Pack N Go Kitchen Tutorial

So Santa brought me a Silhouette for Christmas .. ok well to be totally truthful Santa brought my BFF a new Silhouette Cameo for Christmas and so Santa re-gifted me her ole Portrait but it is new to me and I am looking forward to getting to know it better! So I have been looking on Pinterest and other groups for ideas on how to make great use of it and came across this cool option! 

Image Source and full tutorial here

The Pack-n-go Kitchen ~ using vinyl to help it stick to the top of a Rubbermaid storage container. These would be perfect for homes with small spaces, the grandparents house or taking camping or to the cottage where you want them to have stuff to play with but not a lot of space! 

Plus the lovely creators at Printable Cuttable Creatables are offering this SVG file to make this FREE  along with the step by step tutorial to walk you through it! 

I have not gotten any vinyl yet but I am totally pinning this for future reference! 

Have an amazing day!

Margaret

Live Well, Laugh Often, Love Much

Be Totallyawake4-life

 

Elf on the Shelf Marshmallow Fun

I think that Ian is so missing the SNOW while he is here with us in the balmy 10+ degree freaky weather we are experiencing in Ontario right now! 

I do not think he is alone ~ lots of winter sports fans on social media who are missing the fluffy white stuff but shamefully I admit I am one of those Canadians who could do without the white stuff this time of year ~ I love FALL but our cold snowy winters are so not my favorite especially getting 5 children bundled up in winter gear ~ a light jacket and shoes is so much EASIER! 

So since he is missing the snow and building snowman ~ he brought the crew an invitation  to make some Marshmallow Snowman and forts and so forth!

Elf on the Shelf ~ Marshmallow Fun

Ian's Marshmallow invitation poem

I do not know about you, but I love to play out in the snow

Elves make fortes and snowman as the winter wind does blow!

But sometimes in the North Pole it gets so for every cold

That we cannot play outside “stay in the workshop” we’re told!

So when this happens to avoid getting ourselves in trouble

To the marshmallows and toothpicks we head on the double

We build our fortes and snowman inside the workshop

Having fun of our own and playing until Santa says STOP

So today I brought you some good old fashion elf fun

You can build with some marshmallows till the real snow does come!

The crew love this invitation ~ it was a lot of fun and when they were done I let them 'eat' one marshmallow from their structures for a treat cause the weather is gorgeous and we can run off the bit of sugar high that a marshmallow treat! 

I did not get too many photos of this years fun cause this crew, love them as I do, they can sense when my attention is divided and were using that as an excuse to try to do more 'eating than exploring' with their marshmallows. They had some nice 'toothpick' free towers being built although no one in this group but Ian and myself were inclined to actually want to build a snowman ~ they were more about building structures and trains and things!

 

A marshmallow TRAIN!

Raising a Roof up in here!

Making  a marshmallow circle while counting the 10 marshmallows!

Have an amazing day!

Margaret

Live Well, Laugh Often, Love Much

Be Totallyawake4-life

Elf on the Sehfl ~ A Gift of Art

Being active out and about in the community is a large part of our program ~ it offers the children a chance to learn about new things in a meaningful manner that might not have come up if we remained in the home setting day in and day out. 

We are blessed here that we have access to all sorts of community run programs that help the children connect with the comunity. Our Ontario Early Years programs are spread out all over the London area, plus we have programs that connect kids with Seniors, we have the London Children's Museums and a short drive away the amazing Kitchener Children's Museum as well, when we want to get active we have Adventures on Wonderland and Kidscape and our local Library offers amazing options and than there are our local farms that offer seasonal fun ... we love the Great Lakes Farm and the Greenview Aviaries  and of course our Storybook Gardens is an awesome treat!

So Ian brought us an invitation this week to create a work of art to share with one of our favorite playgroups ~ so while we made our art we need to decide who to deliver it too once we are sure that we are all healthy!

We opted for an encore of a favorite ~ wine work prints with a 'masking' trick on a little canvas ... so I placed a paper heart with removable adhesive in the middle of the canvas and they painted as they desired as a group effort to help cover the whole thing and than when they were done I removed the heart ~ when we decide who we want to give it to than we can write in the heart the name of the organization for them. 

 

A Gift of Art from the Heart using the Masking Technique

A Gift of Art from the Heart!

Ian the Elf ~ Giving the Gift of Art poem

Santa heard you like to visit community centre's where people come for fun,

Where there are awesome group leaders

giving of them selves to everyone!

So his challenge today,

should you choose to accept,

Is to make them a lovely work of art

He knows you can do it, you are all very adept!

Than wrap it up in some Christmas paper

and tie it with a bow

and leave it at a community group

 As a wonderful gift of art for them to show!

As always you are more than welcome to leave me a comment and share what your Elf has been up to in your home or if you do not do the Elf what you've been up to enjoying this time of year! 

Have an amazing day!

Margaret

Live Well, Laugh Often, Love Much

Be Totallyawake4-life

Elf on the Shelf - Pay's it Forward

In a day in age where we pay with 'debit or credit cards' having the correct change for things like the grocery cart, parking meter or vending machine can be a first world problem frustration for many ~ myself included specially the grocery cart one! So today's 'pay it forward' challenge for Ian the Elf was one I really enjoyed myself ~ we are still stuck home with the tummy bug moving through hoping it is on the tail end so I offered to do our Act of Kindness myself when I was out getting groceries ~ put a couple loonies in some carts for others! When we are able to go out I will let the kids put some change on the drink  Vending machine at playgroup!

Pay it Forward Poem

There is nothing more frustrating that not having change for the slot

It calls for a toonie and a Nickle is all that you’ve got

So bring a smile to someone’s face today

Here is a toonie, some tape and a note that you’ll pay!

Attach it to a nearby parking meter

Or even the vending machine at the local community centre

 
Have an amazing day!

Margaret
Live Well, Laugh Often, Love Much
Be Totallyawake4-life