DIY LEGO Minifigures Advent Calendar

I first made our own reusable, refillable advent calendars four years ago.  We've gone from using these paper mache boxes to these more durable burlap drawstring pouches last year.  The pouches with the hanging chalkboard clips worked out well, so we're using them again this year.  One thing that we are changing this year is what goodies the children will find in the pouches each day.

Our DIY advent calendars usually have one piece of candy for each child plus something fun.  For the past four years, we've put jigsaw puzzle pieces in the advent calendars to add a fun, quick activity to each day.  As the children grew older, we increased the difficulty of the puzzles.  Last year, we used a puzzle that was several hundred pieces.  It took my husband and I hours to put the puzzle together so that we could put the pieces in the pouches in a logical order.  Also, there were so many pieces, that the advent pouches were stuffed full, leaving very little room for candy.

After thinking about a possible solution for quite awhile, I decided to try something new . . . using loose LEGO Minifigures!

To keep the cost down, I decided to put one minifigure part for each child per day rather than a whole minifigure.  This also adds an aspect of fun because the children can see what parts they have at the end of the 24 days and trade with each other.  For example, on Day 1 there will be 3 minifigure heads, on Day 2 there will be 3 minifigure hats or hair, and so forth.  After the 5th day, they will each have enough parts to make one complete minifigure.  After 20 days, each child will have enough parts for four complete figures.  Day 24 will have extra parts and candy in it.

You can find minifigures at your local LEGO Store for 3 complete figures (head, hair or hat, torso, legs, and accessory) for $9.99.  I purchased mine from this ebay seller and was extremely pleased.  All the figures I received were genuine LEGO (not knock-offs) and included a good mix of figures for both boys and girls (no duplicates).  You can also find loose LEGO Minifigures on Amazon for a decent price.  Just be wary of prices that look too good to be true, because those might not be genuine LEGO figures.

I probably will need to think of something new to go in next year's advent calendar to surprise the children.  Have any good ideas?

Share your ideas with us in a comment on Facebook!

Is Anyone Else Exhausted?

I know my husband and I are only two among the millions of parents out there with young children who gave each other a high five for surviving another Christmas and then promptly took a long nap while their children played with all their new toys.  Well, I actually did not take a nap, but rather enjoyed the quiet of children playing contently and a husband plus two puppies snoring softly.  While I sat here, I thought briefly about what lengths we as parents go to in order to keep the magic alive for yet another year.  The past few weeks have been a whirlwind of shopping, wrapping paper, advent calendars, gift bags, baking, elves, Santa letters, ribbon, bows, Toys For Tots, parties, photos, magic keys, holiday cards, tree ornaments, stockings, school events, milk and cookies, and much more.

In the end, we think it's worth it, no matter how exhausting it is.  I hope that our children will someday do the same for their own children.

A photo posted by Karen Coutu (@karen3g2s) on Dec 12, 2014 at 12:03pm PST

How was your holiday?

Silly Monkey Stories: A Letter to the Elf on the Shelf (a.k.a. Bob)

Last year, we introduced our children to The Elf on the Shelf.  We even watched the DVD and read the book.  Our children couldn't agree on a name for him, so they named him Bob Jake Luke Makenzie, Jr.  We call him 'Bob' for short.  Ever since last year, Bob has been keeping a watchful eye on the children from the beginning of December until Christmas Eve.  He hides in a different spot around the house, so the children have fun trying to find him every morning.

One morning recently, the children found a note from Bob with the words "Be good" on it.  Well, they promptly ignored that advice, but decided to leave him a note of their own.  Our nearly 7 year old daughter had been practicing letter writing at school, so she took on the task of writing a letter out that reflected the thoughts of all three children . . .

On the morning the children found that note from Bob, he was sitting on top of the curtain rod in the living room, which explains how the children's letter was addressed . . .

Do you have a silly Holiday story to share about your children?  I'd love to hear it!

Happy Holidays!!

Click here to read all our Silly Monkey Stories!

Silly Monkey Stories: Unplanned Christmas Traditions

Since we started our family, my husband and I have tried to create fun Holiday traditions for our children.  Special memories are something we want our children to have plenty of.  Some of our traditions are leaving cookies and milk out for Santa, plus baby carrots and water for the reindeer.  We also have a magic key we hang outside our door, so that Santa can get in the house since we don't have a chimney.  On every Christmas we have cinnamon rolls for breakfast after the children have opened their gifts from Santa, but before they open any of their other gifts.  On Christmas Eve, my husband reads 'Twas the Night Before Christmas to the children for their bedtime story.

Not all traditions can be planned though.  For example, our youngest son always eats too much at Christmas dinner and throws up during the car ride home.  We definitely did not plan that one!

Do you have any unplanned Holiday traditions?

Happy Holidays from our home to yours!

Click here to read all our Silly Monkey Stories!

