Day 343

Painting Ornaments

Every year (well almost) since I can remember, I have made tree ornaments at Christmas time. It started with me and some dried pasta and nail polish in the basement of my childhood home and has evolved to wood and acrylics on my kitchen table of my own home with my family.

I have always enjoyed this non-formal tradition I have established in my life and it feels so great to pass this tradition on to Adeline. This year, as part of our 25 Days of Advent Activities we are doing it again! I picked up these simple snowflake picture frame ornaments from Michaels a couple months ago (because I also have done this with Kindergarten and First grade students I know Michaels gets them early (like September early) and sell out fast and they often don't restock once the've sold out). This year I picked up only three, not the 25 that I usually do, so it made it much easier to actually find enough.

So here is what we did...

Supplies Needed:

• Wooden Ornament (does not need to hold a photo...I just like to make ones with photos most years, they make great keepsakes)
• White Acrylic Paint
• Glitter Paint
• Q-Tips (to use a no clean paint brushes

1. Using the Q-tip and white acrylic paint, paint the ornament white all over (do the back if you want, but not necessary)

2. After the white paint is dry paint with glitter paint using q-tips again. When you paint with the glitter paint most imperfections you saw after the white dries will vanish (so no need to touch up after kids paint, yes even if you are a perfectionist like me)

3. Put Picture into frame (if a photo ornament) and hang on tree (or give as a gift, something I often do as well) - finished product photo to come.

There you have it, easy and fun craft to make with kids. You could even do this craft as part of a Christmas themed party...it's fairly cheap and creates virtually no mess, yes even with 20 kids. Enjoy!

Day 283

 I am thankful...

We had a thanksgiving dinner this evening with Nana, Papa, Auntie Thea, Uncle Nathaniel and Auntie Alisha.  It was so much fun!!! We had a great turkey casserole and then went outside, across the street to hang out and toss the football around.  Adeline had a great time watching Daddy throwing the football around with Papa and Uncle Nathaniel.  As you can see she wanted to join in the fun at times...but mostly she was content to sit (or stand) and watch the football spin through the air from person to person.

Day 281

The Farm

We went to the Prairie Gardens Adventure Farm again today!  It was awesome! They had their pumpkin festival going on this weekend and there were pumpkins everywhere.

Here are some highlights of the day:

• Adeline kissing (licking) the bunny
• Adeline walking over to the goat to pet its tail
• Picking some great pumpkins and gourdes 
• Adeline's giggles of joy when the goats tried to lick her hands
• Adeline signing bath as she watched the ducks swim in the pond
• When the pumpkin cannon scared the poop right out of Mommy & Daddy, but it didn't phase Adeline at all

We will definitely be making some trips to the Praire Gardens Adventure Farm again in the future.  

Day 253

In Memory

My Aunt, Adeline's Great Aunt, Monica passed away a couple weeks ago. Today her family and friends got together to celebrate her life.  We heard many stories about her fun filled life and watched a slideshow of pictures from throughout her life and at the end we all shared some of her favourite snacks. Her favourite drink was Pepsi.  So in memory of her Adeline had her first taste of pop.  And boy, oh, boy did she like that! This was the first time Adeline had something other than milk or water to drink.  Don't worry people, this is not going to be normal occurrence ;)

Day 218

1st Birthday Party

Today was Adeline's big 1st Birthday Party!!! I have to say it was a HUGE success. Many friends and family joined us to celebrate Adeline and her first year of life. We had some great food, cooked by Daddy! It was so awesome to connect with many of the Mommies and to see the Babies Adeline has grown up with over this past year. Adeline was blessed with so many wonderful gifts, we are just blown away at the generosity of both our family and friends. Thank you to all who joined us in celebrating Adeline! We love her so much!

Day 212

Prairie Gardens & Adventure Farm

Today the Milligans went out to the town of Bon Accord, Alberta for some down home fun! And that is what was had by all. It was the Fairy and Pirate weekend at the Prairie Gardens & Adventure Farm, much to our surprise! Adeline had a blast! There was a petting zoo, a tractor ride, corn maze (which we didn't take in), a haunted house (which we did!), a band (which Adeline apparen't knew, because she was singing her little heart out right along with the lead singer) and even some pirates who made you walk the plank and gave you a tattoo!

Day 149

Reading with Daddy

One of your very favourite things to do!

Day 135

The Penners

Adeline, Mommy and Daddy trekked out to Abbotsford today to see Daddy's Grandma, Grandpa, Aunts, uncles and cousins today. It was fun for Adeline to meet her extended family on her Dad's side and for mom and dad to catch up with family again.

Day 112

Family Time

We had a great lunch visit with Grandpa, Granma, Aunties Thea and Alisha and Uncle Nathaniel. We had some lunch, played a game (of which the ladies won) and had some fun visiting time...Adeline even had a nap while we were there (gasp). As you may notice from the photos Adeline had a great time reading to Grandpa and playing with Granma.