Day 26: Elf portraits

Christmas Eve is around the corner. Which means Clyde will be leaving soon. This is making Katie sad. The countdown to Christmas has been turned into the countdown until Clyde leaves. To make the transition a bit easier, Clyde decided to leave a few portraits of himself around the house for the kids. He used the printer/copier/scanner to make a few prints. But he got a little carried away at the end. :)

With his end! Ha ha ha!

At least this time he stayed in place. I think his hands resting against the edge of the printer helped keep him up.

The first thing the kids saw, though, was the full portraits he taped up in their rooms.

Then, when they found him on the printer, the bum shot was a fun surprise.

I didn't think this one up on my own. I got it from Lil Blue Boo. Again, she's awesome. She cut the tag off her elf's bum. I should do that, too. Maybe he will stay in place better.

I've been picking up a bunch of last minute items for Christmas. I am super excited about a surprise I got for Jillian. She is the super Harry Potter fan in the house. Besides Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans, I got a chocolate mold in the shape of frogs. Candy melts were on sale at Michael's and I stocked up!!! Dark chocolate and Candy Cane. I'm going to make a few chocolate frogs to give her as a Christmas surprise. The Candy Cane ones are to make peppermint covered oreos! Yay!!! I'm thinking they'd be another good neighbor gift. :) 

Random extra shot of first graders making gingerbread houses. I've been hovering a bit lately. I think you can understand why.

P.S. I think that is blackberry jelly on his face, from lunch. :)

Day 17: Making Gingerbread Houses

Clyde got busy at the North Pole and made a cute little gingerbread house. He brought it with him when he came this morning and brought 3 full size kits for the kids to put to together. They were sooooo excited!!! It was a great Sunday afternoon activity!

The kids were very impressed with Clyde's little gingerbread house. They kept pointing out all the details and chatting about it. They are so cute sometimes! So full of sweet innocence and imagination. I just love listening to their conversations!

They would have been excited to make gingerbread houses no matter what, but when Clyde tells them to do something, WOW!, they cannot wait to do it!

The kids wondered if there is a Trader Joe's at the North Pole. I think there probably is. ;)

Hard at work! I had to mix up the icing and it was really stiff, so I added some milk. It worked perfectly, then.

Adding the sprinkles! Which bounced and flew EVERYWHERE!!! I just let them go at it and when they were all done, I wiped down the table, swept the floor, and went over the floor again with a wet swiffer. Still found sprinkles. Oh, well! They had fun, that's all that matters. :)