Little Mommy

Yesterday Brooke fell down and hurt herself. (Nothing major - a quite common occurrence in our house.) Well Aubrey is such a little nurturer. While I was settling Brooke down, she ran and found her purple blankie. Then she laid her on the coach, put pillows on the ground next to it (so it would be soft in case she fell off), pulled over the duck chair and read her stories. I love these sweet, tender moments between my girls!

  I hope they always take care of each other!

Pizza Party

 We had some extra little people at our house a couple of nights ago. When I found out that Jeff would be working late and I'd be all on my own, I decided to turn it into a pizza/movie party.

Look at all the cute pizza makers.

After we got the pizza made we put on some Christmas shows and ate our pizza. Aww the magic of the television. The decibel level in the home dropped significantly after that magic box got turned on!

We had a fun night with all of the extra little people!

Christmas Cruise

 Tuesday night we were able to take a Christmas lighted boat ride. The girls were very excited about it!

Here we are all bundled up and on the boat.

It was very beautiful seeing both the lights above and then their reflection in the water. The photo does not do it justice.

Half way through the ride Santa came floating by on a canoe! Here he is giving Brooke Hi Fives!

The girls loved these blow up decorations there.

It was a fun little outing. With us all bundled up we weren't even very cold. Neither of the girls complained of being cold even once. I was a little afraid of the weather, but I'm glad we braved it and went!

Preschool Letter N - Nativity, Names & Numbers

 I was in charge of our co-op Preschool this week. Since it's December I thought it would be fun to do something Christmas themed. I think it's nice starting off the month reflecting on the true meaning of Christmas, so I choose N for Nativity. (And then added in some other activities with their names and numbers.)

First I read them, "My First Story of the First Christmas". I explained that the story of the first Christmas is sometimes called "The Nativity Story."

Then they were very excited when I told them they were going to make their own nativities. (I was too involved to take a picture while they were painting and drawing on the faces, but here are their little pots drying.)

While the pots were drying we played a Number Find game. I found number post-its at Walmart. I had stuck them to the walls and doors. I called out a number in random order and they all had to run and find that number. They very much enjoyed this game!

Then I had a tracing sheet for them with their full names on it.

Then I gave them all play dough and letter shaped cookie cutters and had them cut their names out of play dough. While they played with the play dough I started gluing their nativity pots together.

 Then I had them color some paper nativities.

 

Here are my girls setting up their paper nativities the next morning.

You can print your own copy of the paper nativity here.

And then I got some sticker nativities from Oriental trading for them to make.

I was able to assemble their nativities while they worked on all the other projects. Here's one little guy adding some hay and putting baby Jesus in his manger.

 

 Here's my girls with their completed Nativities. They loved that they got to decorate their room with the nativity that they made.

Last I gave them a snack of Grapes and Crackers (foods they ate at the time of Christ) and read them "Mortimer's Christmas Manger" while they ate. They all Loved this story!

What a day! Hopefully they all learned a little about the Letter N and the reason why we celebrate Christmas!

Gingerbread Houses

On Sunday we made Gingerbread Houses. As soon as the Christmas tree was up and our house was decorated a couple of weeks ago, Aubrey kept asking two questions. 1. When are we going on our wagon ride to see the lights? & 2. When are we going to make Gingerbread Houses?

Since we make the houses homemade and it's kind of a big job, it's nice to do it earlier in the month!

Esther, Bryan & Isla came to decorate. Esther also helped make and cut out all of the Gingerbread houses on Friday. It sure made the work much more pleasant!

Summer and Beckham came to join in the fun too! Steve is currently out of the country so he was not able to join us.

 While we were constructing the houses, Aubrey went to town getting all the candy ready!

 Brookie had such a fun time with her house. She would grab some candy and tell me where she wanted it and I would apply the frosting for her. Then she would stick her candy on. What a cute Gingerbread buddy she made!

 

Esther & Bryan had a little trouble in the construction part. Here Esther is trying to fix the house.

After Daddy finished building Aubrey's house she went right to town with the decorating. She can do it all completely on her own - frosting and all!

4 is such a fun age!

I Love the frosting on her face!

Me and my little Buddy!

Aubrey was nice enough to pause for a photo op with Daddy!

 

 The Attridge clan with their house.

Bryan applying the finishing touches.

Once Brooke noticed that Aubrey was doing the frosting all by herself, she of course wanted to do the same. I figured "why not?" and handed over the bag. She had a little trouble, but was able to get frosting on the candy one way or the other!

Jeff on Beckham duty!

Here's my little cuties with their darling houses!

The Attridges left before the rest of us finished so they didn't make it into the final photo. (And unfortunately their house did not make it home in one piece either :(.)

Family traditions are so much fun! There is just something magical about Gingerbread houses. All the preschool kids got excited seeing them too. It's fun to have them gracing our table as the centerpiece for the rest of the month too!