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Birthday Traditions

Hey friends. In the last week we celebrated Anna's and Austin's birthday. There are so many balloons and streamers throughout my house, the inexpensive things that make them happy and feel loved. There are also presents everywhere because where do we put them all.


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Back to School Brinner

 Hey loves. Our family started a new hopefully family tradition for back to school. Before Ella and Austin went to separate schools we would sit down as a family every morning for breakfast. Now they are at different schools (they were last year too) and there is an hour difference between waking up and bus schedules so we don't have the time together anymore. I got the inspiration from Andrea over at Momfessionals to do a Back to School Brinner. We also use to do big breakfasts on Sundays, but then we started going to church and those breakfast haven't happened either. 

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Christmas Traditions Part 2

 Hey loves. Christmas is one of my favorite times of the years and I love making all the lasting memories with my kids. Some of my favorite memories as a kid are from around the holidays. Here are a few more of my families favorite Christmas traditions. 


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Christmas Traditions Part 1

 Hey loves. We are in full on Christmas and holiday fun mode over here. Making all the lasting memories. I love Christmas traditions that we do year after year, that my kids enjoy, are excited about, and will remember for years. It is important to me and my family that we do traditions that we like. I love each year when they ask about a certain tradition such as this year Ella is so excited to drive around at Christmas lights, Anna wakes up looking for our Elf, and Austin is loving reading all the books. With that here are a few our of favorites Christmas traditions:

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Holiday Traditions


Christmas may look a bit different this year, but we are still trying to keep up with our normal holiday traditions as much as possible while still staying safe and healthy. To us the holidays are about family, our kids, making memories, and seeing the glisten in our kids eyes. 

Here are some traditions we are still doing this year:

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Elf on the Shelf Recap 4th Week

So I maybe a few weeks behind on doing my final recap of our wonderful Elf on the Shelf, GusGus. I give myself credit though. There was night a morning that Aubriella woke up and he wasn't in a different spot. He may have magically moved at the last second before she came out of her room but he moved. 
I have to admit that Ella isn't really good about not touching GusGus. She will move him if she doesn't like where he is, such as if he is touching one of her toys. But then she will put him in the fridge so he gets his powers back. She doesn't think he can see or hear her while he is in the fridge though. We will have to work on that next year.


Does anyone want to watch " The Grinch?"


GusGus is just hanging out in Ella's stocking

I Obviously don't know how to count again. I will have to be better about that next year.


GusGus wants to be a Who from Whoville.


I want to go hang out with Mickey and Minnie.


Shh GusGus is sleeping 


I'm watching you from up above. 


Gusgus left his goodbye note. 






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Daily Christmas Traditions

The holiday season is in full swing. I can't believe that Christmas is only 20 days away, I have so much shopping still to do, but no time without the kids. It will get done like always, and will be at the last minute. The fun part of the holidays is all the different traditions that we have as a family. This year we have 4 that we do everyday. Here is a little inside in our families daily Christmas traditions.


Who doesn't love a Christmas countdown. I have had one since I was little. It was a fabric calendar that had pockets for each day and a cute little cloth mouse that you would move each day. My sister and I would fight over who got to move the mouse. My mom still has that calendar to this day and hangs it up. 
This year my mom bought us a Merry Christmas magnetic countdown calendar to add to our home. Every morning Ella wakes up and moves the peppermint candy piece. 
We also have another countdown calendar I changed the date every day with a dry erase marker. GusGus, our Elf on the shelf brought it with him to his arrival day North Pole Breakfast.


Who doesn't love Chocolate? I always say you can make anything better with Chocolate. Ok everything but most things. Both my kids have advent calendars that we found at Target this year. Ella has Trolls and Austin has Star Wars. (there wasn't much to chose from). Each morning Ella has to look on the calendar and find the correct date. they are in a random order. Then she can open the door and eat the chocolate underneath. Ella also gets to find the date on Austin's calendar and give him his chocolate. This is the second year for this tradition. 


25 Days of Christmas. I know your thinking OMG she gets 25 presents before actually Christmas. Yes, but not really, kinda so. Each night under the tree (right now GusGus's tree that is on the table since our large Christmas tree is not up yet) a book appears and she gets to open it. That book is her bedtime story for that night. Since Ella goes to her fathers house every other weekend she gets the books she missed when she returns either on Sunday night if she is awake, or today she asked if she could open the books this morning, but tonight we get to read 4 books. This is possibly change once we start the tradition with Austin (next year). I haven't decided if they are going to share the books or if he gets his own books yet.
Now about the books. I started this tradition 3 years ago. I bought 25 Christmas books from different stores, Target, Goodwill, Ollies, Dollar Tree... we use most of those same books each year. I have swapped out a few that we didn't like, or she outgrew. Magically a few days after Christmas all this Christmas books just disappear aka get put away for next year. This was a wonderfully horrible pinterst find idea. We really love it. 


