advent calendar

Slip and Slide Fun :) Summers almost here!


We took a step to the left today ( mum-of-kids brains cant focus for very long on the same thing :) ) ( especially crafty ones too!) and put down the fairy glitter and began our Advent Calendar.
As we were walking through the shops the other day I came upon a massive stand of "countdown calendars". Hannah Montana, Thomas the Tank, Ben Folds, Twilight even! were all there. I just couldnt bring myself to prepare for christmas with my kids this year with a calendar that meant nothing but who could get the chocolate first each day. So we decided to make one ourselves :)
All over the net are the most amazing advent calendar ideas... oh my gosh I had about 5 I wanted to do already! But seeing as my kids are only young, we decided to make a simple one that had a fun surprise for each day.
I had some calico so I tore it into 4 strips and penciled out 6 pockets per strip. Jumeirah began to paint the numbers on each pocket and decorated around the number.

I then sewed the strips on to another piece of calico and stitched down the penciled lines so we had 24 pockets.
We then found 24 different fun things to do to go into each pocket for everyday on December.. some ideas were:
Paint our toes in christmas colours
Make christmas cards
Dress up for a special dinner
go and see the christmas lights after dark.

and so on :)

I love it! It turned out so lovely and will look great hung on our wall.

So each pocket now has something for us to do as a family when dad gets home in the lead up to christmas. Jared and Jumeirah are so excited they wanted to start today :) I must admit I am a bit excited too.They dont know all the activities to do so it will be a surprise as to what we will do each day.
Plus I have also put a small freddo frog into each pocket as well :)

Jared also started our christmas cards today ( YES HE ASKED TO PAINT!!) in preparation for out christmas card swap.




I have only recently heard about this and missed out on joining one internationally so thought I would start one myself :) ( ANYONE KEEN TO JOIN? I NEED TO KNOW BY THIS FRIDAY 27/11)

SO we have started our cards, done our Advent calendar.. looks like christmas is cracking along nicely :) Better get back to the fairy party organising......