Angels

'Tis Advent!!

Our family has been busy with typical Advent activities: Tree, crafts, baking, reading, music, shopping, having tea parties, collapsing and ordering pizza for dinner,  etc. And, against my better judgement and all common sense, I am handmaking gifts. Not smart, because it's so bad for me - I mean, my personality (procrastinatey, perfectionisty, propensity for giving away everything to everyone) is of the sort that is better suited to buying gifts. It is just kinder to my family that way. But I'm handmaking. And I'm sort of even enjoying it. Frrrrrmph. Well, there's a first time for everything, I guess. 

Enough of me. Let's talk about Advent again, shall we?

So, we have our Advent calendars up. For various reasons, we have four - two were gifts, one was that pocket quilt and one we made for fun last weekend. One is a magnetic Nativity scene (Jenna handles that), one is a wooden hook thing in which you hang stuff onto a backdrop (Emily handles that), one is felt and has pockets containing the story of Christmas in 25 installments (Kate handles that) and the pocket quilt dispenses chocolate truffles, a book-a-day and a random chance activity - movie, craft, trip, baking adventure, puzzle, or whatever I can think of in a panic the night before. All three girls take turns with that.

This is one of the crafts (as ordered by Advent Calendar No. 4) the girls and I did yesterday. I photographed the step-by-steps for you while I was making the reference sample. There is some preparation but it is mostly cutting, so it is quite a fast craft to put together.

It's funny how many ways angels are depicted in art - often with lyres and billowy robes and curly golden hair and whatnot. Ever since reading Frank Peretti's This Present Darkness as a young adult, in which angels are soldiers in tan fatigues, of every skin and hair color, waging war against the Dark Side, I haven't been able to fully relate to those Renaissance cupids in their off-shoulder togas. I mean, if I were to have a guardian angel, I'd like him (or her) to be a skilled fighter rather than a harpist, given all the craziness going on the news right now. Just sayin'. 

Still, this is Advent, and we are used to angels as celestial choristers and orchestra players, heralding the birth of the Christ child in song and praise. So that's the sort of angel we'll be making.

Here's what I used:

Start with a circle of cardstock. Mine was 8" in diameter, cut into three segments to roll into cones. I also cut a hole out from the center, to reduce the bulk at the point of the cone.

Do the same thing for a doily. I got mine from Michaels for $2 for a pack of a dozen.

Roll and glue a cardstock segment into a cone. Glue the doily segment over it.

Make the hair. I used some golden-brown cardstock, which I cut to a width slightly narrower than the head of the angel. Cut slits in both ends - shorter slits for the bangs and longer slits for the back of the hair. 

Curl each of the cut strips with pliers - just grip the end and roll up tightly, then gently unroll enough to release the plier jaws.

Glue this onto the head, which is just a clothespin doll head.

Glue the head to the top of the cone, which fits snugly into the hole of the head.

Cut a small paper plate into six segments. I rounded my corners but you don't have to.

Glue (or glue-dot) the points of two segments to the back of the cone for wings.

Cut two right-angled triangles for bell sleeves and glue (or glue-dot) those to the sides of the cone, facing forward. You can orientate these sleeves any way you like - I made mine tip upwards to the face

to hold a bugle/trumpet, which is a wooden golf tee.

Here they are in silver and gold:

And here is the full band - vocals and instruments:

An easy variation of this is to leave the cones un-doily-ed and decorate them with markers and fabric to make Mary, Joseph, shepherds, wise men (although they didn't really turn up till Jesus was a toddler) and even the innkeeper. We started late in the day and finished just before supper, so we didn't do any of the other Nativity characters. Even without them, the girls took this straightforward craft and just ran with it. It always happens, and I always love it. 

First, there were the faces. 

Then the earrings and "the things to help them hear better when they sing":

Then the hairbows and hairbands:

And the halo (that's a hairband with a bow, under it).

(Confession: I almost added wire halos to the original design but decided to wait and see if anyone would suggest it instead. Yes - Jenna did, and designed and cut it out all by herself).

