Christmas Holiday Fun

What an amazing couple of days. The school kids kept me busy and I didn't get a chance to post what we did! On Monday, we read the book Gingerbread Baby by Jann Brett. We tried the gingerbread cookie recipe from her book Gingerbread Friends which we read on Tuesday. Anthony, Lillian and Tori helped me bake the cookies. AJ, Edison, and Bronwynn were busy playing in the daycare with Grace. A.J. and Bronwynn came to check our progress a few times, but didn't want to help. Then we went outside and had a blast sledding on the hill. A.J. giggled the whole way down and sometimes was too excited and wouldn't wait for a sled. He would just run down the hill!! Edison was very serious when going down with me, and very mad if one of the children took him down with them! The older 4 did a great job sharing the sleds and everyone got to try them all!  After nap time, we decorated our cookies for snack, and to bring home to share with our families. The older 4 had a great time  decorating, and forgot that I said they could eat one at snack. They ate two and then got the hang of decorating and saving them to bring home!! A.J. ate the icing all on its own. And Eddie only ate his candies! Then it was back to the hill to burn off energy before parents picked up.
Tuesday, we did some painting (and a lot of free art both days). We went sledding again, and Oden and Freya came for a visit. We walked out to the barn to see the 2 little calves both only a few days old. Then inside for Dominoe's pizza (thanks Tori and family) and cupcakes and cookies (thanks AJ and Bronwynn and families). In the afternoon we ventured out again with spray bottles to paint the snow. We got awfully wet, and came in except for Tori and Anthony who were busy making camoflauge snow!
Hope you all are able to get some time off work and enjoy making memories with your children!! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!

Busy snow day!

We had a blast yesterday. We sledded, shovelled, napped in the sled, and made snow angels and forts. We did lots of crafts, baked cookies and watched The North Pole - thanks for sharing, Tori! It is neat to see how the group dynamics change with the older kids here all day! Edison didn't want Tori to go to school this morning. Cute! Seems quiet here today with ONLY 4 !!!!

Christmas gifts

We were busy working on gifts for mommy's and daddy's today! The kids were so excited they didn't even want to play. They just watched each other when it wasn't their turn. So cute!!

December is here!

My favourite time of year! The children are getting excited too! We have been reading Christmas stories and singing Christmas songs at circle time. I had a great time this morning watching the children as I did circle. Freya loves my songs, as soon as the story started, she was gone! Edison stayed until about halfway through the story, when Grace, the dog interrupted. I asked her to leave, and Edison followed her. He was giggling and petting her right behind me, but Oden never took his eyes off the book, If you take a mouse to the movies, by Laura Numeroff. I thought they all did what I expected of them developmentally, and I'm glad my circle time can meet all of their needs as they are not forced to sit and listen to me!!
I don't think I had a chance to update last week... we got a boogie board from Scholastic which is an LCD writing tablet. The kids love it. They can draw on it or practice letters, spelling words, and then erase it with the touch of a button. Even the babies are enjoying it, and so far the stylus has not gone into anyone's mouth!  I also got my books with CD's set up beside the CD player for the older children to listen to. They like that! I will change the books and CD's for them too after they have listened to these a few times!