Zeke 2011 - Day 28 - Christmas Eve

The boys had hung a little stocking at the bottom of the stair banister with Zeke's name on it. Today we found Zeke inside of it! The boys found a few little fun treats in their stockings from Zeke. He wrote us a note telling us how this would be his last day in our house and while he would miss us, he was excited to help Santa deliver their presents and he would for sure be back next year!

Zeke 2011 - Day 27 - M&M Pancakes

Once again, we found Zeke in the kitchen. He sure does love to bake (and make a mess!).

Zeke made us all a yummy breakfast! Pancakes with red and green M&Ms! They were delicious. :)

(The plates are from the 2011 Be Merry collection at Target.)

Zeke 2011 - Day 26 - Peppermint Shakes

We found Zeke in the kitchen on the breakfast bar. He was hanging by our little blender. The boys were excited to see that he left them fun new Christmas cups and candy! There were peppermints, candy canes, whipped cream and in his note told us there was vanilla ice-cream in the freezer to make some peppermint milkshakes. They were so good!

Milkeshake recipe:

• 2 cups vanilla ice cream
• 1 cup milk
• 3 tablespoons finely crushed peppermint candies
• Toppings: whipped cream, crushed peppermint candies.
• Process first 3 ingredients in a blender until smooth. Pour into glasses, and serve with desired toppings.

(The cups are from the 2011 Be Merry collection at Target.)

Zeke 2011 - Day 25 - Flying Airplane

The two older boys looked just about everywhere in the house for Zeke but couldn't find him. In the middle of our search, baby brother woke up so we all went upstairs to get him from his room. Immediately Isaiah saw that Zeke was up on Abram's ceiling fan. He was flying in the plane and hanging out with the rest of the crew from the Cars 2 movie (which is one of the boys' favorites!).

He wrote a note saying he was having fun pretending to be on a secret spy mission. Isaiah pointed out that he looked like he was searching for something and guessed it was probably more candy canes since he knows Zeke likes them so much.

Zeke 2011 - Day 24 - Christmas Music

We found Zeke next to the stereo listening to some Christmas tunes. He left us a kids' Christmas album (the disc was in the CD player) and wrote a note telling the boys that he loaded holiday music onto their DSi game systems so they could listen to it anywhere!

Zeke 2011 - Day 23 - Reindeer Cookies

We had to leave early in the morning for school so we didn't have the chance to find Zeke. When our oldest son came home from school, he smelled something good coming from the kitchen. We found that Zeke had just made us some peanutbutter and chocolate reindeer cookies! Our two year old said, "It looks like Rudoplh. I can't believe it!"

Zeke was munching on a pretzel and had chocolate on his face.

The red-nosed reindeer cookies were a peanutbutter cookie with chocolate-covered pretzel antlers, mini M&M eyes and a red M&M nose.

While eating them, Isaiah said, "Boy, Zeke sure does make good cookies!" He took the rest of them to preschool with him to share with his friends after lunch and they all sang their thank you song to Zeke. ;)

Zeke 2011 - Day 22 - Painting the Noses Red

We were all exhausted from our family Christmas party the night before, so we all slept in a little bit this morning. Our two oldest boys woke up first and rushed into our room asking if they could go look for Zeke. Half asleep, we told them yes. We heard them go down the stairs and their footsteps exploring the floor. When we heard gasps and laughter coming from the downstairs bathroom, we knew they must have found our elf. Zeke was on the bathroom mirror with a paintbrush in his hand and his nose was painted red. When we looked into the mirror, we noticed all of our noses were painted red as well!

Zeke left us a note saying that Santa said he had such a good time singing Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer with all of us at the Christmas party the night before. Zeke thought it would be funny to make us all look like Rudolph so he painted all of our noses red while we were asleep. The kids were so tired, they didn't even wake up while he was doing it!

