We had to make it explode a second time of course!

We played a game of trying to think of other "V" words/things.  We ate Vegetables, and made lots of silly Voices. 

'U' is for Umbrella

Since we just played with the Umbrella in the rain for letter 'R' day, we left the real Umbrella in the closet and made some colorful pretend ones.  We colored a paper towel cut out with washable markers and then sprayed them with a spray bottle (her favorite part) until they blended into each other.  Then we pasted it and finished the handle with markers.

We also played with her Unicorn stuffy.

Like her cheesy smile?

I couldn't think of any 'U' foods, but she did have fun crawling Under the table and chairs and hanging Upside down off her bed.  We also traced some 'U's and made some out of play dough.

Tea for Two

Tea for Two Today for letter 'T' day!  Kaia loves her tea set and having tea parties.  So it was especially fitting for today.

We also made a Tree out of Triangles.

Built a Tower of Ten boxes.  And for a special Treat, we went to Chick-Fil-A for dinner and she played in the Tree and Tunnels in the play area.

Meet the Comfy Sack Sock Monster

For letter 'S' today we had SO many things we could do.  We Started by decorating Stars with Stickers.  Then we cut Shapes with Scissors!

  Later, we Sponge painted Stars and Shapes.

They turned out pretty cool!
















She also traced "S"s for awhile, but my favorite of the day was when I asked Brad to play Sock puppets with her while I cooked dinner.  He then created "Comfy Sack Sock Monster".  It was hilarious and I wish I had the time to video it and cook, but I have a feeling he'll return someday at the request of Kaia. :)  What a daddy!

Ready for 'R'

We're Ready for 'R'!

We made a pet Rock today, and when asked what color Kaia wanted to paint it she said: "Red - red starts with R mommy!"  Such a smarty.

Then she watched Rapunzel, a favorite.. or used to be favorite?  Today she said she didn't like Rapunzel.  Not sure where that came from.

We Read some stories.  We Ran with Charlie.  We sang the Rainbow song multiple times and played with her Ribbon wand.  We also took a walk in the Rain.  Kaia has a fascination with umbrellas, so it was a fun time.

Presenting Queen of 'Q'

'Q' is one of the more difficult letters but we found a way to make it work!

We did Q-tip painting before lunch.

We also made a Queen's crown.

We quacked like ducks and were very Quiet while her baby was sleeping.  

And at the end of the day, we drew a Q in her book.