Say Cheese Ginger!!

Emily loves to draw so as soon as Ginger appeared she decided she would draw our Elf's silly antics.  It was cute to watch her get out all of her supplies and get to work recreating the image of Ginger on the Candle on her own paper.  

We are hopping to save these and put them together into a book or collage after Christmas as a special memory of the Elf on the Shelf through our 5 year old's artistic perspective :)

Our Elf on the Shelf has Arrived

This Christmas Season we have a special visitor watching the girls each day.  Her name is Ginger and she is our Elf on the Shelf!!  I have to say I was hesitant about this special Christmas Tradition.  I do prefer the things that are more Christ centered.  But I am so glad that we have included this in our Christmas preparations this year.  The girls are in love with her and it is so much fun to see their faces EVERY morning as the look for her and then discover the silly antics she is up to.

We had our Elf "delivered" to our front door one night.  Delivered meaning Daddy placed her sitting on top of her box at our front door and then knocked while we were upstairs getting ready for bed.  When the girls heard it they wanted to know who was at our door at bedtime.  They were so excited to find our Elf on the Shelf!  That night we read her special book, which is basically an instruction manual for her in a cute rhyming text.  It told the girls that we had to pick out a name for her and how she listens to hear if they are good or bad and then tells Santa.  It also lets them know that they are not allowed to touch her or she will loose her magic.

Now for the real fun, every morning she is in a different place in the house.  Sometimes it is just sitting or hanging somewhere and sometimes it is a whole little scene.  Here is what our Elf, Ginger has been up to so far :)

Day 1

Ginger for Ginger ~ we think she likes her name!

Day 2

Helping us decorate ~ the girls love the candy cane candles 

Day 3

Fun with Clementines

Day 4

A Campfire and making Smores with Prince Eric

Can you tell that the girls loved it?!?!

 Day 5

Ginger loves our Wedgits as much as we do!

Do you have an Elf on the Shelf, what is your favorite part of this tradition?

Check back soon to see more of the fun that we have with our Elf, Ginger as we prepare for Christmas!!

Let it Snow, let it snow, let it snow!!!

 And boy did it snow here!  After hurricane Sandy we were hit with a nor'easter which left about 7.5 inches of snow.  It also knocked out our power for 4 days, but that was nothing compared to what some other families were dealing with. 

So we made the best of it and enjoyed the perfect Snowman making snow that was covering our yard!

 Emily and Juliette's Snow Frog!!!

Celebrating Neighborhood Toy Store Day 2012

The 3rd annual Neighborhood Toy Store Day is coming this Saturday, November 10, 2012!!!!   

Participating stores will host local in-store events for families (such as activities, craft projects, live performances and/or special discounts) to help kick off the holiday shopping season and celebrate the joy of shopping for quality toys!  This annual event is coordinated by the non-profit organization ASTRA, the American Specialty Toy Retailing Association and introduces families to the fun of shopping locally and celebrates each toy store's commitment to the community.  You can find a participating toy store at Your Neighborhood Toy Store.  The new Your Neighborhood Toy Store website is an amazing online resource for parents looking for the best toys on the market and where to find them. The website also features articles with expert advice on toys and playing for children of all ages and a local toy store locator. 

I personally love finding quality unique toys that my children enjoy playing and also stimulates their minds and imagination.  Big box stores do not always carry these high quality toys and I feel they often cater to "fad" toys that children outgrow quickly and are usually cheaply made.  At your local toy store you can find a wide selection of the best toys on the market that your children will really enjoy playing with.  In addition, shopping locally offers better customer service and is a great way to support your community!

Here are some of the quality toys you could find for sale at your neighborhood toy stores, that are all winners of ASTRA's Best Toy for Kids 2012:

 

Ogo Sport RAQ by OgoSport is  a fun outdoor game where players can throw the racquets like flying discs, throw and catch the flux ball with the racquets or invent their own game with water balloons, baseballs or tennis balls.  The possibilities are endless and we can't wait to try out all the different  ways for open-ended and creative play once the weather gets nicer here. (We are currently recovering from Hurricane Sandy and a nor'easter that dumped 7.5 inches of snow!)

 

Puppet-on-a-Stick by Education Insights is a great toy to foster creativity!  The girls loved using these adorable puppets on sticks for puppet shows and making up stories.  Each puppet has an oversized head with googly eyes, a movable mouth and a handle.

 

 Kidoozie Deluxe Build-A-Road with Elevator by International Playthings was Emily and Juliette's favorite toy of all of the toys we were given to test out.  They loved creating and playing with all the different roadways that they created.  The interchangeable, flexible track was easy for them to create with and they loved watching the cars move all around once they finished creating it.

 

Feed the Woozle by Peaceable Kingdom is a great cooperative game where we all worked together to feed the Woozle.  The girls loved crossing the room in all different crazy ways to try to get the silly foods to the Woozle.  They learned body awareness, fine motor skills, counting and team work.

www.yourneighborhoodtoystore.org

You can find ASTRA/ The Woohoo Factor on Facebook HERE

   and on Twitter (@TheWoohooFactor)

Disclosure: I was asked by Child's Play Communications to help spread the word of Neighborhood Toy Store day. I was not paid for this post but I was compensated with the toys I reviewed.

