Elf on the Shelf {favorites!}

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I've heard people talk about Elf on the Shelfin past Christmases but never really understood the intrigue. This year however, we decided to go for it and it's ended up being really fun!
{the first few mornings, Elf was in normal, easy to find places...but then the creativity began!}

We heard from a friend {and fellow adoptive mom of Ethiopian kids} that we could special order an elf with dark skin & hair...well perfect! Imani has some African dolls, but for the most part, we're so inundated with caucasian everything that having a dark skinned elf sounded great!

After the UPS guy left, we excitedly opened our new little friend and WHAT?! This elf looks like he just went to Palm Springs for the weekend. Sigh. Oh well, we tried.

Ben and I have had so much fun being creative and having the kids freak out every morning, trying to figure out "How'd he do that?!" or "How'd he get up there?!"

Here are some of our favorites that we've done!

I frosted cheerios & let the boys eat them after they asked Elf nicely for permission

I dropped my tea one morning {it spilled EVERYWHERE}. Ben thought it looked like dirt so he grabbed Ezekiel's remote control car and made it look like he went on a crazy joy-ride during the night 

The night before Elf made a snow-angel with our sugar, it had snowed at our house so the boys wanted to go outside and make one, too

A certain little boy touched Elf so he went missing for a day {he flew back to the north pole to give his report to Santa and didn't have enough magic to fly back}. So the following morning, he showed up with an injured arm. Anton felt sooooooo bad and kept apologizing to Elf for hurting him {sweet boy}.

This one we did last night because the boys had just watched that old classic Rudolf movie. Ben and I were cracking up so hard when we brought the marker into their room to color their noses.

We obviously had a hard time reaching up to Ezekiel's bunk to get his. Haha, it's just a tiny dot on the side of his nose. He didn't seem to notice though and laughed and laughed as I walked him to the mirror after waking up.

A few more that I apparently didn't take photos of are Elf in the freezer {it's too hot here in Denver compared to the North Pole!} and Elf sitting in a big bowl of miniature marshmallows, one in his hand, and a bunch all over the counter where he "threw" them.

Hmmm...what will I do for the next few days before Christmas?

I do have a few more ideas up my sleeve...

TERESA