Happy 2012!!!

A Very Pajama Christmas Party

It is finally here... our PJ Christmas Party!!! 

What fun we had!!

This was the tree when the kids came in this morning...
Roo said, "Did Santa come to your house Miss Michelle??"

Yummy Hot Cocoa!!

You can't very well have whipped cream without it getting on your nose!!!

Little Man had to have a spoon to make sure he got ALL his whipped cream :)

Playing "Pass Rudolph"
(basically a reindeer version of Hot Potato)

Some Freeze Dancing!!!

Lil Bit liked bobbing to the music

FREEZE!!!!

It's present time!!!  Sprout loved handing out all her presents to her friends...
"Here Little Man!!"

"I can help you with this Roo!"

Little Man had SOOOOO much fun giving his friends their gifts.  I was so impressed he didn't try to take one of them back.  He knew they were for his friends.  To Cute!!!

Loving their mini-doodle pads!!
"Can we open them now??!!!"

"OOOOOOOO.... "
We have this toy here at daycare and Little Man just LOVES it!!
Now he has his own :)

Lil Bit kept that bow on her head all the way to nap time...
this is the same girl who will not leave a barrette in her hair for more than 1 min... Go figure ;)

Scamp didn't really understand what to do, but she enjoyed what was in the packaging.

After we were finished I found Scamp climbing on the stool I left out from when I went hunting for our little tiny hot cocoa mugs... as you can see, she was quite proud of herself!!!

I love baby feet... but festive Lil Bit feet are the icing on the cake!!!

Merry Christmas Everyone!!!

Busy, Busy, Busy...

We have been little elves the past couple of days!!  Getting all our Christmas Presents made, wrapped and hidden from prying eyes hasn't been easy, let me tell you.  So, we haven't been taking to many photos over the last couple of days, just to make sure no hints get out there :)

We have also been learning about the Birth of Jesus, the number 2, and the colors red and green.  Each day at circle time we sing our days of the week song, our weather song, and then we do our counting songs.  The sillier the better for this group, that's for sure!!!

I will have some photos for tomorrow, it is our last day together before our Christmas break and we have a Pajama Christmas Party planned!!  We are all soooooo excited, it is hard to contain ourselves each day, just thinking about all the fun we will have is enough to get us all in a tizzy :)  So, there should be some great photos from tomorrow!!

Until then...

Just a shot of us having fun at circle time!!

 We took out our magnetic Advent Calendar out today and began our journey to the birthday of Jesus.  How exciting it was to listen to each little story about all the different pieces that make up the Story of Jesus' Birth.  You see, in each little box there is something to put on the magnetic board.  A moon, a dove, a Shepard, Angels, etc... and when you open the door a little story about that piece is played while the children put the piece up.  It is really cute.  I bought mine a few years ago, but the updated version can be found here or here.  I waited until after the holiday a few years back and got mine for a good price, but I also think it was because they discontinued mine and brought out another design.

So, we talked about Christmas, Santa and presents... but when I asked the real reason we celebrate Christmas, both Sprout and Roo told me it was Jesus' Birthday!!  Yeah!!

I can do it myself!!

See!!

And I'm gonna put it right here!!

Scamp loved moving the pieces around when it was her turn.   Yet, we did get her Shepard up there.

Lil Bit had a little trouble opening the door, but when it would start to talk, she would look up at me with the cutest look, like... "Did I just make it do that?"  :)

Putting the pieces on the board required a lot of fine motor skills!

We will be finishing up our presents and projects this week, hopefully getting everything done before the Christmas Break.  I can't believe it is already Christmas time, it seems like yesterday was our 1st day of childcare.

O Christmas Tree

 Today we read a book, Counting to Christmas, by Nancy Tafuri.  Sprout brought it in to share and it was absolutely perfect for this age group.  Nice big illustrations, not a lot of print, and a cute story about a little girl counting her way to Christmas with an Advent Calendar and the things she did on each day leading up to Christmas.  Next year I may ask to borrow it again and use it for our December activities... I think it would be cute to count OUR way to Christmas.

One of the things the little girl did was trim and decorate her tree... so we did a little Christmas Tree craft today.  I cut out little tree's from an old cereal box we had left over from breakfast this week, used our handy, dandy green glue paint, and lots and lots of little baubles :)

I love how it looks like she is painting the table.  You can't even see the tree anymore :)

This is what it looked like when we peeked it away from the table...  very neat!!

Hmmmm.... I wonder how long she will paint for ??

Lovin that paint!!!

Little Man is very serious when he paints lately... 

It could be because he's not sure what to do when it gets on his hands???  Not that it bothers him when he gets bananas, wet cereal, spaghetti, mud, bugs, or just about anything else on his hands... 

Sparkly baubles for our tree... YAY!!!

Well, lets just say Lil Bit had a great time, as always!!!
The poor tree was saturated, just hope it dries sometime before Christmas ;)

Sparkly things help lure her away from the painting...

But, next to paint... washing her hands is her favorite thing to do!!!

Scamp was napping while the other kids were doing their project, so when she woke we set her up to paint too.

She was very serious and jabbering away while she painted.

Hmmmmm.... what's this stuff??

When I turned over her Christmas Tree she continued to pick up the teeny tiny baubles and put them on... what great fine motor skills :)

Here are the, almost, finished trees... I can't wait for them to dry  so we can put a hanger on them.  I think they will look beautiful on a real Christmas Trees, sparkling in the lights.

Sand, Santa & Squshie...

It is still rainy here!!!  I, for one, am getting pretty tired of the rain.  I want blue skies and sunshine!!!  This crew needs to be outside, running and working off some energy.  Anyone who knows me, knows I usually go out even on rainy days, but this week we have runny noses and coughs.  I know rain doesn't make anyone sick, but being cold, wet, and miserable, doesn't help any either :)

Instead, we stayed inside and played in the sand table...

Sand Table???  I think more like sand floor :)

 Then we read our "Where Oh Where is Santa Claus" story again and then made some Santa Ornaments...

I made some puffy paint, out of flour, salt, water, and glitter glue, to make the face of Santa with.   Little Man kept getting it on his hands.  I think, because it was the same color as the plate, he kept forgetting it was wet and messy.  Each time he touched it he would say, "OHHHHH..."

Scamp had just gotten up from her nap and when she saw the craft she just had to do it.  I decided to not  continue the puffy paint with the little ones as it didn't work real well with them.  Scamp actually put the puffs on the glue without to much direction from me.

My little Artist.... need I say more ;)

It took Sprout a while to get all the puffy paint on the plate... we finally put a nice glob on the plate and she spread it out.  

Here are just two of the finished products...
They are a little heavy due to the flour mixture, but I hope they work.  

Lil Bit had fun just playing in the Squshie flour mixture...

My school age kids had a half day today and I let them make some of our button snowflake ornaments.... they came out really cute.  Now, since it is nap time, they are watching a movie.  Yesterday they came home from school and had to make a Bow Wreath... I love it when they want to craft.