Hello December...

It's the last month of the year and I can not believe it. Where did 2014 go?

I hope your Thanksgiving was delicious. Our's was great. Very low-key and chill. It was perfect. After dinner we put up our Christmas decorations. I have officially jumped into the Christmas spirit even though it's just beginning to look like Fall here.

I've been playing Christmas music and doing holiday themed activities with the kids. This week Savannah and I are talking about the Advent calendar. I really should start wrapping their gifts but there's something about procrastinating until Christmas Eve that I enjoy.

On another note, I have been reflecting a lot about this space. My goal for 2015 is to be more consistent (which was also my goal for 2014 - don't judge) and to really allow this blog to be a reflection of my life. In 2015 I also hope to become a certified personal trainer. My textbooks and study resources have been ordered and I am anxiously awaiting their arrival. Highlighters would be an awesome stocking stuffer for me this year, hint hint.

More on how I came to the decision to become a CPT later. Have you already started on your goals for 2015? I know, I know, we gotta thru Christmas first, right?

Preschool at Home: Christmas Crafts

It has been really hard staying on our learning schedule with family in town. We have always used workbooks but I have a new appreciation for them now. When I don't have time or the opportunity to do full blown lessons with her it's great to whip out one of these workbooks. We can do a couple pages in a few minutes. I like that because it keeps us from totally abandoning our learning efforts while we have so much going on at home.

We normally always do some type of learning lesson before we start our craft. Today we did the workbook before moving on to some fun Christmas crafts.

I found a pin on Pinterest that used popsicle sticks to make ornaments. I found these colorful sticks at the Dollar Tree and we used super glue to make them hold their shape. She decorated them with glitter after they dried.

I also thought it would be fun to make a Rudolph face. For this quick and easy craft we used a paper plate, eyes, puffy ball (for nose) and pipe cleaners. I also used a hole punch to make the holes for the "antlers" but you don't have to. The pipe cleaners should poke right thru the plate. Savannah curved the cleaner in a U shape before I poked it thru the plate. Rudolph's smile came out pretty nice. 

Once we were done I felt like our face didn't look like a reindeer. I grabbed a brown marker and filled his face in. It made him look so much better. I would recommend wrapping your plate with a paper bag or painting your entire plate brown if you decide to do this. Hindsight being 20/20 I guess I could have cut off the white edge. Maybe next time (LOL)...

What kind of crafts have you been doing with your little ones to get into the holiday spirit?

Ubisoft: Just Dance Kids 2014 Video Game Review

Who's started shopping for Christmas? Anyone do Black Friday? I am not a Black Friday kind of girl. I'm more of a Cyber Monday type girl. I like going to the mall and strolling. Listening to Christmas music while I check out all the deals. That's my kind of shopping. 

While shopping for your kids this season a great gift idea is Just Dance Kids 2014. It's a great gift for the entire family actually. When I found out I was selected for this campaign I was beyond excited. Savannah has really started getting into dance so this was perfect for us! When we got it in the mail I immediately threw it in the Wii to give it a go. 

There are so many things I love about this game. First, I love that there are parental controls. That's always a win. You can make your own playlist or play the game on a non-stop shuffle mode. Savannah and I loved the balloon-pop mode. Her favorite song on the game is Yo Gabba Gabba's Freeze.

This was a WORK OUT! After hopping, jumping, running and dancing Savannah was nice and tired, LOL!! We enjoyed all the colors. The songs have a level of difficulty on them that work as a guide. I liked that. We worked our way up to some of the more difficult songs, it was very funny!  

I would highly recommend Just Dance Kids 2014. Look for it on Amazon or at your local GameStop. There are over 30 songs to dance to. There is something for everyone. Older kids will enjoy dancing to One Direction. Younger ones will enjoy The Wiggles and parents will enjoy it all!

I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls Collective and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.

Preschool at Home: A Christmas List

Whether you have accepted it or not there are seven weekends left until Christmas. I was going through the Sunday paper for coupons when I noticed that there were several Christmas toy books in the paper. After counting how many weekends I had left to prepare I thought it would be a good idea to have Savannah write her Christmas list and letter to Santa. 

Anytime I work learning in to something we have to do anyway I feel like I'm winning.  Because there were so many sales papers and toys books in the paper I thought it would be a great time to help Savannah get comfortable with using her scissors. I started by having her cut coupons. (teaching her to save money and cut at the same time -- win) Her job was to cut along the dotted lines on her page. She thought it was very fun to cut coupons for the toys. 

I told her Mommy and Daddy would use some of the coupons and that we could send the other coupons to Santa to help him save money. (and yes, I realize Santa does not need coupons) I liked having her cut coupons because the dotted lines on them made for the perfect guide. My only tip would be to make sure they are not practicing on a page that has coupons that you might actually need.

Once she was done cutting her pictures and coupons we wrote a letter to Santa. I helped her a lot. We both hold the pencil and I make sure her letters are as close to the real thing as possible. She can do a few letters by herself but for the most part she still needs a lot of guidance. 

"I have been a good girl. We will bake cookies for you. Please bring toys to me and Mikey."

Then I had her glue her pictures to a blank piece of paper using a glue stick. I wrote in a couple of the requests she had and we were done. I am currently looking for Santa's address. I would like for her to get a letter back from him in the mail. I'm not sure if the USPS is doing that again this year. I was able to find this PDF but I don't know if that's for this year. I'm going to do more research and I'll post what I find out about this year's Letters From Santa program.

And I just wanted to share this. She has developed a love for the letter H. It's all she writes, paints and scribbles.

Have you and your kids made Christmas lists yet?

Christmas at the Riverwalk

We had a great time taking Savannah to see the lights. She squealed and clapped the whole time. It was beautiful. If you're ever in San Antonio during the holiday season you must check out the Christmas lights on the Riverwalk. It was actually a little chilly when we went and that added to the already perfect setting. There was a mariachi band playing Christmas music. It was absolutely perfect. Here are a couple pics from our night out.

The pics of the lights don't do them justice at all. They were really amazing!

- posted from my chic iPhone