Preschool Christmas Holiday Craft: Paper Cone Christmas Trees

This preschool activity required little time or supplies, but my kids loved it when we made these a couple years ago. They thought is was so much fun to decorate their own little trees. I thought they were a fun addition to our dining room decorations, but you could let your kids keep them in their own room too (or anywhere else of course)!

You could by pre-made cones at a craft store as well if you think a more professional look would fit better with your holiday decor, but your kids will have fun either way.

One other variation to consider if you want to do this craft in a group (or just want a simpler approach) would be to just let them color on paper cones and put stickers all over them. This would cut the mess factor way down.

Preschool Christmas Holiday Craft: Paper Cone Christmas Trees

• Sturdy construction paper, card stock, scrapbook paper, or poster board (I actually recycled old gift and shopping bags)
• Stapler and staples
• Glue and or paint
• Decorations (Glitter, sequins, buttons, etc.)

1.  I cut rolled and stapled the heavy paper into different size cones ahead of time.
2. Then I let my kids paint on glue and sprinkle glitter, sequins, and buttons to their hearts content.
3. Let dry and display!

Family Devotionals Updated

My husband and I are in the process of updating our family devotionals and moving them over to our educational site Greenfield Education.

We have already updated our Thanksgiving and Christmas devotional books. The Thanks Giving Tree: Seeing Blessings Everywhere will be available for free until the end of November. And The Tree of Life: Seeking the Son This Christmas has been revised and had new printables added to it as well.

See details about how to get The Thanks Giving Tree: Seeing Blessings Everywhere for free here.

We hope that you all have a wonderful holiday season!

Blessings!

Things Progressing Around Here

So long time no post. I know. This summer we went to America for two months and then back home. It was a great trip and things are going well settling back in at home now too. It was just too busy to post anything in this space.

But we have been working on a lot of different projects. I am happy to be able to share one of them with you today.

Over at Greenfield Education, my husband and I are pleased to have just released The Pilgrim's Progress in graded readers levels 1-4.

To celebrate we're giving away the first two levels until October 31st. Head on over to Greenfield Education to get your free readers and find out more.

Mandarin Mondays: Loving Smile (The Chinglish Files)

Mandarin Mondays: To Spend Together (The Chinglish Files)

Happy Birthday Aaron!

How did he get to be six years old already?

Aaron had a very full and fun birthday here, but is still really looking forward to his family party with the grandparents next weekend!

Waking up to balloons and his brothers singing

Talking to the grandparents and opening treats

Fun lunch

Popped the bubbly for the birthday lunch

Opening presents (Travel chess, thanks Grandma Lorna!)

Wallet

Busy bags for the plane

Baby likes chess too. (And you can see a little of the play mats for the trip.)

One boy came over in the afternoon for cake

He stayed for quite a while playing with the boys

He brought this giant bear and a music box as very unexpected presents. 

Played animal charades; its a good bilingual game. (Aaron the snake)

Andrew the bee (stinging everyone with his bottom, also unexpected)

This boy was such a nice kid and seemed like he had fun.
(Or at least found us amusing)

He made a balloon hat for baby;
baby liked wearing it this way.

Chicken nugget dinner

Thanks Grandma Lorna!

Then we invited the little girl who comes over a lot over for cake.
And six girls (on roller blades which made them
feel like there were 12 of them) came.

They calmed down to a dull (giggly) roar
once we asked them to take off their roller blades.
We bought a musical firework candle that are popular here
and all the kids liked it.

The girls sang, ate cake, played for a few minutes,
and then put their roller blades back on and
ran down the stairs and out to their homes.
The boys had fun having friends over.

Then Aaron beat daddy in chess using his new travel chess game.

Lastly the much anticipated treasure hunt

Daddy is making a chess game with the best chess AI out there,
and it is going have all kinds of levels and graph how the game is going.
Aaron was very excited to see the start of it. 

Happy Birthday Aaron!
Aaron BiRthday Haqpy sign made by Andrew
(actually great copying for a 4 year old)

Mandarin Mondays: Hello Milk (The Chinglish Files)

Mandarin Mondays: Lovely Rabbit (The Chinglish Files)

Mandarin Mondays: Tidies up the Box (The Chinglish Files)

Mandarin Mondays: Waste Discarding Prohibited (The Chinglish Files)

Mandarin Mondays: Don't Drive Tiredly (The Chinglish Files)

Mandarin Mondays: Cats Flour (The Chinglish Files)

Mandarin Mondays: Life Needs Better Quality (The Chinglish Files)

And so does this picture

Mandarin Mondays: Jeep Jeans (The Chinglish Files)

DIY Brownie Pizza

Making a brownie pizza is a great way to use up some leftover holiday candy in a fun and unusual way. My boys love helping to to add the toppings.

For this brownie pizza I used this cake mix brownie recipe and baked it in a 10 inch springform pan. I think ou could spread it out thinner onto a 12 inch pizza pan and just shorten the baking time as well. I had half of a can of cream cheese frosting leftover, but you could use homemade cream cheese frosting or any other kind of frosting as well. The one cup of frosting was just enough for the 10 brownie pizza, and held the candy on nicely.

Next we sprinkled M&Ms, chocolate chips, and chopped up Twix bars on top of the frosting. You could use any other candy you like. Because we didn't have a lot of frosting and I already had some of this amazing caramel sauce (and because I am always looking for an excuse to eat chocolate and caramel together) I drizzled some on top.

Mmmm.

Look out for the Pizza/Cookie/Brownie Monster!