Happy Holidays with Shutterfly and a Giveaway

 Every year we send holdiay cards to our friends and family because I think it is great to be able to send smiles along with our Christmas Greetings!  For Christmas last year we created our cards on Shutterfly and I was impressed with all the different styles available.  It was a lot of fun to try them out with the pictures that we took.  I was thrilled with the cards that we finally decided on and ordered from Shutterfly.

This year there are so many new styles to choose from and after checking out all of the new Christmas Card designs I can’t wait to create our family Christmas Card, hopefully the photo shoot will go as smoothly as creating the card does!!

Here are a few of my favorites for this year:

Jolly Damask Holiday Card

Bubbles Of Snowflakes Christmas Card

Wrapped In Dots Christmas Card

  Be sure to check out all of Shutterfly's great special offers and don't forget to enter my giveaway for $50 off your Shutterfly purchase!!

Check out all the great ways to be social with Shutterfly

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The Giveaway

(please make sure to enter through the Rafflecopter widget)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Disclosure: I will receive money off my next Shutterfly purchase for writing this post to participate in Shutterfly’s holiday card promotion however these are my own unbiased experiences and opinions.

A Pinkalicious Party!!!

To celebrate Emily’s 5th Birthday she had all of her friends over for a Pinkalicious Tea Party.  I had so much fun scouring the internet for idea for this party and Emily had a great time celebrating with her friends.

The Birthday Girl all ready for her Pinkalicious Party

Our Dining room all decarated for a Pinkalicious Tea Party.

I used 2 tea sets, one set was my mother-in-laws and the other I received as a bridal shower gift. 

  

The table was decorated with the Giant Cupcake Birthday Cake

 

Pink Princess Wands

Marshmallow Cupcake Pops

These were so easy to make: Insert a lollipop stick into a large pink marshmallow and dip it  into melted pink chocolate.  Then add a red mini m&m and some silver decorators sugar crystals.  I wrapped them in chocolate lollipop bags and then we added them to the favor bags at the end of the party

The Birthday Girls Chair

We served bagels with pink cream cheese, pink lemonade and pink milk (strawberry milk).

Once all of our little guests arrived in their adorable pink outfits they sat around the table and I read the book “Pinkalicious” to all the girls.

Then they each decorated a white lunch bag with  stickers, markers and crayons.  Once they finished they also made pink bracelets.  I picked through all of our beads to include only the pink, red and white beads.  I was amazed with how long all of the girls worked on their projects.  They seemed to really enjoy this part of the party.

Next we served the bagels, pink lemonade and strawberry milk.  The kids were excited about having their own tea cups and we served the pink lemonade from the tea pots.

After lunch we went downstairs for a Pinkalicious Treasure Hunt

We filled two large buckets with rice, pink petals, pink pom poms and pink heart sequins.  Then I added in some special treasures for them to find.  Each girl had to find a hear lip-gloss ring, eraser, pink bubbles and a candy necklace kit.

We called the girls to come and they used their decorated bags to hold the treasures that they found.  This was a lot of fun and the girls really seemed to enjoy it.  Next time I would do it in a different container because some of the things were really hard to find because they went all the way to the bottom and they really had to dig. With 17 girls this took a bit of time.  But everyone had fun watching, playing and hunting!

Time for Birthday Cake!

This is one of my favorite pictures her smile is priceless, she was so happy the whole day.

 

After the cake the girls each went home with their decorated treat bag filled with the bracelet they made, the treasures they found in the rice along with the wand and marshmallow pops that decorated the table.

Each treat bag also included a clip that my mom and I made from YummyFelts            and these candy bags with the “True blue cure for Pinkititis.”

I found the printable topper from  Kim at SevenThirtyThree and printed them onto card stock.  Then I was able to buy individual pieces of candy at Party City.  So I picked out Green Fruit Slices, Green Lollipops and Green Foil Wrapped Hershey Kisses.  I put them all into small plastic treat bag (the same ones I used for the marshmallow pops just a little larger) and stapled the topper on.  They looks so cute and  were one of my favorite things to make for the party.

Long Live Summer with Shutterfly

I Love the summer!  In fact we have been so busy enjoying all of the fun things that go along with summer, such as gardening, swimming, vacations, bbqs and just having some fun outside with our family.  I also Love Shutterfly.  In the past we have created a Family Summer Fun book to document all the fun things that we do during the summer.  The girls love looking back at the pictures and seeing how they have grown.

This summer Shutterfly wants to help us use some of the amazing summer pictures that we have taken to win some great PRIZES!!!  By entering the Shutterfly Long Live Summer Photo Contest 2012, you can win a trip for four to The Bahamas and a professional photo shoot so you’ll remember your vacation forever.  All you need to do is upload your favorite photo and caption based on the theme of the week.  Get a gift from Shutterfly just for entering! You can enter at any point during the 5-week sweepstakes period.

PHOTO THEMES

•       Week 1(7/9): Americana - ended

•       Week 2 (7/16): Great Outdoors - ended

•       Week 3 (7/23): Water Fun – ended

•       Week 4 (7/30): Sports & Activities current week

•       Week 5 (8/6): Parties & Celebrations

PRIZES

•       Instant win prizes just for submitting a photo!

•       Weekly prizes (contestants can enter one time/week)

•       Weekly featured photos: up to 5 weekly entries will be selected from the gallery and featured on the Facebook fan page.

•       Grand prize: trip for 4 to Bahamas, 4 nights, family photo shoot

•       Shutterfly Sweepstakes - Official Rules