Finally, the backdrop. Kate has this grand plan of a different backdrop every Christmas from here on, which I thought was wonderful. This is 2012's:

Happy Advent, all!

Halloween Party

It's been almost a month since Jenna's birthday party! I haven't posted on it till now for several reasons. One, the weather was of the miserable Indoor Party variety, meaning no outdoor photos and only jaundiced-looking indoor shots. Two, I was too much of a coward to sort through all those jaundiced photos to edit, crop and pick the final ones. Three, looking at the photos reminded me of how challenging it was to have thirteen children in our house, with nowhere to go. Four, I forgot. Until Jenna asked me last week if she could look at the photos of her birthday party on my blog.

Er..... what photos?

Cough.

So here they are. As claustrophobic as it felt at moments, we had loads of fun and Jenna most of all, which is what really matters. Happy sixth birthday, sweet one!

Cleverly persuading her away from her original Swimming Party birthday theme, we did a Halloween party (her second choice) and everyone was invited to come in costume. Which was convenient because it was four days after trick-or-treating night and everyone still had their costumes (which their parents were only too happy to get more mileage out of). This, incidentally, was the only outdoor shot.

We followed the sequence of events that has become the standard procedure at our parties. Outdoor parties allow more room for movement and set-up so that most of the preparation could be done before the guests even arrived. With an indoor party like this, our limited space for humans and furniture meant that the same table was used for food, games and crafts, with manic clearing-away-and-setting-up between acts while some other non-table activity was simultaneously going on elsewhere.

We opened the happy event with lunch

followed by store-bought, non-Halloween-themed cake (but requested by Jenna)

and cookies.

Then everyone adjourned to the very-nearby Chair of Honor for the opening of gifts.

(The lunch table, having been temporarily moved a whopping two feet away, was being cleared and prepped for games.)

The kids were then sent down to the basement to hunt for glow bracelets

which were much more visible with the lights off. We made it really easy, since there were little kids involved.

When they came back upstairs, they were handed their candy corn backpacks (tagged with their names)

into which to deposit the first of their loot.

Then it was time for games. Recognize that orange table? It had lunch on it just minutes earlier. This first game was (store-bought) Halloween bingo 

with candy corn rice krispy treats as prizes. We wrapped ours in clingfilm so the kids could choose to take theirs home if they didn't feel like eating it just minutes after a huge lunch.

Then we got out the pumpkin pie pinata,

the one filled with fleece pumpkin goodie bags

and everyone pulled it apart.

And Kate, who didn't get the white pumpkin, cried. Poor thing. No photos of that. I think I should just do away with pinatas at our parties forever.

When everyone was calm again, we made luminous wands -

the kids picked their wand stems and a glow bracelet from their earlier hunt, and assembled their wands,

after which they decorated them. No photos, but it was on the same orange table as lunch and bingo, so it shouldn't take too much effort to imagine the scene.

Finally, we sent the kids back down to the basement to fill little takeout boxes (decorated by Jenna) at the candy bar. 

All that candy, incidentally, wasn't leftover from trick-or-treating. We actually bought different candy for the party - so insane, I know. As if there weren't already enough candy in people's homes by then.

And that was part I of Jenna's birthday festivities! 

This is Part II - the part where she celebrates with family :

Remember Jenna's first choice for a party theme? 

We found a way to let her have her cake and eat it, too :)

I Am Thankful For

these three little ones, and their dad, who took this photo earlier this summer. I am also thankful that I am not the only one behind the lens. Do you know how rare it is for all three to be looking at the camera? It never happens when I'm the photographer.

Ah, yes, Thanksgiving..... season of too much food and shopping. I'm thankful that's over. I can barely walk now, I ate so much. Also, not to sound ungrateful or anything, but why can't it be summer all year round?

P.S. In case you were wondering, only one of them is wearing handmade. The other two are wearing store-bought. Am thankful for that, too.