Christmas: Marshmallow Snowman Tutorial

The order of our advent calendar has officially been wrecked. We've gone rogue and are doing activities on whatever day we feel like! Yesterday we were supposed to go to Winter Wonderland at Petco Park but the event has been getting such bad reviews that we stayed home and made these marshmallow snowmen instead. What started as such a simple project ended up being very messy and our supplies were quickly drained...mostly because the kids could not control themselves around M&Ms. They were having so much fun that I could not even be mad at them. Thanks to Luynh & Eden for playing with food with us!

Marshmallow Snowman Tutorial

Materials Needed

-Large marshmallows

-Mini oreos

-Pretzels

-M&Ms

-Food markers

-White frosting

-Popsicle sticks

Instructions

1. Insert popsicle stick into three marshmallows

2. Use white frosting as "glue" to add M&M buttons and an Orea cookie hat 

3. Draw on a face using food markers

4. Insert two pretzels as arms

Your snowman would be the perfect accompaniment to a hot cup of cocoa or can be eaten right off the stick. Enjoy!

Christmas: A Peek at Parker's Advent Calendar

While hanging the advent calendar...

Me: Parker, wanna touch it? 

Parker: I wanna touch it. *Reaches and touches the bottom*

Me: Ok, try to touch it again.

Parker: *Reaches but can't touch it. Gets on his tippy toes. Still can't touch it.* I wanna touch it!

Me: Ok babe, hang it there.

We're on day 3 of our countdown to Christmas and Parker is totally fascinated by the advent calendar Tuan and I have put together for him. He is dying to get his hands on day 4. I'm totally in love with the advent calendar too. After many conversations that went kind of like this

Me: I really need to start working on Parker's advent calendar. Why is it so hard to find wool felt in San Diego?? 

Tuan: Make it out of something else.

Me: But I don't have to have to bother with hemming all the edges. Man this is going to be an expensive project. Wool felt is really pricey.

Tuan: JUST BUY IT.

So I just swiped and bought it. Sometimes you just have to especially when the calendar is as beautiful and timeless as this Urban Pine one from Land of Nod. I love it. The quality is impeccable.

[Sorry for the craptastic pictures. The lighting in our bedroom is really bad.]

Each pocket is filled with a fun winter activity and a little treat. Almost everything is airplane or superhero themed and purchased at Target or Party City. I tried to coordinate the treat with the activity we would be doing that day.

Putting the activity list together was the hardest part. Here is what I put together after browsing Pinterest and checking out what would be happening around town in the month of December (in no particular order).

1.       Get Christmas Tree

2.       Hang the wreath

3.       Write Christmas Cards

4.       Collect pinecones

5.       Bake chocolate chip cookies

6.       December Nights at Balboa Park

7.       Visit Grandma & Grandpa

8.       Visit  a Christmas tree farm

9.       Watch a Christmas movie

10.   Set up the Nativity scene

11.   Read the Nativity story

12.   Decorate the tree

13.   Make Pinecone Christmas Trees

14.   Petco Park Winter Wonderland

15.   View Christmas lights in the neighborhood

16.   Make a snowglobe

17.   Wear new pajamas to bed

18.   Christmas dance party!!

19.   Build a marshmallow snowman

20.   Color a Christmas picture

21.   Hang mistletoe

22.   Drink hot cocoa

23.   Write a letter to someone and send it in the mail

24.   Buy candy canes and hang them around the house

25.   MERRY CHRISTMAS, Parker!

Bunting Advent Calender Tutorial

After much consideration, I decided to make a bunting advent calendar for Parker and Kaden this year. The problem with a lot of advent calendars that I found online were that the pocket for gifts was too small to fill with anything significant. I settled on the bunting design because 1. it allowed me to make the pocket as big as I wanted 2. it very easily doubles as festive decor for the house and 3. it's a lot of bang for your buck! Here is my simple tutorial on how to create your own bunting advent calendar.

Materials Needed
3 coordinating fabrics, 1/2 yard each
5 yards of trim/ribbon (I used ball fringe)
1 spool of matching thread
5 sets of Thickers
1 isosceles triangle template with legs that are 7 in and a base that is 6 in

Directions
1. Cut out triangle template on cardstock or any thick paper (I used one side of a manila folder).
2. Use your template to cut out your fabric triangles. You will need 16 triangles cut from each of your 3 fabrics. Match your triangles into pairs (8 pairs for each fabric type). This is the longest step of the process.
3. The front of the bunting pocket will need to be a little lower than the back. Take each "front" triangle and fold it half an inch down from the top. Sew with 1/2 inch seam allowance to make a neat edge. Repeat 24 times.
4. Lay each front and back triangle right sides together and sew with a 1/4 inch seam allowance on both sides.
5. Flip each triangle pocket inside out. I used a chopstick to make sure the point was extra pointy. You can use any pointy stick to do this.
6. Press each triangle so it's flat.
7. Starting 6 inch from the start of the trim, sew all the triangles onto the trim leaving an inch between each triangle. You can space it out even more if you like but keep in mind how much trim you have!
8. Lay the bunting on the ground and admire your handy work.
9. Using tacky glue, apply the thickers in random order numbering each triangle at random 1-24. There are sooo many options for how to number each little flag. I chose to use the thickers because I have terrible handwriting and I liked the look of them. The only problem was that each set only had so many number 2s so we had to buy a lot of sets.
10. Let glue dry, hang your advent calendar and fill it with little treats!

Modern Advent Calendars to DIY or Buy

There are a few things I am obsessed with right now.

1. Fancy rice crispy treats. I want to make these, these and these.
2. Anything pumpkin flavored. Trader Joes FTW.

3. Advent calendars

 

Random right? I really want to make an advent calendar for Parker since this will be his first Christmas. Here are some fun ones that I think will be the most baby friendly. There's a good mix of advent calendars to buy, to make and to download so there should be something for everyone below. Enjoy! You have about a month to make/buy a calendar and fill it up with fun treats for baby.

 

 

[Love the graphic look of these boxes. Free download available here.]

[Easy idea that would double well as home decor for the fireplace. Click here for more details.]

[Simple and festive. Free download + instructions here.]

 

[Love this! Such an easy sewing project. You can buy it here or just make one.]

 

[The different size pockets and simplicity of this pocket calendar is so charming! Available on Land of Nod.]

 

[Mr Printables has to be one of the best sites ever. Love this little town calendar.]