So, since Vic had to go to Orange Grove for the night to see his Pa in the hospital, I had the kids to myself for the night. Atticus loves school, but when he comes home, he is half tired and half still energized from school. The tired part means he doesn't really want to do a lot to play or find things to do on his own. But, the energized part will get excited for anything if you will do it with him. So, instead of listening to "but I don't know what to do" all evening, I decided to come up with a scavenger hunt that would hopefully last all evening. So, today, when we picked Atticus up from Kindergarten, I left a note in his seat. Of course, he needed to read it right away. Here it is:
Atticus loves an activity and especially ones with surprises. Grace loves it if Atticus loves it, but I she also doesn't have to do what the crowd does quite yet. In fact, when she came inside, she told me she "just wanted to color a picture right now". That was totally fine with me, but Atticus really wanted to do this with her. She conceded. In the pantry, where they hang their school things, they found the first paper below that sent them to the bathtub for the second note.
Let me also add here that this was very educational for Atticus. He LOVES spelling and writing and reading words. So, having to read notes to know what to do was right up his alley.
I really just wanted to get baths out of the way, even if it was 3:45 pm. While they bathed, I found this sweet girl under the tree getting mischievous....and sleepy. Off to a little nap for Everly. She will have to join the scavenger hunt next year!
In their bedrooms, while putting on their pj's, they found the first note below which led them to the kitchen for an after school snack of Christmas puppy chow but with red and green M&Ms added in.
Then, under the kitchen table where they snacked, they found the note below and another with a Christmas Bingo game that Grandma sent! We love Bingo at our house so this was perfect.
They looked around and found Clue #4 which led them to my bedroom. I planned to get an actual to do marked off my list this evening, so we wrapped a stack of presents. Grace mostly just played with the manger and tried to "help me" with the tape (aka she just liked playing with the sticky part). But, Atticus loved writing names on labels...again, thank you Kindergarten!
Then, they found a clue that led them to the oven and to making some ornaments. We made some that melted in the oven and then we made some designs of melty beads and ironed them. Michael's has the best craft projects!
After this, the next clue sent them to the pantry with instructions to cook in their kitchen while I made dinner.
Even though dinner was corny dogs and macaroni and cheese, I needed a few minutes just to get that done. However, life with kids and 3 kids at that never gives you "just a few minutes" to do anything. :) Atticus was so excited to keep going, he made a meal out of the toy kitchen for me as fast as possible and then just asked me 18 times when we could go to the next clue. Grace just asked for cartoons. And, Everly woke up and wanted to nurse and then eat her macaroni immediately. So, we took a quick break for me to make dinner, feed everyone and then went to the next clue. This clue led them to their pillows to tell them we were having a slumber party in the living room and watching a movie. I love the Jim Carrey version of The Grinch that Stole Christmas, and I really wanted to snuggle up and watch it with them. But, they really wanted Rudolph (which we have watched 18 times already this month) and it was already 6:40, so we switched to Rudolph instead.
It was peaceful for a good 45 minutes while I cleaned up, talked to Vic, and loved on Everly.
Towards the end of the movie, they wanted to open their advent calendars and were getting restless. We played with Everly, finished the movie and before they could have their last clue, I made them clean everything up and brush their teeth and go to the potty. Ahhh...to have bribery to get them to do everything without complaining. It's great! Then, they got their last clue of their scavenger hunt.
And, at this point, I had asked Vic to record a little video of him telling them goodnight and where to find a little present for each of them.
They were SOOO cute while they happily watched and then waved to him at the end and told him goodnight and I love you. Then, Atticus got confused and didn't understand why he wasn't on facetime and why it was just a video. He wanted to watch again and at the end, he did the same thing telling him bye and goodnight until the video stopped. And then....as it usually happens when one of us talk to him on the phone from out of town, it hit Atticus that Vic was not here tonight and he started bawling. He is so sweet sometimes and he was just so sad that his Daddy was not here with him. He cried and cried and cried. However, the funny part was that he was so upset, but would have a second of remembering there was a present for him and they were getting their gifts from under the pillows and then he would cry and then he would start to unwrap it and then he would cry harder. It was so sad to watch. But, also kind of funny. He was very torn about his emotions in those moments.
While we were shopping at TJMaxx during our Wednesday evening date we got to go on (finally a date!!), we picked up a couple of cute things. Atticus got this Elf art set. He is so into markers and crayons and art things right now. And Grace, who LOVES the old classic clay-mation Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer movie, got a set of the figurine characters. So, here they are...Grace is happy and ready to play with her toys; Atticus can't stop crying because he misses Vic, and Everly is just playing with wrapping paper (I guess we will say this was her gift from Vic! ha!). What a crew!
They all played, colored, and rustled paper for about 20 minutes.
Then, I changed and fed Everly and laid her down while Atticus wrote a note I was supposed to send to Vic. And when I told Grace it was time to put her new toys down and come get into bed, she told me she would probably get up in the middle of the night to play with them because she wasn't done. Oh my. She does love to pretend with her figurines. And these Rudolph movie characters are perfect as she goes around the house repeating lines from the movie like "eat papa eat!" or "she thinks I'm cuuuuute!" or "No more games for you Rudolph!" or a number of other things. If you've seen this movie as much as I have by now, you will recognize these phrases! She's hilarious! And here is the tragic note that Atticus wrote Vic that I forgot to text him. It started out creative, but then got serious. Oh my goodness these kids are funny! So, that was our Thursday night. We miss Vic and are ready for him to be back already! But, I also love fun activities and spending time with these 3 little kids! Good night!
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