Advent Calendar

I had been wanting a cute advent calendar for a couple of years. We had used a cheap felt one from Walmart for a few years. It did the job okay, but it wasn't nearly as cute as I wanted it to be....so I decided to make my own Advent Calendar. I did a little research online, and I got a ton of inspiration from other blogs and from Etsy. I took a few of the ideas that I found and mixed them all up and came up with my own version of a Metal Tin Advent Calendar.

I hit up Hobby Lobby for

a canvas

wedding favor tins {you need 24 in all}

Christmas scrapbook paper

&

a painted star

I already had some stuff at home

fabric

rick rack

Mod Podge

&

hot glue

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I started by cutting out a lot of circle with my circle cutter...48 to be exact.
24 circle with numbers for the front of the tins and 24 unnumbered circle for the inside of the tins.

I applied a thin layer of mod podge to the inside of the tin and to the inside of the lid.

I place the unnumbered circles {pattern side up} inside the tins and Mod Podged them in place.
I put the numbered circles in the lids {with the pattern of the paper and the number showing through the front of the plastic} and then Mod Podged them into place.

I cut out a Christmas tree from leftover green and white polka dot fabric and used spray adhesive to attach it to the canvas. I also added a trunk to the tree made from a scrap of brown corduroy fabric. I finished off the edges of the tree by attaching some white rick rack around the edges with my hot glue gun. I also added a wooden painted star to the top of the tree. After all the Mod Podge was dry, I put the lids on the tins and hot glued them to the Christmas tree. I chose to attach my numbered tins in a straight line, but you could mix it up and glue them in a random pattern if you wanted.

On the last day of November, we load up our advent calendar with small treats and hang it in our hallway. Starting on December 1st my boys will get to remove the lid of one tin each day until Christmas {starting with number 25}. To make our advent calendar even more fun, I also place small pieces of paper with special Christmas activites {bake cookies, sing Christmas songs, wrap presents, watch a Christmas cartoon, read the Christmas story} for us to do in some of the tins. 

Stationery Card

Stationery Card

View the entire collection of cards.

March Recap Via Instagram

We started off March by celebrating Dr. Seuss' birthday!

 I sorted pennies at Grant's school for their annual penny drive.

 We had fun at a friend's birthday party!

 I ran two miles! This was a great time for me at the beginning of March, but today I did two miles in 21 mins!

 Our chicks started turning into chickens:)

 Eli got a splinter in his knee....

...and it got infected which meant a trip to the doctor!

 Henry did a little maintenance on the chicken coop... definitely a job for a boy!

 Eli did not want to take his meds!

 We adopted two baby bunnies that Phoebe brought up to the house. I bottle fed them for a couple days, but they didn't make it:(

 Our afternoons were filled with soccer practices!

 Grant had field day on a gorgeous sunny day!

We celebrated Pi Day {3/14} with a chicken pot pie:)

 I made rainbow oatmeal for the boys for St. Patrick's Day...can you tell I love holidays.

 I got Parent of the Year from Grant's school.

 I spent the day in the PTO room sorting shirts for Henry's field day.

 We spent the weekend working on the garden and the fence to keep the critters out.

 We ate dinner at Olive Garden and I resisted the temptation to eat a million calories of fettuccine alfredo!

Typical Sunday morning in my preschool S.S. class.

 I made P cookies for Eli's P party at school. They got to were pajamas and they ate pizza and drank punch:)

 Henry and his friend Hayden doing the three legged race at field day.

 Easter treats for the boys' classes. I made about 70 of these cute marshmallow pops.

 Eli wearing his bunny shirt at his class Easter egg hunt.

 Onions growing in the garden.

Dyeing eggs! We used muffin tins this year, and it will be a new tradition! 

 The Easter Bunny came to our house and brought candy, swimsuits, and Hexbugs!