Crafty Boosie

About a week ago, I saw a post on HowDoesShe? where they made White Chocolate Candy Canes and I fell in love with the idea.  I knew this was what Paige would be giving to her class as a Christmas gift, the last day of school.   How could I go wrong?  Candy canes, chocolate and sprinkles are a sure win with kindergarteners, right?

I bought all the supplies,got everything set up and d’oh!  some of the candy canes were broken.  I only bought what I needed and didn’t even consider the potential for breakage.  Silly me!  Too bad I found out late at night when the store was closed.  So this morning after dropping Paige off at school I headed back to the store for more.

I will say that it took longer than I thought but I still can’t figure out why.  It just did.  Unwrapping them, breaking off the hooks, dripping in the chocolate and tapping off the excess, adding sprinkles (considerably more than what is shown in the picture above), waiting for them to harden, packaging them up, cutting out the cute labels I had printed (we picked out the third one and customized it), and getting them bagged and ready to take to school on Friday.  I spent 3 hours on it when I thought it would only take an hour.  I really underestimated it.  LOL.

I didn’t take pictures of the finished project but they look almost identical to the photo above.  Our store didn’t have red/green/white sprinkles so I had to use a multi-coloured one.  I also added a lot more sprinkles than the photo shows because kids totally love sprinkles.  Otherwise, they look the same.  I even coated some of the top hooks that I had cut off to use at our Christmas Eve party with the family that we are hosting at our house.  Since I don’t like waste, I also kept the other tops that I didn’t coat and put them in a cute jar for people to eat, most of which I’m sure will end up in my daughter who is nutso for candy canes.

For Paige’s teacher, she will get a bag of candy but I also printed the subway art above from Sweet Coconut Lime and framed it.  I bought a frame that can either be mounted on a wall or placed on a desk so that she has some options.  I know it is nothing fancy but we wanted to give her a little something as a thank you.  Paige loves her teacher and she is learning so much.

Last week, I braided in some metallic ribbon into Paige’s hair.  When I saw the ribbon/rope at the dollar store, I knew exactly which outfit would be perfect with it.

This photo is a little blurry so I grabbed a close up.

This was a simple 4-strand braid using the metallic ribbon/rope for the first and third strands.  It was really quick and easy to put together and it made a big impact.  According to Paige, she received a lot of compliments on her hair.  The more compliments she receives the more she wants me to do with her hair.  It still cracks me up that before she started school she hated having her hair brushed, let alone styled, and now she wants it styled every day.

On Monday, I decided to try something new.  Since I wasn’t having much luck with criss-crossing Paige’s hair, I’d try it with ribbon.  I have seen it on other people’s blogs such as this and this and this.  On gym day, I try to always make sure Paige’s hair is braided and secure as she is very active.  It is especially important right now because we received notice that there is a lice breakout at her school.  Her teacher advised me to keep Paige’s hair braided every day to help keep her from getting lice.

Here is a close up of Monday’s style.

Paige fell in love with this ribbon when I showed it to her.  She couldn’t wait to have it put in her hair and go to school to show her friends.  I’m glad she’s enjoying these styles as much as I’m enjoying doing them for her.

On Saturday, the entire family headed to the mall for Santa photos and Christmas shopping.  We had such a great time.  It was exhausting but totally worth it.

Paige did awesome with Santa.  She talked to him, told him what she wanted (Zoobles), sat on his lap without fear and gave a pretty smile and look.  She’s started this whole cocking her head to the side thing when she smiles these days and it’s adorable.  LOL.

Isn’t that a great photo?  I love it!  I’m so proud of her.

Paige’s final lessons in Gymnastics and Swimming happened last week. Paige loves gymnastics and she was thrilled when the fall session started.  She had some big improvements this session, most notably in her physical strength and her listening skills.  She did much better this year and her fear of the balance beam was gone.

For the final class, they allow us to bring cameras.  This year, they changed things a bit and shortly after class started they announced that they would only allow photos after class.  I was not amused.  I did manage to snap a few before they banned the cameras.

Paige and Daddy doing warm-ups

Apparently, I’m missing the photos of her balance beam stuff.  I’m not sure why.  I’ll have to go find them but I have photos on the other apparatus.

Paige on the uneven bars

Paige on the big trampoline (her favourite).  Look at the height on that jump and the knees up.  That’s a big improvement from last year.

Paige on the vault.  I’m reminding her to use her motorcycle stance as she jumps and lands.

The mini-trampoline

Walking up the wall on the floor.

This was Paige’s last Parent and Tot class.  When she starts in January for the winter session she will be in the Junior/Pre-Gymnastics class which is without parents.  I’m betting that she will be more attentive and show better listening skills when she’s in the class with older children (4-5 year olds).  I had wanted to get Paige in that class for the fall session but she had to be 4 by the start date so she didn’t qualify yet.