The last tradition we started when Ella was 1. I have previously mentioned it before, Gus Gus our elf on the shelf. You can read more about it HERE.

What are your holiday traditions?





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Leaves

Fall weather is in full effect here in Northern Ohio.As a kid growing up one of my favorite memories was playing in the leaves. Who doesn't love running and jumping in a pile? Well now now so much. I am not as young as I use to be and the landing isn't so nice. 
Austin took a little to get use to playing in the leaves. He would just walk around the edges and didn't want to get in the middle. I ended up picking him up and putting him there for a quick photo. He really wanted nothing to do with it. He however wanted to get play with the rack and move the leaves out of the pile. 


On Aubriella on the other hand who is fearless enjoyed running and jumping in them. Plus running and doing summermalts in the leaves. This is what I got when I told her to sit still so I could take a picture. She decided to strike a pose.


They kids wouldn't cooperate for me to take a picture of them together. But that's ok. They were having fun playing and making memories.


Do your kids play in the leaves? I have a friend who doesn't let her kids play in the leaves because she is afraid of them getting scratched by a stick. To each their own. 


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Pumpkin Carving and Painting

Growing up every year we had the tradition of carving pumpkins. I loved when we made cute jack-o-laterns, Free handing our carving and made whatever. As we got older we got the stencils and it got more difficult and time consuming, but still fun. We have passed this wonderful tradition on to our children, making lots of memories while we go.
Ella decided to help clean out the pumpkins guts, She actually got made when we tried to help.


She requested Minnie Mouse for the one pumpkin. Brian got the wonderful task of carving that one. She also wanted to make a smiley face. Ella drew the face and I cut it out. She then got to cut the ears, hair, and whatever else she wanted on the pumpkin. She was very creative. She was so happy and excited she got to use a knife. (with proper supervision)



On the other hand. Austin is not a fan of pumpkin guts. We put him on the table so he can squish it between his fingers. He wanted nothing to do with it,



Our finished carved pumpkins.


A few years ago when Ella was to young to carve pumpkins, I started the tradition with her of painting a pumpkin. This year we decided to continue the tradition with Austin. He had other plans. He didn't like having paint on his fingers. He did good at the beginning then noticed the mess on his hands. That was the end of that. He started crying and looking at his hands. Instead it turned into bath time. 


The finished product of the painted pumpkins







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Halloween Fair Carlisle

Saturday evening after going to Berea for trick or treating during the day we went to Lorain County Metroparks Halloween Fair at Carlisle Reservation. This is another tradition we try to do every year with the kids. It is a affordable family friendly Halloween event. 
The cost is only $2 per person, and Austin was free. It is only open on certain Friday and Saturday nights October. It is family friendly from 5-7 then is for adults after 7 for the haunted Halloween walk, which is similar to a haunted house. 
We arrived right when it opened at 5pm, to make sure we were able to get close parking and not have to be shuttled. This guaranteed that we would be able to get everything done during the family time frame. After 7pm many of the activities close. 
The first thing we did was get in line to ride either a green choo choo train or a hayride. We chose the hayride since the line was only 5 minutes compared to 20 minutes for the train, plus we rode the train last year. 


One thing I liked about the hayride, I was able to sit down without having to take my sleeping prince off my back. He was content there and it isn't the easiest to take him on and off.


Along the path there are a bunch of blow-ups, some plastic skeletons, and wooden Halloween carve outs. Here are a few of the blow-ups.


There is a great paved walking trail that they decorate and have haunted house stops along the way. As we were starting to walk down the walking trail my prince charming decided to wake up. This was the first time I had worn him on my back. He seemed to enjoy it, plus it didn't hurt my back and was very comfortable.


Along the walking trail there are pumpkins, which at night are lite up.


Plus this year they included a story along the way. Ella didn't want to read the story. 


Along the path there was a few photo opportunities. 


Plus haunted areas. At night for adults it is like a haunted house. I can't imagine how scary this really is at night.


Carlisle is known for the water field of carved pumpkins. They also get lite up at night. 


One of the last things along the train is a tunnel the spins. Ella and Brian went through it together as Austin and I walked around it. One of these years we keep saying we are going to come back without the kids and experience the adult walk in the dark with the "haunts"


Throughout the whole park there are different wooden carved photo opportunities. Ella just had to take pictures at all the ones we came across. 


There are other activies besides the train, hayride, and walking trail. There is also a balloon maker (which is free), face painting (at a minimal charge), a dj bubble dance party, typical fair food trucks, and different kids games that take tickets that cost money. We have always avoided the games since it has always been a long line. 
We had so much fun this year. Ella is already asking to come back. 


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