Holiday 2012: Personalized Tree Ornaments Are a Family Tradition

Since my husband and I spent our first Christmas together, years before we were married, I purchased two personalized ornaments for our tree . . . one for me and him and one for our Beagle named Buddy.  Our family has changed and grown quite a bit since then.  The wonderful thing is that I have the ornaments to tell our family's story for  the past 17 years.

This is the third year that I have had the pleasure of showing off an ornament of my choice from Ornaments With Love.  You can see my choices for the last two years here and here.  In addition to the ornament I chose to showcase, I always order additional ornaments, such as an ornament for each of our 3 children, a couples ornament for my husband and myself, an ornament for the whole family, and sometimes an ornament for our pets.  A few years ago, I extended our tradition to include an ornament for my sister and brother-in-law when they bought their first home.

This year, I chose this Personalized Heart Christmas Ornament that holds up to 16 names.  This particular ornament had the option of putting red hearts in the blank spaces.  Since I only needed 8 spaces for names, I was able to have them alternate with 8 red hearts.  I love how this ornament turned out!

As you can see, the personalization is very carefully done.  Below are the ornaments for my sister and brother-in-law, plus the one I chose for my husband and myself.

Every year I do one of three things . . . allow my children to select their own ornaments, ask my children to specify a theme, or surprise them with ornaments I pick out for them.  This year, I asked for each to give me their first and second choices for a theme.  I was not able to find any of their first choices, which were a superhero, a ninja, and a duck.  Maybe Ornaments With Love will be able to add these for next year?  I was able to find all their second choices, which were the martial arts black belt, a skateboarder, and a fairy.

If you are buying ornaments for a gift, you will be happy to know that each ornament comes wrapped in bubble wrap and tissue paper and each is accompanied by a printed Christmas-themed cello bag with a twist tie and a gift tag attached to the front of the bag.

I want to also mention that, for all the years I have been buying personalized ornaments from this website, I have never experienced an error in personalization or had an ornament arrive damaged.  Ornaments With Love also offers Free Shipping within the U.S. for orders over $50.  They also offer flat rate shipping fees for U.S. and for Canadian addresses, plus they ship internationally as well.


Thank you to Ornaments With Love for providing a complimentary product sample for us to base this review upon.

My Photos: W/E 4-7-12

It's Easter Sunday!  Doesn't it feel like it was just Christmas?  What are your Easter traditions?  We usually leave out baskets for the Easter Bunny to fill.  Then I try to get a photo of the Easter Bunny in our house to show the children in the morning.  After we have a small breakfast and they see what's in their baskets, we head to my cousin's house to have Easter brunch with her family.  I'll be sure to share our Easter day photos later on this week.

Happy Easter everybody!!!

Click here to view all my past favorite photos.

It's Time For Holiday Portraits & Choosing Our Christmas Cards!

Ever since our oldest was born, we have been sending either Christmas cards with a photo tucked inside or holiday photo cards to our friends and family. After six years, we think we have perfected this undertaking. I have found that it is easiest to take a portrait of just our three children myself at home and to have my favorite photo printed professionally on personalized cards. I always have a holiday greeting from our family printed on our cards, so all I need to do is address and stamp the envelopes. I even try to have the envelopes preprinted with our return address when possible.

A great photo is one of the key factors to having the perfect holiday cards. This year, I let our 3-1/2 year old daughter choose her own outfit to wear for the portrait. I am so relieved that she chose an adorable top and a charming headband to wear in her hair. The two boys will be wearing matching polos. I am so excited to see how our portraits will turn out. You never know what you will get from my three. Will I end up using a traditional portrait or choosing a less formal candid shot instead?

The other key factor is to choose a holiday card that compliments your photo and your personality. I like the Merry Merry Swirl Christmas card above because of the asymmetrical design. I also love that it is square, which makes it stand out from the traditional 5x7 or elongated rectangular cards. Also, red is my favorite color!

I have looked at quite a few card designs with a 3-photo layout. I like the idea of having a spot to highlight each child, but I do not think I could ever leave out a photo of all three of our children together. It is the togetherness that makes a sibling holiday card great. I think the above Sparkling Lime Snowflakes Christmas photo card is a wonderful compromise. It would allow me to show the children together and then still show off each individual child's personality. I have been seeing a lot of lime and red the past few years during Christmas and the idea of it is growing on me.

The above Ribbon Wishes Christmas card is simple and I like how the layout does not take the focus away from the photo. The sheer ribbon makes this card stand out apart from the usual cards with a banner added into the design. I think this particular card would work with almost any landscape photo I end up with.

Of course, I will not know which of these card designs I will go with until I hold a mini photo shoot and decide on the best group photo. Hopefully, I will get this done within the next few days. I am so excited that Christmas is only 8 weeks away!

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This post is part of a series sponsored by Shutterfly. I was selected for this sponsorship by the Clever Girls Collective, which endorses Blog With Integrity, as I do. I received a holiday photo card package as a thank you for participating in this series.