The boys thought it was so funny and opted to keep their red noses when we went to their grandparents' house for breakfast with their aunt, uncle and cousin too. They all had a good laugh about it!

Zeke 2011 - Day 21 - Train Track

It wasn't hard to spot Zeke today! He put together a wooden train track that covered our entire living room! He was riding on a train on a separate little track he built for himself. The boys had fun playing with the set up.

Zeke 2011 - Day 20 - Paper Elves

We found Zeke today in the dining room. He had made a paper elf chain across the archway! The elves were cut out of paper that the boys had doodled on the day before.

He was on the end of the chain holding a paper elf's hand and a little pair of scissors. What a goof!

He left a few paper elves out on the table and the boys had fun making them fly around. Isaiah commented that Zeke forgot to put hats on the elves and later that day, we found that Zeke had heard him and made all of the elves hats!

Zeke 2011 - Day 19 - Angel in the Manger

Hmm... I don't remember putting that angel there. ;)

Ezra, our two year old, found Zeke this morning. He was disguised as an angel with paper wings and praying hands and he was hiding in our manger scene on a shelf in our living room. Ezra said, "Ohhh, Zeke!" like he says almost every morning. He went into our dining room and dragged my Gram's antique footstool into the living room so he could stand on it to see Zeke better. Ez pointed out that "Zeke is not an elf today. He's a boy angel!"

Zeke 2011 - Day 18 - Ice Cream Snowman

We had to get up early this morning so we didn't get a chance to look for Zeke until after preschool. It took us a little while but we finally found him in the freezer! He had made an ice cream snowman and the boys shared it for a delicious after-school snack.

The snowman was three scoops of vanilla ice cream and had chocolate chip eyes/mouth, M&M buttons and licorice arms/nose.

(The bowls are from the 2011 Be Merry Collection at Target.)

Zeke 2011 - Day 17 - Goldfishing

We found Zeke floating in a boat in the sink fishing for goldfish crackers! He had already caught a bunch in a little bucket and said we could eat them.

They tasted like Pizza. :)

Zeke 2011 - Day 16 - Video Games

Our older boys love Mario Brothers so it was exciting for them to find Zeke this morning playing Wii and hanging out with Mario, Luigi and friends.

He had a tiny Wiimote in his hand. (I cannot remember where we got this but it is perfectly elf-sized.)

The boys enjoyed playing video games while Zeke watched!

Zeke 2011 - Day 15 - Trapeze

The boys woke up to Zeke hanging upside-down from a trapeze he made on the ceiling fan in their bedroom. He was holding their favorite stuffed animals in his hands (Ezra's Guingo the elephant and Isaiah's Potter-Pete the lion). When the fan was on low, they swung around too!

Zeke wrote a note saying that he would only play with them for the day and they would have them back by bed time. When the boys were taking a bath that night, Zeke sat their animals on their pillows and then flew back up to his trapeze. ;)

Zeke 2011 - Day 14 - Donut Snowmen

We found Zeke in the kitchen again (making a big mess as usual)!

There were donuts, powdered sugar, chocolate chips, M&Ms, pretzels and orange circus peanut candies. He was eating a pretzel and had powdered sugar on his nose.

He was building donut snowmen!

He left enough for the boys to make snowmen as well and we had a delicious treat for breakfast.

Zeke 2011 - Day 13 - Green Toilet

We found Zeke today in the downstairs bathroom. He was hanging on to the flusher arm of the toilet! The toilet water was green. The boys discussed that elves must have green pee. ;)

He left a note congratulating our two year old, Ezra, on being potty trained.

Later that day we found him sitting on the top of the tank reading a little car magazine which is what the boys do when they're sitting on the potty.

So Ezra joined him.

Zeke 2011 - Day 12 - Balloons

This morning as we headed downstairs, we found Zeke hanging on to a bunch of balloons just floating around the stairwell!

He left each of our three boys a gold star balloon tied to the stair banister. All of the boys had fun playing with them!