Our adventures with Christmas Elves 2013

This was our 2nd year having the Elf on the Shelf.  We decided to do this last year and my kids loved it so we thought we would try it again. 

The only problem this year was that Maynard surprised them about a week earlier than I had hoped that they would show up.  I know most elves arrive the day after Thanksgiving, but our elves are so bad I was hoping they would show up just a tad later.

So at 3 weeks until Christmas the kids woke up to see this happening in the living room.

There was toilet paper strewn all over my living room with a note announcing the elves had arrived.  The kids and I were all surprised.

So once the elves arrive than it is important to the kids that they do something every single night.  Because Maynard had started the escapade I had to see to it that it was carried out.  So every night for 3 weeks I had to make sure the elves didn't let the kids down.  It was many a late night waiting for the kids to go to sleep before they could move.  The downside to all of this mischief is that the kids were waking up at 5 a.m. and couldn't sleep because they were so excited to see what the elves had done.  I'm gonna share a few pictures with you and let them do the talking mainly.  These are in no certain order.

This picture is hard to see what they are doing so I will explain.  The elves are lifting weights which happen to be q-tips with marshmellows stuck on the end.  The note says enough treats now its time to get back to dieting and exercising.

The next picture is where the elves replaced the kid's pictures with a magazine ad saying what they each wanted for Christmas.  The boys had pictures of underwear and Amelia's included a picture of a Chocolate baby.  (Which she really did want and got.)

snowball fight

Christmas parade

white water rafting

barricaded doors with ribbon

The elves had fun face painting the kids while they were sleeping.

ice fishing

head elf threw into the lions den

Head elf protecting the kid's gingerbread houses.

Elves ate Titus' chocolate advent calendar (not really)

The elves bought a new toilet seat, but they had to try it out first.

There was a few more, but I must have done video clips instead of taking pictures of them.  One of the kid's most favorite was the underwear carrousel.  I can't believe I don't have a picture of that.  I tied each of their underwear to the ceiling fan blade and put their elf in it.  Then turned the fan on low so the kids could see their elf riding in their underwear.  We called it the underwear carrousel and the kids really loved this one.

The chocolate calendar was funny too, but I thought Titus would get mad, but instead he got his feelings hurt and that backfired.  The kids had advent calendars and each day they got to eat a piece of chocolate to help them with counting down the days of Christmas.  I bought an extra one and it just so happened to be like Titus's.  One morning I had emptied out Titus's (fake) calendar and Josiah and Amelia's didn't get touched.  I was going for anger, but got tears so I had to quickly give him back his actual calendar. Ha ha

The picture of the head elf protecting the gingerbread houses was for Amelia's sake.  Last year the elves finished off the kid's gingerbread houses and they didn't forget about that.  So this year Amelia kept eating and eating hers.  She refused to go to bed because she was afraid the elves would eat the rest of her gingerbread house.  And to be honest, that is exactly what the elves had planned.  But since Amelia was so pitiful, I had to have compassion on her and protect her gingerbread house.  Bummer, I know.

We had a lot of fun, but I am so happy that it is over with and they are gone for another year.

Disclaimer:
Ok, here is the disclaimer I think I do every year.  We do not teach our kids about Santa Claus.  They know the real reason for the season.  I just don't think it hurts to have a little fun with them.  There is so much our kids aren't allowed to do that I think it's a good idea to make things fun for them in it's place.  So did they know that the elves wasn't really going to Santa every night and telling on them whether they were bad or good or not?  Of course!  But we sure did have a lot of fun doing it.

I will hopefully be on here next week to do my Christmas post.  I've run out of time.