The next day was Paige’s final swimming lesson.  Unfortunately, I made a HUGE boo-boo.  We drove all the way out to her swimming lesson (which is not close at all) only to realize that I accidentally forgot her swimsuit.  Yikes!  I felt sooooo bad.  I’ve never done that before and I was really kicking myself for it.  Paige was soooo sad that she didn’t get to swim and many tears were flowing.  Sorry Paige!

She did get her report card though and she did wonderfully.  She met all the requirements to complete her class and graduate to the next level.  Unlike with her gymnastics classes, her swimming classes are based on level of skill instead of age.  She moves up to the Salamander class for the next session which is fantastic.  Her teacher said she really enjoyed having Paige in her class.  Paige was the happiest and most excited in the group.  She was always eager to learn and try new things.  She loves the water.

It’s funny how one year can change everything.  Paige used to hate the water.  She was fine with bath time and loved it but pools and lakes were strictly off-limits for her.  She hated it with a passion and would scream endlessly while in the water.  This past summer, we bought her floating to go along with her lake-suit (a swimsuit with a flotation device built into the chest and back similar to a life vest but inside the actual suit).  Once she had those floaties on and she realized she could float on her own without being held and could even swim and turn in the water whenever she wanted, she fell in love.  That was the catalyst for her and she began to love the water and wanted to swim in the lake every chance she could get.  That was also when my in-laws signed her up for fall swimming lessons.

We are very proud of Paige and her accomplishments this year.  At the same time, I’m glad her extra-curricular activities are finished until next year.  With all of the holiday events happening this month and into the new year, we are busy enough.

Our first Christmas party of the season was on December 3rd.  We attended the TTC Union Christmas Party for my father-in-law’s work.  We go every year and the kids always have a great time.

After eating and before the entertainment, I took Paige aside for some quick holiday photos.

Honestly, this is one of my favourites.  This was the second photo I took.  She gave me this look while I was snapping photos.  Then she announced, “I gave attitude!”  LOL.  Yes she did and looked absolutely adorable doing it too.  HAHA.

I have no idea why, but my photos always look less crisp and darker whenever I upload them to Flickr.  My copies on my computer look much better.

As I mentioned in a previous post, my camera really hates dark rooms and florescent lighting.  It always struggles (or I should say that I struggle) to get photos at the Christmas party.  They always look dark and off colour.  It is very frustrating.

Brady was a bit of a grump at the party and his grumpy facial expressions kept cracking up Amanda and I.  Sorry, I couldn’t find photos of the expressions but they were hilarious.

Paige was thrilled to see Lily again.  Paige and Lily have been best buds at these Christmas parties since they were babies.  They always look for each other the minute they come into the ballroom and they hardly leave each others side.  It was cute to see them holding hands.

Paige didn’t know all the words to all the Christmas songs so she pretended to be singing so she wouldn’t feel left out.

They used the same entertainer as last year, thank goodness he changed up his program a bit.

The kids loved the entertainer and he was really able to get them involved and participating…. at least most of them.

Then again, you can’t really go wrong if you bring out the bubbles a few times.  Who doesn’t love bubbles?  Even Brady can’t resist the bubbles.

After the show, it was time for Santa to arrive…

Not everyone was happy to see him…. but surprisingly, Paige shyly walked up to Santa and gave him a hug as he came in the room.  As she walked back to me she said, “He looks like Papa!”.  I had to quickly look away and change the subject.

Santa needed some time to get set up and make his rounds around the room before settling down to the task of giving presents and photo opportunities so I quickly took Paige and my mom out to take a few photos.  The reception area had 5 or 6 different trees set up, along with decorations which are always great for photos.

And Paige couldn’t resist giving her Nana a kiss which I couldn’t resist taking a photo of.

Finally, it was time to see Santa.  There were many smiles and presents.  A huge change from all previous years.

Except for Brady but he’s still young.  I have a feeling within the next year or two he’ll get over his fear.

When Paige came down and brought the presents Santa gave her over to us, she said to me, “Mommy, that IS Papa!”  I ushered her away quickly and again distracted her by having her open her presents.  LOL.

Santa and his helpers

Trying to get small children to sit still, smile at the same time, look in the same direction, etc is not easy.  This was the best photo I got of the two of them together.

This was the best I got of Brady.  He really was pretty grumpy.

My lovely husband as we were getting ready to leave.  That is, until we changed our minds and grabbed a few more family photos.

After we came home from the party, we took a couple more family photos.  I know I look tall next to my mom  but I’m actually only 5’3½” so I’m not really tall.  My mom is just really short.  HAHA!  Sorry mom, I had to say it.