A Fridgid Morning...for the elves!

Good morning! It is already hard enough to believe we are only a week away from Christmas, and the weather today is making it even harder. There was a warm edge to the air this morning, as the kids and I were waiting for the bus to arrive. Our elves seemed to have sensed the warmth and decided to chill out (literally!) in our fridge.

Lolly dyed our milk green!

Holly was hungry for Gogurt.

Jolly was hungry for leftovers from Chili's. He snagged a fry.

 How is the weather where you are? Are you under a blanket of snow? Are you facing a unseasonably warm day, like we are?

Elf on the Shelf Rewind!

Like many other families, we have an Elf on the Shelf. Well, actually, we have three elves. We started with one elf last year, and two more joined us this year. Our first elf is a boy and his name is Jolly. His sisters, Holly and Lolly, joined us this year. My hope is the elves will move on and continue the tradition when my kids are older, and begin their own families.The elves have been found in some pretty funny places!

Our elves arrived on the Monday after Thanksgiving. They brought us breakfast, and new plates and hot cocoa cups for the kids. The Hubs made scrambled eggs for everyone to help balance the sweet breakfast the elves brought.

Big brother just spotted one of the new elves!

The new elf Big Brother spotted. This is Holly.

Baby sister enjoying her eggs.

The elves made reindeer faces out of donuts. I think they forgot to add eyes!

A few days after the elves arrived, we caught them in the middle of a game of Yahtzee.

One morning, they brought us a new movie. Home Alone! The kids already had Home Alone 2. I guess the elves wanted to make sure we had the first one as well.

 Those naughty elves! I think they were trying to get my baking chocolate. That is what is in the bin at the top!

On this day, they had their own things going on.

Another day doing their own things.

Crazy! They were hiding in the stockings

I guess the kitchen wasn't festive enough!

Maybe, they missed the North Pole on this day?

 

While Jolly was in the kitchen, Holly was reading Lolly a story. How sweet!

 Oh, no! Our tree was rolled!

Today, they had a candy battle. Girls against the boy!

Snowman Soup

Good morning! I recently posted pictures on my personal Facebook page of a project my two oldest kids and I put together for their classmates. I received several requests for instructions on how to make our "Snowman Soup." 

Individual baggie

First, let me start by telling you how we came about putting this project together. As we are drawing closer to Winter break, festivities are being planned for most classrooms across the U.S. Our school is no different. My son's teacher sent a note home letting parents know each child would have a stocking and the parents and kids were welcome to send a little treat in to share. 


The wheels in my brain immediately started turning and I set out on an internet search to find something easy and cheap to make. Between the older two kids classes, there are 40 students. I found several good ideas, but I fell in love with the Snowman Soup idea. It is simple enough to put together, yet, I still feel like it is just enough to put a smile on any child's face.

19 completed bags

I bet you are antsy to get started! Here we go!

Materials needed:

8.5” x 11”~110# White Cardstock
Sandwich Baggie Fold Over Card Template (2 cards per sheet)  For personal use only
Zip Top Sandwich Baggies
Candy Canes
Hershey Kisses
Marshmallows
Individual Hot Cocoa Mix Packets
Scissors or Paper cutting tool
Stapler

For 40 students, I used 4 boxes of 12-count candy canes with 8 canes left over, 2 bags of the green, red, silver Hershey kisses combo, 1 bag of marshmallows (we used approx 1/2 a bag), and 4 boxes of 10 count Swiss Miss cocoa packets. 

Preview of the baggie card. You can download it through the link in the materials list above.

Instructions:

Print and cut out as many fold-over cards as you need. I chose to use cardstock since it is sturdy, but I’m sure regular paper will work as well. 

Place in each bag- one candy cane, a few kisses (I did 3), a few marshmallows (I did 6) and a packet of hot cocoa mix.

Take your baggie cards and fold in half along using the light gray guide.

Take one completed baggie and center inside one of the folded cards. Staple twice along the top, make sure not to stable below the zippered part of the baggie. Staple again one each side of the cards.

Repeat with each of the baggies you have left.

Voila! You now have a cute treat for your child’s class.\

A quick breakdown of what I paid.

		Individual
8.5” x 11”~110# White Cardstock		$0.06
Sandwich Baggie Fold Over Card Template (2 cards per sheet)		$0
100 count Zip Top Sandwich Baggies		$0.01
Candy Canes		$0.08
Hershey Kisses		$0.05
Marshmallows		$0.003
Individual Hot Cocoa Mix Packets		$0.128
		$0.33

Each bag cost roughly $0.33 cents to make and the total 40 bags cost around $13.24 with supplies left over.