Teaching Our Children: How to Wrap Gifts
Letting the kids wrap their own gifts
As I sit in the middle of the floor with little scraps of Christmas wrapping paper around me I have to smile….. The girls LOVE going to the store to pick out the perfect gift(s) for each person. They also really like to wrap the gifts! While they have a tendency to make a mess, use more wrapping paper, put on too much tape, and take a long time wrapping they have a blast doing it. Although, I have noticed that every year they get a little better and more efficient.
Each girl starts the gift wrapping activity by picking out their own roll of wrapping paper to use for their gifts. They use that roll of wrapping paper on all the gifts they have to wrap until there are no more gifts to do or the wrapping paper is gone. They do the entire wrapping process on their own from cutting the paper to taping and even labeling the gift.
While we still have the occasional – “Mom, I didn’t cut the wrapping paper big enough” overall they are getting better at the whole process. At times, I’ve even had problems not cutting the paper big enough! Typically, we spend an evening or two (depending on the amount of time we have) doing a “wrapping party” while listening to Christmas music. As they wrap their gifts I will tackle some that I need to do as well. Everyone has fun and we get a lot accomplished at the same time.
I love that they take the extra time to not only wrap the gifts but label, add little notes, or draw pictures on the outside of the gifts. They started doing this on their own last Christmas. It was so cute reading their notes and talking about their drawings as we opened the gifts. They were so proud of the gift and the wrapping which they did from start to finish. Here are some of the sweet drawings and notes we found under our tree last year:
Silly notes written on the gifts…..made me smile
Brina even picked out turtle food at the store for the turtles and wrapped it for them.
Karlie drew a planet, specifically Saturn, on this gift
I Love You note on the gift
Brina drew little “heart” people on the outside of this Christmas gift.
Picture of the sweet sisters on the gift
While the gift wrap my not win a decorative prize the girls are proud of their work and are excited to share. They are learning many lessons during this too (hand-eye coordination, measuring, sharing, giving, etc….). Pretty soon I will have to start delegating more gift wrapping tasks to them! 🙂
14 Gifts of Love
Gifts & Goodies for Daddy! The girls and I are going on a trip over their Spring Break to visit family, however, Jake is staying home to work. We will miss him greatly and even though he will probably enjoy his few days of peace and quiet we decided to wrap up some special surprises for him to enjoy while we are away. We have a wrapped present for each of the days we are gone. The wrapping paper I choose was a mix of happy smiles and hearts to show him how much he makes us smile and that we love him very much. The presents are a variety of goodies that he likes (I cannot tell you exactly what they are yet because he may read this article).
The girls have also put together several sweet notes for Daddy that they have hidden in various places all over the house for him to find. On their easel is a huge heart that says “I love you Daddy” with a series of little hearts along the bottom. Super cute! They are excited to go on the trip but I am thankful they are thinking about their Daddy who will be staying here. All of the notes they did on their own. They had an idea that I was putting together a couple presents for when we were gone because they were with me on one of the adventures to pick up something for him, but the note idea the girls came up with on their own. Hope he enjoys his special goodies while we are away. What special things do you do for your husband / spouse when you have been apart?
Family Celebrations: Happy Birthday Skipper!
Best Buddies - A Girl and Her Dog (Brina and Skipper) The fifth member of our family is full of energy, a loyal friend, loves to play outside and adds a lot of laughter to our family…….Skipper! She is our sweet black lab who the girls absolutely adore! Our little Puddle Skipper Hayes was born on March 14, 2010 and she had fun celebrating her 1st birthday with us! It was a busy day full of a lot of activities but ended it with a little celebration for our furry family member. The girls were so excited to celebrate Skipper’s birthday.
Here are a few pictures from our fun together!
Brina and Karlie wrapping Skipper's birthday gifts! The girls wrapped Skipper’s gifts in newspaper and A LOT of tape! They even had tape on the floor when they were done (you can see a pile in between them on the carpet). They were so excited and had a blast doing the wrapping for their furry sister!
Skipper's Special Birthday Meal! The girls thought it was hilarious putting Skipper’s candle in her special meal. They thought it was funny she would rather have a special birthday meal with “bacon” then a birthday cake. The girls were worried that Skipper was going to burn her nose so she barely got close to the bowl until the candle was blown out, glad they were looking out for her. It was great watching them trying to keep her away from the candle while we sang Happy Birthday!
Skipper eating her birthday treat! The best puppy birthday meal you can ask for – Meaty and Moist, simply delicious! Plus she got to eat her special birthday treat all by herself (no one was wanting to share it with her).
The unwrapping part of the birthday celebrations was exciting and confusing for Skipper, good thing the girls were there to help! Skipper was very excited to get new bones and a toy! She immediately took one bone into the yard, then realized the other one was still on the porch so went back for that one. I really think she stayed up all night playing and eating her bones!
Happy Birthday Skipper! Hope you enjoyed your play time with the family, your feast, bones, and toy! The girls had fun picking them out, wrapping and celebrating with you!!!
