Minecraft Lego Advent Calendar Instructions Day 1

After last year's well received homemade calendar, the big kids wanted in on the fun too!

When I found a pack of Minecraft themed toys, I had a great start on the calendar, but decided to beef it up a bit by pulling pieces from our collection*.

I wanted a book for each child, with a new building instruction each day, but instead of printing out the pictures, my blog gets to hold each day!  I've already scheduled each post to publish at midnight, so no peeking ahead!

Some days are simple, and some days are more complex.  And since I took over 300 pictures, not all the pictures came out as perfect as I would have liked, but I am so happy to have it done and ready for December 1st!!! = )

So, here are the day one instructions!  Everyone started with a medium green base.

Alice

Emily

William

Grace

Juliet

later days

*the twins have played with the legos at least twice since I pulled out all the green and brown ones.  And if they've noticed, they haven't said anything, so that just tells me that they aren't missed much!

Thanksgiving

Bill and Brenda came up this year to celebrate Thanksgiving with us!  This year the tree lighting was the Sunday before Thanksgiving, and it was pretty cold!

We had our big meal a few days early, so that they could make it back down to Texas for another meal with John's family.  Sadly, their new iteration of Gretchen and Savage did not take well to our house, so Bill and Brenda ended up in a motel for the time they were up here.  We still got to see them lots, just not at night.

We added another round of handprints to our tablecloth!  

I can't believe this is only the fourth year of the tablecloth, it feels like we've been doing it forever!!  It makes me so incredibly happy to see!

Grace made name tags so that everyone would know where to sit! = )

While they were here, we also did our Christmas exchange!

While getting out the Thanksgiving things, we found the wooden turkey maker!  I half thought I'd gotten rid of it, so it was a pleasant surprise to find it! = )  And that's one of the pumpkins from our garden!

We also unearthed the miniature accordion. Grace and Emily spent the longest with it, practicing until they learned the tune to "Happy Birthday!"  It's kind of a weird instrument, in that pulling out and pushing in while holding the same button are two different notes!   

I was stained by the paint from the table cloth.  My children would not accept the tall tale that I was pecked by the turkey that we had for thanksgiving!  = 0  lol.

By having our big meal before Thanksgiving, it allowed us to spend the entire day of actual Thanksgiving decorating for Christmas, which was lovely!

It was cold, but a lovely time, and we felt well rested heading into the Christmas season!

later days

edit: back dated for continuity 12-24-23

William 11 years old Party Invitations!

William was very certain, when I asked him where he would like to party for his birthday this year, that he wanted to go to Defy!

Initially, I printed the invitations that they provide when you make the reservation, but I was not impressed with how they printed.  I kept them, lest I find no time to improve them, but was still not super happy.

Inspiration came upon me fast, and I was able to take the empty boxes from one of the kids' medicine and paint it up!

After allowing all the sides to dry, I added some white sticker cut outs, and bright green vinyl to the top.  On the inside, I flipped over the medicine foam, and added a 'pop up' sticker with William jumping.

The pertinent information was just a sticker on the top, with a logo sticker for quick identification.

I finished them before Halloween, but wouldn't let him pass them out until my birthday (too early and people forget!)

 He is one excited boy, I hope his birthday is everything he wants!

later days

William's 11th Birthday Party!!!

William got to celebrate at DEFY this year with friends new and old!!

 

I'm so sad, right after I took my camera down from this shot, he fell in a very comical way, that I totally could have captured had I given it five more seconds! lol!

Alice stayed behind with Billy, because Main Street doesn't open until 11am, and he was getting pizzas to supplement the ones provided by DEFY.  But I think his other sisters had a great time!

I got to spend a little time jumping too, since Alice wasn't using her slot, but opted for taking pictures more than jumping. = )

I was really excited that Kroger had a ready to go vanilla cake, and the lady was able to fit Happy Birthday William on it, even though it was a little thing!

It was so nice to meet William's classmates, since I've not really gotten to sub at their school this year! It was also nice to spend some time with friends from his class last year.  We are so thankful to everyone that came out to celebrate our favorite 11 year old, he had a great day! = )

later days

edit: back dated for continuity 12-24-23