Nativity Set for Kids

Prepare the way of the LORD; Make straight in the desert
A highway for our God. Isaiah 40:3

My mom gifted Gabriel with a sweet little nativity set made of painted wood either last year or the year before, and it has been such a lovely addition to our Christmas things. It is great to have something that’s just for the kids as we open box after box of decorations. I have enjoyed seeing Julia play with them this year too!

Here’s a cute scene I captured from last Christmas, when Gabe was three – he did this when I wasn’t looking and I discovered it after he was down for a nap:

He had taken all of his nativity figures and lined them up on the table with the “grown up” nativity.  Notice the angel tucked into the background :). I just thought it was so precious! You can find lots of play nativity sets online, but I only saw one link to this specific set, in case you’re interested: Child’s Nativity made in Sri Lanka.

Thanksgiving Craft Ideas

Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving :)! We had such a lovely weekend – there is much to be thankful for. Here are some fun Thanksgiving crafts we tried this year, plus a few from last year too :)!

Printable Thanksgiving Paper Craft Toys

Aren’t these guys SO CUTE??? If I had realized they would take me two hours to make I might have skipped them, but once I got going I was hooked! And Gabe loved playing with them too, so it was all worth it :). Here’s a link to the site where you can download these and other free printable paper crafts (look across the top of the page): Thanksgiving Paper Craft. TIP: I used glue dots instead of liquid glue!

Vintage Thanksgiving Postcard Banner

This was a super cute and fun idea I have seen on lots of crafty blogs – a banner of vintage images. You can find plenty of these images by doing a Google search for vintage post cards (for practically any occasion too)! Just make sure it is OK with the site owner before you print them out and use them :). I just backed mine with scrapbook paper and tied them together with string (ribbon would look pretty too if you have some on hand).

Pumpkin Turkey!

Gabe made this one in Mrs. Claudia’s class :). She used a fork to poke holes in the top and sides for the kids to stick feathers into. Then they just needed to add a felt waddle and googly eyes of course!

Happy Thanksgiving Banner

This is the banner Gabe and I made for Thanksgiving last year. It was a great way for me to make use of some left-over scrapbook supplies while creating a sweet reminder of my little boy – small hands make the most adorable turkeys :).

Fall Wreath with Nuts and Bittersweet Branches

Here’s the wreath we put together last year when we got together with my sister and niece for a craft day :)!

Weekend Photos

Flashback to 2007 (Repost of Dancing Lion)

I ran across this post from when Gabe was around Julia’s age and had to share it with you :). Have a fun weekend!

Photos by Alex, edited by Jess.

We’re Back from Hawaii!

Did you even know we were going to Hawaii? We didn’t know we were going either until a week before the trip! Chris had a one day business meeting in Kauai and we decided to turn it into a week-long family vacation :). This is something we have always wanted to do, so it was a wonderful surprise to be able to go for 1/2 the cost – and just in time for our seventh anniversary too :)!

We spent most of our time on the island of Kauai, but we also visited Oahu, where Chris lived for a couple of years in college. Here’s a fun family pic taken at Waikiki Beach with some tropical birds – I can’t believe I let them put that huge bird on my head!

Julia wasn’t in the family photo above, because she was asleep in the stroller at the time. But the bird guys did convince me to open the stroller cover up so they could put a bird on her too. I can only imagine what she was thinking when she woke up to see this little guy laying in the stroller with her ha ha!!

I took over 1000 photos during our trip, so I will be sharing more when I get a chance (free time for blogging is hard to come by these days)! For now, I will leave you with a nice sunset picture of the pool outside the condo we stayed at in Kauai :).