Nov 30... Day 1 of Adventures with Rosie!

This morning the kids woke up to find that Rosie the Elf had a little surprise for them... ELF DONUTS!!! At first, they weren't sure what to think... then they had a chance to wake up a little and thought it was a cool idea. Kaylen gobbled them all up, AJ didn't want to try them ha ha.

 

 

Along with the donuts, Rosie left a note for the kids that said the following...

 

Kaylen and AJ,

 

Thank you so much for inviting me into your home!  I just know that we will have a great time and that I will report good news to Santa Claus.  Please enjoy the elf donuts that I made for you.

Love, Rosie the Elf

 

 

After we got breakfast all cleaned up and ready for school, Kaylen asked if she could take Rosie to school for her "show and tell." I wasn't sure if Rosie was quite up for the trip, after all, she did just get here from the North Pole... but I decided she could go along. We wrote a letter to the class that explained Rosie and what she would be doing...

 

 

 

Mrs. Rieker's First Grade Class,

 

This is our very special friend, Rosie the Elf. She is visiting us from the North Pole to help us keep track of Santa's "naughty and nice" list. She is here to make sure Kaylen, and her brother AJ, are on their very best behaviors.  She is visiting your class today to make sure Kaylen is following directions and learns a lot of new things.  Rosie the Elf doesn't do much. She will sit on Kaylen's desk (or wherever Mrs. Rieker would like to place her) and watch your class. She might not move, but that's ok, she's keeping a close watch on everyone.   We hope you have a great day with Rosie the Elf and we hope that you are all VERY good for Mrs. Rieker today!  Feel free to take some pictures with Rosie the Elf today. We would love to see her around the school with Kaylen and her friends.

Sincerely, Mrs. Wolfe

p.s. Make sure you ask Kaylen about her special breakfast from Rosie the Elf!

 

 

Rosie got into a bit of trouble and accidentally knocked over the cups behind her that hold the cold/hot lunch sticks. She made up for it by giving the kids candy... The kids were so surprised that she did this for them.

 

Here is Kaylen with Rosie.

 

This is Kaylen's class. Her friend, Hunter, brought in his dog (Zoe) for show and tell today. The whole class and Rosie the Elf had their picture taken with Zoe today! How cool is that???!!!!

 

AJ will get to take Rosie with him to pre-school next week for his show and tell day and he is already extremely excited about all the stuff they will get to do in class with Rosie!!

 

 

 

 



Elf on the Shelf

Have you heard of the "Elf on the Shelf???" This was something I ran across on Pinterest and was surprised I had not heard of it before. Here is a description of just what it's all about. This thing is becoming quite popular and I thought we might just jump on the bandwagon this year!

You can purchase an actual "Elf on the Shelf" from their website or from various retail shops like Target or Amazon.  We are on a tight budget this year, so I couldn't quite justify the price... after searching on Pinterest for ideas on how to make my own "Elf on the Shelf," I ran across Bubbly Nature Creations blog. She shows how she turned an ordinary doll into her own "Elf on the Shelf."

We happened to have a couple of Rosetta dolls (from Tinkerbell) laying around the house, so I thought, "Why not?" Because my kids knew I would be making our own elf, I had to explain to them that once we had her outfit made, she would make a quick trip to Santa Claus so she could receive her instructions and the special magic she would need to stay with us for the month of December.

While they were at school, I made her outfit and then sent her off to Santa. I also registered her on the Elf on the Shelf website and the kids received an adoption certificate and a letter from Santa Claus.

She was back by the time they got home from school and the kids were so excited to see her. For the most part, they have been  behaving because they know she is watching their EVERY move! There have been a few instances when they will be naughty and all I have to do is remind them that Rosie (our elf) is watching.

Here are a few pictures of our elf, Rosie...

 

Her outfit is completely re-purposed.  I took pieces from other dolls to give her a Christmas look and just adjusted them to fit her... basically I altered the skirt and sweatshirt to fit her better. I made her leggings out of an old pair of socks... 

 

To give her an even more wintry feel, I made her a pair of earmuffs out of a pipe cleaner and pom poms and then braided three pipe cleaners together to make her a scarf.

 

 

Over the next few weeks, I will try to update our blog as often as possible so that you can all see just what Rosie has been up to at our house. We've already had an interesting morning with her but all the pictures are on my camera... which is at school with my daughter today... she took Rosie into school for her very first day! I can't wait to see what she comes home with !!!

 

 

We hope you enjoy our adventures with Rosie as much as we do!!!  If you need ideas for your Elf on the Shelf, check out Pinterest! There are so many great ideas out there right now and I am sure new ones are added daily!!!

Back into the swing of things...

Well, it's been a while since I have updated the blog... I can't believe how extremely busy we have been with school and getting ready for the new baby.  We just got back from a trip to Wisconsin to visit our family and friends.  It was nice but as usual, the trip went by way too fast!!

