Two Christmases Down

I've mentioned before that we always have three Christmas. Getting together for Christmas is pretty important to both our families and since Jeremy has Winter break we make the most of it. This year our first stop was to Iowa to see my family. We stayed with my little sister Sarah and her family. They were great hosts. One of the kids' favorite activities was a Rice Crispy train she made for them to decorate.

My niece Isabell decided she liked me this time - she's a sweet girl.

Ready to open gifts.

One of the presents we got my brother Adrian was some streamers. It was fun watching him dance around with them.

In addition to seeing my family we were also able to visit a few old friends. We also made it a point to stop at Taco John's - one of things I miss most about Iowa.

we don't drink a ton of soda but when we do, he takes full advantage

Then it was time for our Christmas at home. This year we able to join our church in going to a assisted living home to sing and give gifts to the residents. I was really proud for my kids who were not only well behaved but ready to make friends. Before we went we put on our Christmas finery.

you can see a "better" picture here

After visiting the nursery home we did our annual Christmas lights hunt. All the children were swayed by a light up Rudolph this year.

Then it was time go home and put on our Christmas pajamas. Every Christmas Eve the kids all sleep together...this year they were up by 5!

We head to Indianapolis in a few days to see Jeremy's family but until then we are enjoying our presents and some family time.

Lego Castle Gatehouse

Hape doll house

BluTrack

Nostalgia Cotton Candy Maker

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A Little Red Cardboard Barn

We've finished our farm unit and are moving on to a new theme tomorrow - but before we do I wanted share the barn we made. The wooden farm animals came with a beautiful handmade ark that we gave Big Buddy for Christmas a couple years ago. I would someday love to have a wood barn but it's currently not in the budget. So in the mean time we decided to improvise and make our own. I stumbled upon this perfectly sized milk box (4 gallons per box) while subbing and thought it would be sturdy enough to handle play. Hubandie and the boys used an x-acto knife and wood glue to build a barn shape. to get the doors to fold out hubandie used an x-acto knife and scored the inside of the cardboard We then painted with a basic primer and outlined a window and a door with painters tape. cardboard is very porous so priming is a must if you want decent coverage Big Buddy however insisted that we add more windows so it...

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Preschool Syllabus: Dr. Seuss

Normally I'd do a Dr. Seuss unit in March around his birthday. We had to do one now though because on Saturday Big Buddy and I going on a date to a Dr. Seuss exhibit . The exhibit is only at the museum until January and I'm afraid if we don't go now we might not get the chance. We are of course reading lots of Dr. Seuss's books. A great advatage to studying Dr. Seuss in November rather than March is that all his books were available at the library. I also found a great children's biography which is perfect for preschoolers. Pebble First Biographies: Dr. Seuss We've read it a couple times and Big Buddy loves reciting all the facts he's learned WRITING CENTER ADDITIONS big buddy's name in sand paper letters, coloring pages & mazes from seussville.com skills practiced: fine motor, letter recognition, creativity, reading comprehension LEARNING "TRAYS" - I rotate these, setting out about four a day from which the boy...

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Jack-O-Lanterns on the Fridge

Last fall I saw the idea for refrigerator pumpkins with face pieces in FamilyFun Magazine and have been anxious to recreate them ever since. It was pretty quick and easy and since the only thing we didn't have on hand was magnetic sheets ($1.50 with coupon at Joann's) it was also very cheap. my supplies: magnetic sheets, orange & black construction paper, white pen, tacky glue *i know they have self adhesive sheets but my Joann's didn't carry them glued (very messily) and ready to cut Both the boys were quite enthused when they discovered them after rest time :) Hopefully it will keep them entertained until we carve real pumpkins.

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Joyfully Weary

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