Homemade ornaments

I didn't take many pictures while we were working on our Shrinky Dink ornaments this evening because I was so busy working on my own...and trying to keep Phoebe from wreaking havoc. Here's one of Miriam putting some Mod Podge glaze on Alexander's ornament:

I made a miniature version of my book. Here's my work prior to putting it in the oven:

I was nervous about how it would turn out (knowing that everything would shrink and the colours would saturate made it difficult to plan), but I think it turned out alright!

Here's everything that we made...

Miriam made the ruler so we could decide how big to make our drawings on the plastic (it used to be 5 inches long and ended up around 2.5 inches). She also drew the feet because we've been talking about making foot markers for "Hand and Foot" for ages! 

Zoë made the star, Phoebe made a Christmas tree with a puppy and kitty underneath, Alexander made a Christmas tree with presents underneath. Rachel made the stapler in Jell-O (a reference to The Office), Miriam made the top hat (with a holly sprig on it), Andrew made the hex sticker from his program evaluation course, Benjamin made the Enterprise-D.

While we were making our ornaments a couple of packages were delivered. One was from my sister Kelline and the name line had the instructions to not wait until Christmas to open it, so we opened it and found another ornament kit (which we will save for another day) and a Christmas countdown activity book. Coincidentally, the suggestion for December 4 was to...make homemade ornaments! It made us feel very on-the-ball.

I think everyone had fun, even if it made our Family Home Evening run a little late. 

When things were winding down and Andrew was spelling out to the kids how bedtime was going to go, he said, "Mom will only read a couple of stories because Phoebe is tired."

And Phoebe heaved a big sigh, and said, "Yeah!"

She did go to bed quite nicely!