My parents live by a train station and we had to visit because our little Mr. AJ is OBSESSED with trains!! He had such a great time exploring the train yard and checking out all the trains. The kids were really surprised at just how big the trains were up close but they definitely had fun.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our first night in Wisconsin, we spent the night at a hotel that had a water park in Wisconsin Dells. The kids had an absolute blast! My husband took them swimming in the afternoon and then in the evening my brother and sister in law took them swimming again. They definitely did not want to leave the hotel the next morning!!

 

 

 

You can't really tell, but there are more slides as well as an arcade and a separate pool that you could play basketball in. This is very small compared to the other water parks in the area. If you have ever been to Wisconsin Dells, you will know what I am talking about. It seems like there is a water park in every hotel there now. Growing up in Wisconsin, we spent a lot of summers at theme parks like this but this was the first experience my kids had. It may have been small but it was perfect for their first time.



 

 

First Days of School

Here in Nebraska, we start school pretty early. My daughter's first day was the 15th of August. She was extremely excited to get back into school mode and I was thankful for the break. :) My son just started pre-school this past Tuesday, the 28th and he was even more excited. I help out from time to time at the pre-school he is now attending so he has had a chance to check it out before. His teachers are amazing and he is going to learn so much. When I pick him up from school he seems so much older than he really is!! Argh, they are growing too fast for me!!!

Something we started doing when my daughter started pre-school was to make a sign saying it was the first day of school and then take her picture with the sign on the front porch. We do the same thing on the very last day of the year. Last year I had the idea to print of the picture from the first day of the year and had her hold it so we could see how much she had grown. It turned out to be a really cute picture. This is a tradition I plan to keep doing until they are done with highschool... even if they think it might be dumb. :) I want to eventually put all the pictures into a scrapbook and give them to the kids at their graduation parties.

First day of pre-school, year 1













 Last day of pre-school, year 1

 First day of pre-school, year 2

Last day of pre-school, year 2

First day of Kindergarten

 Last day of Kindergarten
This picture always makes me laugh because of her goofy sunglasses :)

 First day of 1st Grade

 First day of pre-school, year 1








 

Birthday Party and Puppies

This weekend we celebrated my daughter's 6th birthday. We had a lot of fun and the kids were pretty worn out by the end of the day. We also welcomed 9 new puppies during the party. Our dog, Bella, finally had her puppies and that kept us just as busy. Here are some photos from our fun weekend.

After the Holi Powder Battle

Water Balloon Battle

H20 Blaster Battle

Pool Time

Kaylen opening her pogo stick from us :)

Bella with her new puppies!

Update

Well, my husband has been out of state the past 3 weeks which means I haven't been able to update much since he had the laptop with him.

The kids and I haven't been all that creative. Most every day in July was over 95 degrees (most over 100), so we spent a lot of time indoors watching movies. We haven't had the creative bone but will get back into the swing of things soon.

This weekend we will be celebrating my daughter's 6th birthday... this should be interesting but I am looking forward to the look on her face when she opens all of her presents. :)

Other than planning the party, watching movies and just hanging out not much has gone on... We have enjoyed some beautiful sunsets from the back deck... maybe you'll agree?

We're expecting!

Earlier this week, we found out we are expecting Baby #3!! Yeah!! I was thinking of a fantastic way to tell the kids and the rest of our family but even after reading a ton of different stories I couldn't find anything I liked. If I had waited a bit and taken the time to make stuff, I could have done a lot of cool things but my excitement got the best of me.

I ended up making a sign for each of the kids...

 Kaylen's sign said:

"I'm going to be a... big sister AGAIN!!!"

I had her read the sign out loud. When she realized what it said she started jumping up and down and had a huge smile on her face.

AJ's sign said:

"I'm going to be a... big brother FINALLY!!!"

I had Kaylen read him the sign. We asked him if he knew what that meant and he said, "yeah, another AJ!" (Oh Lord, I hope not lol).

Here are the kids with their signs.













We called my parents and let them know the good news (they live 8 hours away so we couldn't tell them in person). We told Ben's parents at a baseball game we went to with them on Monday night. So when we announced it on Tuesday to the rest of our family and friends we did  it in a baseball sort of way...  "Yesterday we found out that our little slugger, AJ, will be joining big sister in the Big Leagues... he will become a big brother in March 2013 :)"

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The kids decided they wanted to make journals for the baby which I thought was a great idea. We stopped at WalMart for these composition notebooks (50 cents each) that the kids will use. They each have two books to make sure that we don't run out of room before the baby comes.

The kids will draw pictures, write stories, write down the names they like, etc... We will then give these to Baby #3 when they come along.  I also have a couple of books for Ben and I to fill in... which means, I will be filling them in. :)

Here's Kaylen making her first entry into her baby journal. She drew a picture of what she thinks the baby will look like.

Here's AJ making his first entry. He just scribbles in it right now but maybe someday he will color a nice picture. :)