What Now?

We placed the photo above into all of the Christmas cards that were mailed this morning.  It's funny because this was take 20 or so... at least it seemed that way! Poor Ethan with his eyes closed.. they were closed in EVERY shot.  We just called it "done" and laughed it off.  Anyway- I am all alone this morning.  My one child who is coming won't be here for an hour and I just don't know what to do with myself. 

Loud Florence and The Machine- Check.  (Note: I am NOT, however, breaking down.) ♥
Walk around the house wondering what to do?- Check.
Wondering again why on earth I wish for alone time? - Check.
It always amazes me that when I do have the house to myself I can't just enjoy it.  I get a little stir crazy.  Funny!  Happy Friday! ♥♥♥

Pancakes In A Flash

Please Play the link below before you scroll down to read this mornings post. ☻

 

Oh my goodness- a wonderful friend brought a surprise over to us last week.  It had been under the tree, wrapped, but was causing too much mayhem with the kids.  We opened it.  

A GRIDDLE!  Oh, how I have dreamed of owning such a glorious device.  I could never justify purchasing one while we still had a frying pan that would suffice.  This morning I made 15 pancakes in about 8 minutes.  Hallelujah indeed!  By the time I was finished pouring the batter they were already ready to be flipped.

Maybe to understand my elation, you must understand what our mornings are like.  Most of the kids eat breakfast here.  Often it is their second breakfast.  I don't mind- it pleases my heart to feed them.  Especially when it is cold outside.  So pancakes are a nice way to start the day.  It always takes forever with my one pan that is decent enough to cook them evenly.  Two at a time.  I use the pancake recipe out of the Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook.  I always add cinnamon, and a half cup of wheat flour.

Glorious!  I had time to to the happy dance!

They had a hot breakfast after the cold bus stop walk this morning!

Now we are praying for snowflakes.  Happy Thursday!♥♥♥ Thank you Naomi!♥

Mad Dash To The Finish

I flubbed when I wrote my December curriculum!  It is so very organized, filled up with all of the pre-school learning projects and lots of extra art projects and activities for Christmas.  Such a busy time- I love it!   What I forgot to write in some time for was the extra calendar projects.  I am now in a mad dash for the finish!  This morning, the little one above worked so hard and in an hour, finished the final five projects for her calendar.   She is a trooper and loves the one on one time. 

Now I have just one more child who gets to do the hour of projects.  Then we can finally wrap them up and send them home.  Phew! ♥  Meanwhile, I am finding this song especially cheery this year. Enjoy. ♥♥♥

Frozen Spiderweb Hunting

Just because it is cold outside doesn't mean we shouldn't go out to play!  Luckily for us, we get to go for a walk twice each day to and from the bus stop.  It is now hat and glove weather.  Warm our noses by the fire when we return, weather.  We noticed something pretty cool yesterday as we wandered down the path.  Frozen spiderwebs!

Look how this one "decorated" a Christmas tree. ♥ It is really neat to follow the webs to see which path that spider took. 

The best part of finding a frozen spiderweb is to touch it and see what happens.  It either immediately shatters, crumbling to pieces as it falls to the ground, or you can carry part of it while it dangles from your pinched fingers.  It works better if you are wearing gloves.

Send your kids outside for a frozen spiderweb hunt!  Remember, if the kids are inside all day, it is easier for the germs to pass around.  Fresh air helps keep illness at bay.  Happy Tuesday!♥♥♥

Gingerbread Cookies

We read The Gingerbread Man.  I love this story because we all fall in love with the gingerbread man, and then he gets EATEN.  So many stories these days have cushiony endings.  Everyone lives happily ever after.  Not the gingerbread man.  He's dead.  It's good for kids to read these kinds of stories to remind them that things happen.  Same as in the story of Little Red Riding Hood.  The wolf dies.  He isn't welcomed into the village of happily ever after.  It's good.

I am guilty of using a bag mix for our gingerbread cookies.  It saved me some time and cost.  The kids had their aprons on and were helping with the mixer.

They all did a great job using the cookie cutters!  Any chance to get their hands dirty is a good thing. ☺

Chippy showed up for some treats, too!

We got out the decorating supplies.  Complete with gumdrop buttons. ♥

Mmmm, "Which one do we get to eat?"

That one!

The kids took their cookies home to share with their families.  It was a really fun time!  These kids are SO good.

Meanwhile, our son Ethan had his first basketball game on Friday!  My handsome hubby is the coach, and is looking for an assistant coach to help on Tuesday and Thursday practices.  See the tall kid?  That's ours!  I'd say he's chosen the correct sport.  Happy Monday!♥♥♥

Hand Print Art

Hand print art is so much fun for the kids.  As a mom, I tend to hang onto the hand print art more than anything else that my kids make.  I admit it- I throw my kids' art away after it has had ample refrigerator time.  (Gasp!)  Be real, if I kept everything they brought me, my house would be over flowing with paper scraps and I just can't handle that.  So like I said before, I hang onto the hand print art.

We made Christmas tree art yesterday.

They realized it actually looked like one!

Add the decorations...

And wha-la! A Christmas tree. ♥

We are still working on our calendar art.  Several are finished, so I thought I would share with you what art we chose to grace them. 

Beautiful enough to hang on to?  I hope so, it was a LOT of work!  Have a great weekend!♥♥♥

Stars

We threw out the worksheets again.  Maybe I should just stop making copies?  We are learning about the star shape and thought it would be fun to create a starry night.  To prepare, I traced stars onto blue construction paper.  I piled up 5 pieces of paper and stapled them together.  The next step is to cut the stars out of the paper.  Remove the staples, and now we are ready!

We have an abundance of sparkly and shiny stuff.  This was the perfect project to use them on.

"Please paint away ALL of the white."  They worked very diligently.

Have I ever mentioned how wonderful paint shirts are?  Just any old adult sized t-shirt works wonderfully!

The next step was for me to draw some glue stars for them to glue on the sparkly shiny confetti stuff.  All the while, recognizing the star shape.

Then we added some gobs of golden paint to swirl around.

Finally, what we called the "magic" part!  Add the blue star stenciled paper.  We used glue just to make sure it adhered to the paint.  We then outlined each star shape with silver glitter glue to make our starry sky pop!

My heart jumps for joy when I see these- what a good, fun mess!!  Much better than worksheets.

Starry starry night sky. ♥

I finished knitting my hat!  It is ENORMOUS.  That's ok though, I just pull the extra down the back of my neck and it looks kind of cool.  The bus driver at the bus stop complimented it.  Now I want to go pick up more yarn and learn how to crochet a beautiful one.  I need to sit down with someone so I can learn.  I have been told it is much easier than knitting.  Sign me up!  Happy Thursday!  Our hands will be covered in green paint today. Pictures tomorrow. ♥♥♥