What do you want for Christmas?

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

We have been so busy here!  The month started with each child decorating their very own advent calenders. The calendars are very simple, but every morning we get to glue another picture on today's date, and when we run out of pictures, we know it's finally Christmas Eve!  I actually stressed out about how to do advent calenders this year...  I'm glad I kept it very simple. The kids don't mind - they still love discovering pictures in their own little envelopes every day and deciding which one to glue on this time. :)  I wish I had a picture of these easy calendars for you, but I don't!  Oops.

We've also been busy making wreaths, snowflakes, snowmen, tree ornaments, and even a cotton-ball bearded Santa!  Today, was the busiest and most fun we've had all month, though - we spent the entire morning in the kitchen.

Morning snack was Reindeer Bread!  Check out these fun pictures. :)

After snack, we got busy with holiday treats for other people.  We started with the treats we're making for moms and dads this year.  Now, I know it's not right that I'm about to spoil the surprise... truth is, I've never been good at surprises anyway - especially when it comes to gift giving. :) Just ask my husband - we usually have whatever gift we bought each other long before Christmas is here.  I stink at holding out! So - if you want to be surprised, I guess you should just stop reading now and ignore the adorable and fun pictures below...



Here are the M&M treats we made this morning:












Kudos to my friend Judy who got the idea from another blogger.  What a perfect treat to make with these kids!  They really enjoyed laying out the pretzel squares, and of course they were super helpers when it came to unwrapping all those kisses.  By the time we were half done with the tedious job of squishing those M&M's down, the kids got tired so they scurried off to wash hands and go play while I did the rest. (Shhh, I'm totally okay with that!!) :)   Anyway - what a fun project it was.

Don't tell the kids, but they did a lot of learning during this too.  They used their small motor skills to get those Hershey wrappers off (muscles we need, to improve cutting with scissors and writing with pencils), and they had to use their cognitive thinking to decide what comes next (first the pretzels then the kisses) and of course they had match one-to-one. Let's not forget the task of working together. I had them work in pairs. (We missed Noah and Caleb today! They went to spend time with Nana...)  There's a lot of other lessons that went into this, too - like social skills and science discovery.

 

After the treats were made and the kids got some playing out of their systems, we got busy with old fashioned cookie cutter cookies. :)  This was SO MUCH FUN.   I'm so proud of how well we all worked together. In pairs (we made two batches), they took turns adding ingredients to a big bowl, then stirring, and kneading. (I should have snapped a picture of them stirring!)

Then, they shared their favorite cutter shapes with one another and they waited patiently as I scooped the shapes with my spatula to put them on the baking pan.  This task included pre-math skills as we had to figure out how many shapes we could fit into the dough before rolling up the used dough to start over again.














This afternoon, the plan is to ice and decorate these cookies. I love the holidays!!

(P.S. Thank God for naptime!)

Handprint Turkeys

This is probably my favorite craft of the whole year!!  I cheated this year, though - usually I use the child's foot for the turkey's body. This year, to save time, I pre-cut the bodies and shapes for the children.  There's so much to do and catch up on around here - we've all been so sick for the last few weeks and today it feels so good to be back to "normal" around here with everybody in attendance.  To be honest, I'm kind of sad that this is a really short week for the holiday - but that will just make our Monday back that much sweeter. :)  Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!

Rainy day in November

The first rain of the Fall is here and instead of sulking about it with nothing to do, we decided to roll up our pant legs and enjoy it!

Typically, it's hard for us to enjoy the outdoors on days like today. It's pointless to go out with a towel to wipe down the swings/slides, because the forecast isn't promising dryness anyway.  There was a break in the rain, but I'm not anxious to let the kids play because it's not easy to stay dry even if it's not raining....  we almost always end up with wet bottoms, wet pant legs, and soaked shoes, socks and tootsies.

Luckily, the temp today isn't unbearable.  We only stayed out until the first comment was made about the cold.   :)  It was FUN!  And, the kids really enjoy the chance to go puddle jumping and not getting in trouble for it...  at least, my own girls do anyway.

And when the feet are cold, warm towels are retrieved from the dryer (Yes, I'm that nice!) and we put our socks and shoes back on to resume our regularly scheduled indoor play.
What a better way to spend a rainy morning than by creating things with Play Dough!

Park

With over 14 days of DRY, cool fall weather, we have been spending lots of time outside.  It's so easy to skip lesson plans, crafts, structured learning time, and even snack once in a while when we get all caught up in an innocent game of freeze tag, or go on wild grasshopper hunts.  We LOVE the outdoors!

One of my favorite things to do is to go for a long walk to the park.  I like the park that is a little further away because there's a nice greenway path to walk on to get there.  We are so spoiled to live in such a pretty town with wonderful parks and playgrounds.

An added bonus: last week, our trip to the park included a meet and greet with Miss Toshia and her group! We love meeting friends at the park, and I love having another adult to laugh with, chat with, and share ideas with. Our recent trip the park was nothing short of AWESOME.  Enjoy some pictures!! :)

Ashley Turned Five!

Happy Friday!

Painting with Water

With high temps only reaching the mid to upper 80's we are experiencing a COLD front around here!  The kids (and I) are enjoying this break in the uncomfortable humid heat wave we've had this summer.  Of course water play with toddler pools is always a fun way to celebrate the sunshine. And, simply running through the sprinklers is always a hit, too.  But on days like today when I can't seem to muster up the energy to help remove 6 adorable outfits to put on 6 tight swim suits and sunscreen 6 adorable kids just to reverse the process in an hour (only with dripping wet swimsuits and a laundry load pile of wet towels)- well, a little paint with water is a popular activity!  This one kept the kids busy (and quiet! my headache thanks them!) for almost a whole hour. :)  Enjoy the pictures!