Outside play!

When it's 50 degrees outside just 4 days before Christmas, you gotta take advantage!! The girls ran off a ton of energy while Rebecca slept and I got to enjoy Noah's company in the Snugli infant carrier. It was a blast. ...I had to play with the camera timer so you could see cute Noah in on the fun. Enjoy!

Not my gumdrop buttons!

All I could think of was poor little Gingy from Shrek while we did our crafty project today!

Thank you Noah! Thank you for our early Christmas present - a Gingerbread House Making Kit. What a perfect present! We enjoyed creating today, as we sang lots of Christmas songs - most of which were completely made up on the fly. Julia loves to make up songs that don't make a lot of sense, and Savannah loves to repeat everything Julia says, and I love to play along with both the girls' singing - because, well... that's what I do! Noah and Rebecca slept through all the fun.

The project was awesome in so many ways... not only do we have an adorable house to adorn the playroom now, but it was chock full of learning opportunities:

• Almost all of the candy decorations are circle shaped.. our shape for this month!
• Lots of color recognition and size descrimination
  
• Following two and three step directions (such as, "First, put on the blue ones, then we will add some gumdrops.")
• Taking turns (one gingerbread house and two learners)
• Patience (We let the walls and roof dry before adding the decorations - it was hard for all of us to wait!)
• Fine motor (tiny little caandies for big toddler hands)
• Concentration (finish one area before the "glue"/icing dries THEN move to another part)
• Imagination and creativity

I'm quite proud of the girls! They were not tempted to eat any of it, and instead enjoyed creating their masterpiece. After we were done, I gave everyone (including me!!) a smidgeon of icing on their fingers to lick and enjoy.

Check out the gorgeous, yummy looking house!!!

Here's a "Before" shot. They were so excited to get started!

Left: Julia

Right: Savannah

Concentrating!!

The finished product!

New Pictures!

In the order the pictures were taken, I share with you some wonderful pictures!

This is my favorite picture! This was taken November 28th.

December 4 (She's going to put that large dollie shirt onto that small little soccer boy doll.)

December 5 (This photo went on a keepsake ornament for the Bard Christmas tree!)

Busy Busy Busy!

Sorry for my lack of posts! I have some new pictures to share, which will be uploaded soon. We have been very busy bees around here making Christmas crafts and singing Christmas songs and watching the weather, etc.

The kiddos took home some cute crafts on Friday. We made reindeer by printing their feet and hands. That was turned into a magnet! And, they made cute tree ornaments with their pictures ... a keepsake to remember - for sure!

During the month of December, I'm focusing my crafts and stories and songs around Christmas and on the CIRCLE shape. My hope is that Noah will get used to the word "circle" and will be able to sign it in a few months, that Savannah will be able to pick circles out of pictures and books, and that Julia will be able to draw and/or cut a circle shape! I'm having so much fun with these kids!!

Right now is a very rare occasion, as I have nap time to myself. All four children are sleeping soundly, and that gives me a chance to update the blog. ... Now, if I can just remember where I set the camera, then I could give you pictures to oogle at as well!