The Elves' 10-20

Our elves, Quickly and his new pal Snowflake, have been showing up in all sorts of places this Christmas season. Here are just a few of the examples of what they've been up to when Mallory and Michael have found them first thing every morning!

Mallory and Santa

Mallory is feeling a bit more self conscious about sitting on Santas lap. We ran in to the jolly old guy at Wal Mart the other day and of course I encouraged them to go up and talk to him. Here's the evolution of the visit...

On a side note we ran into a co-worker of mine there with her twins so I had to snap their picture as well. 

Elf on the Shelf Cookies

I was asked by a gal to make some Elf cookies so I whipped these up. Not my best work but hopefully they did the trick.  I always use buttercream to frost my cutouts but these required royal icing. 

I used an ice cream cone cookie cutter upside down for the head and hat and then used the feet part of a teddy bear cutter for the collar. 

Leslie's Winning Sweatshirt

Leslie, the preschool teacher who I work with, made this sweatshirt nearly 20 years ago when she was teaching 4th grade. She would wear it when she read A Christmas Carol to her students. All these years later she still has it and loans it out to friends to wear to Ugly Christmas Sweater parties. Last week our staff had our own and sure enough Leslie won the contest and a $25.00 gift card.

 It's quite the hit for what I think are obvious reasons. 

Strange

We ate at Steak n Shake in Cape last night and I saw something a bit odd I thought. A lady came in who looked rather plain and simple:

But when I glanced down at her feet, this is what I saw:

Would you ever have thought this woman would be wearing shoes like that?

Isaiah Jones and the Lost Christmas Treasure

Our kids have been working hard at the church to prepare for our upcoming Christmas musical. Tonight was the last rehearsal before the dress rehearsal on Saturday. They perform the program on Sunday night. 

Mallory is singing a solo as Mary. She does a beautiful job. Michael also has a really good solo. We're so proud of them of course. 

Our children's pastor Dawn Walters is so wonderful. She pours her heart into the kids. We are blessed for sure!

Mallory's Birthday Downtown Photo Scavenger Hunt

For Mallory's 10th birthday we had a sleepover at a hunting lodge in the middle of our little town. The main activity I planned was a scavenger hunt.  Paul and I each took a team of six girls. 

Paul's team named themselves the Angels. It was Cachet, Kelsey, Chayse, Lyndi, Alyvia and Maryn. 

My group was Team Minecraft. We had the birthday girl, Mallory, and Ryanne, Emmy, Natalie, Makayla and Tanner. 

The groups were given a list of 25 things to do and a time limit of one hour. The winner would be the team who either finished first or the one with the most items done within the hour. I made most of the stuff up myself knowing what landmarks and locations we had to work with but I also got some help from the internet and some friends at work. Most were things like "take a picture pretending to brush your teeth in front of the dentist's office".

Here's a rundown of some of the highlights. 

Take a pic of your whole team opening a door for a stranger:

Your whole team building a pyramid:

Your team pretending to drink out of the fountain:

Your whole team on a slide at Doyle (the elementary school):

One member of your team in a tree:

Your whole team pretending to wash their hair in a car wash:

Your team with a police officer (here they both got the dispatcher at the police station):

Everyone on your team in a booth at K.C.'s convenience store:

Your team pretending to read a newspaper at the Eagle office. There were no papers in the rack so they improvised:

Your team making a train in front of the red caboose in the middle of town:

The whole team touching the flagpole in front of the fire station:

Your team making a 10 in the gazebo:

Your team with the Beauton's Pharmacy delivery van:

There were some that required a video which I'm not sure how to post here. One was all the girls had to sing a song to Michael and Matthew, our music pator's son (Michael was staying with them for the night). Another video was the girls oinking like a pig in front of a bbq restaurant. 

When I was thinking up the events I thought of having the girls do a muscle pose in front of the health club but forgot to add it. I still had my team do it:

I also thought I had had them do the parade wave in front of the town mural:

Paul's team found a "guy with a hat" but we missed that one:

There was also dance the hula dance in front of the Tropical Sno snow cone place which we both videoed but I happen to snap a pic of also:

We had a few other things but you get the picture!:) Paul's Team Angels won. They were there at the lodge waiting for us when we got back:

It was lots of fun and probably the highlight of the night. I'd do it again with different items next time. All the girls seemed to have a good time and ol' Dad might have had the most fun of all!