paint prints for Christmas

the boys and I found some time after Thanksgiving to do a little Christmas crafting for their grandmothers.  this holiday season wasn't feeling much like Christmas for me for various reasons, but I really wanted to make these cute penguin prints and I think this project helped get me more in the mood for festivities :)

I picked up a couple of white aprons from Hobby Lobby to decorate.  all the boys had to do was sit still for a black footprint, and I painted the details on after those were dry.  the simple footprints ended up being a lot messier than I remember on past paint projects.  maybe it was the black paint on the white surface... I don't know.  they still came out cute.

we added some fingerprint string lights for a border, which I think really helped finish it off.  this was time consuming, but easier to control than the footprints since we went one finger at a time instead of a whole foot.  I added their names and year as well.

there's still room at the bottoms to add more, so maybe next year we can add some reindeer.

sound ornament

I was going to try and make an ornament for the grandparents this year with Leo's prints or something on it, but I just didn't have the time.  I did happen to see this post a couple of days before Christmas and thought I might be able to tackle it in time - which I did, just didn't get pictures of them all!

I grabbed some fabric ornaments from Target and voice recording devices from Build-A-Bear.  Leo wasn't cooperative when it came to getting him to say something, but I managed to get them done Christmas Eve.  it's not fun if you're not cutting it close, right?? :\

we'll see how well it holds up in storage and I might try again next year when he's more likely to say more things and possibly on command!